Kathryn Woods-Townsend

A successful research scientist with a PhD in Human Genetics, Kathryn retrained as a secondary school teacher, consolidating her interest in Science, Scientific education and Scientific literacy. As the programme manager for LifeLab, she has helped to shape, from the beginning, the development of the education programmes, along with leading the randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. A key objective is to engage children and adolescents with understanding the science behind the health messages thereby empowering them to make healthier lifestyle choices; increasing scientific literacy to increase health literacy. To adapt to the constraints imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kathryn led the team to refocus the programmes to be delivered in-school and online, whilst also supporting the pilot phase of the Southampton Saliva Testing Programme. With funding from DHSC a new suite of resources was developed to support children and young people with understanding the science behind the public health messages that we were being asked to follow.