Rebecca Mitchell

I am a highly skilled qualitative researcher, lecturer, and programme manager with nearly two decades of experience working in international development. My passion lies within the subjects of health, healthcare, and heath access for marginalised populations – which is reflected throughout my career. Recent projects include analysis of access to essential services such as healthcare, nutrition and aid/support in different contexts. Alongside this, I have become an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and an experienced lecturer and seminar facilitator. 

I have extensive experience securing funding for and carrying out research within marginalised communities in post-conflict, displacement, developing and developed country contexts. As a Programme Manager, I have successfully managed multiple research programmes, ranging from £500k to £10m in value, and demonstrated regular success in writing funding proposals. 

I have worked in the field of international development since 2006. For sixteen years I was a researcher, project manager, and teacher at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK. This gave me huge opportunity for experience in many parts of the world and in many subject areas. My areas of expertise lie in qualitative research with marginalised populations, in low- and high- income countries, looking at access to essential services such as healthcare, economic support, and aid. I have worked in Aotearoa New Zealand, the UK, India, Nepal, many Sub-Saharan African contexts and West Africa. 

Many of the research projects that I have worked on have also included a project management role alongside the research. I have managed projects under the UN, EU, UK Government, and many NGOs, including Cure Kids here in NZ. These have ranged from NZ$125k to NZ$20million in value. I was also responsible for leading the funding proposal for several of these projects and am highly experienced at managing these processes.  

I have been teaching adults in under- and post- graduate settings since 2014. 

2014 – 2024      PhD International Development Studies 

Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK

Thesis topic: Precarious lives: what are the barriers and enablers to accessing NHS care for asylum-seekers and resettled refugees in the South-East of England?

Supervisors: Prof. M. Collyer (UoS), Prof. P. Justino (IDS) and Dr. M. Cooper (BSMS) 

2023                  Political Economy Analysis in Action - ODI Training Course

2021                  Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy - HE Teaching Qualification

2007 – 2008      MSc Development Management - London School of Economics, UK

Including two months of qualitative data collection in Uganda as part of a Gates Foundation NTD eradication study, used within my dissertation which focussed on alternative healthcare choices. 

2001 – 2005      BSc Honours Social Anthropology - Brunel University, UK

Including two six-month ethnographic fieldwork trips within an HIV clinic in Durban and an ‘AIDS Orphanage’ in KZN, South Africa, used to form my dissertation.