Lorna O’Doherty is a Professor of Trauma, Mental Health and Recovery at Coventry University where she leads a programme of research in trauma, abuse and health. She received her BA (Hons) in Applied Psychology from University College Cork in 1999, a MBS in 2001 from University College Dublin and her PhD on the psychology of neurological disorders from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2007. She was a research fellow in primary care research at the University of Queensland from 2005-2007. Through an appointment at the Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School (2007-2013) and voluntary sector training, Lorna fostered a research focus on violence against women and children. Lorna is an honorary fellow at The University of Melbourne and has published widely on the subject of abuse, trauma and health, including the weave trial published in the Lancet in 2013 along with a series of Cochrane Reviews and qualitative studies into risk and resilience. She was principal investigator on the MESARCH project (NIHR 2018-23) looking at health and service use in survivors of sexual violence and abuse over time and for the JiCSAV (Justice in Covid for Sexual Abuse and Violence) project funded by the ESRC as part of the UKRI Rapid Response to Covid-19. She co-leads Coventry's evaluation of the Upfront Survivors project aimed a building a visible, peer-led accessible survivor community in partnership with a survivor-led theatre company and frontline services (funded by the Home Office Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Fund; 2022-2026). She is one of several international co-investigators on the MANTRA trial of trauma-sensitive yoga for complex PTSD and is part of the RESTORE Centre for Research Excellence also led by the University of Melbourne. Lorna is an ally of survivors of abuse and passionate about using research for prevention and to drive better care, fairer outcomes and more compassionate responses for people who have experienced sexual and domestic abuse. She values her long term partnerships with survivors, supporters and communities, artists, practitioners, policy colleagues, local and national charities and a committed global research community.

My research is concerned with intimate partner violence, childhood abuse and sexual violence and abuse as major public health problems globally. I am committed to maximising the role of health providers and the NHS in supporting those who have experienced violence and abuse to access equitable and appropriate health care. My work looks at different community and health care-based interventions for survivors of abuse and I have co-led four Cochrane Reviews and randomised controlled trials. I was chief investigator on a national evaluation Sexual Assault Referral Centres, undertaking a cohort study of health, wellbeing and costs for adult and children survivors of sexual assault, abuse and rape (NIHR-funded MESARCH project). I co-designed a research enriched online training resources to enhance health care workers' responses to women experiencing gender-based violence during pregnancy. My work has also taken me into the arena of justice for survivors (ESRC-funded JICSAV project) and currently I am leading the evaluation work with a collaboration of frontline services and a survivor-activism theatre company to promote leadership and training for survivors as part of increasing the voice and visibility of childhood sexual abuse survivors in cultural, political and social spaces.