South-East European Research Centre (SEERC)

Lina is Professor of Mental Health at York Medical School and the Inaugural Director of the Institute of Mental Health Research based at the Vice Chancellor’s Department at the University of York. Qualified first as a nurse and then as a psychological therapist, she completed her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. She is an honorary Nurse Consultant in Psychological Therapies at Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust. In her spare time, she is also mum to her twin sons Alex and Chris.

Lina’s expertise is in the clinical utility of digital media as means to specialist interventions for mental health. She secured over £8 million in funding from UK Research Councils to conduct clinical trials, translational studies and evidence syntheses in mental health. Her current research focuses on children and adolescents, especially creating, scaling up and evaluating ‘lean’ psychological interventions in schools, health services and charities. She is Joint Editor for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) and an external examiner for the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin.

Previously, Lina held academic leadership roles at King’s College London and Norwich Medical School. In recognition of her work as a University teacher, she received by King’s College London a Teaching Excellence Award and a Teaching Fellowship. Lina served as Director and Clinical Safety Officer for PCMIS (Patient Case Management Information System) Health Technologies Ltd, a University of York trading company. She was lead clinician for the commissioning of a large NHS primary care mental health service for Norfolk (East Anglia) and the Clinical Lead of a psychological therapies service for Northumberland (North East England).