Dr Rebecca Foster & Dr Tessa Parkes

Dr Tessa Parkes

Dr Tessa Parkes is Director of the Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research at the University of Stirling and is grantholder and Deputy Convenor of the Drugs Research Network Scotland. Tessa has expertise in the field of drug and alcohol (prevention, treatment, harm reduction, policy analysis, peer-delivered interventions) homelessness/housing, mental health, and social inequalities. She has experience as a front-line worker and manager in the health, social care and housing/homelessness sectors, and as a mental health nurse. She has experience of undertaking substance use / mental health research in England and Canada, as well as in Scotland, and is passionate about the potential of research partnerships with people with experiential knowledge/peers and affected family members. She has served on many related committees including the Scottish Government’s Partnership for Action on Drugs in Scotland Executive group, the Dundee Drugs Commission, and Scotland’s new drug-related deaths Task Force.

Dr Rebecca Foster
Research Fellow, Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research, University of Stirling.

I am a Research Fellow for an NIHR funded study ‘Supporting Harm Reduction through Peer Support’ (SHARPS) and for an NHS Fife funded study exploring prescription opioid overdose risk.

Prior to this, I worked as a social researcher in the Scottish Government in the crime research team. I completed my PhD in Criminology at the University of Glasgow which explored the experiences of imprisonment for the families of prisoners.

My research interests span problem substance use, homelessness and criminal justice. I am particularly interested in the lived experience of marginalised individuals and groups.