Academic and Clinical Advisory Group
The UKCPO Academic and Clinical Advisory Group is made up of leading professionals from across healthcare, research, and policy. Each member brings invaluable expertise to our organisation, offering guidance grounded in years of experience across obesity care, public health, psychology, nutrition, surgery, and lived experience research.
This diverse and highly skilled group helps ensure that our work is evidence-based, ethically sound, and aligned with best practice. Their insights strengthen our ability to advocate effectively, support our community responsibly, and contribute meaningfully to national conversations on obesity.
By combining professional knowledge with our lived experience leadership, UKCPO bridges the gap between science, care, and real-world impact.
Yikta Graham
Professor of Health Services Research
Yitka Graham is the Head of the Helen McArdle Nursing and Care Research Institute, and Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Sunderland. She is committed to working collaboratively with people living with obesity, and often, those who have undergone metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) to tackle weight stigma, challenge misconceptions and advocating for those with lived experience.
Her people-focused studies have been published widely, and she has presented her work internationally. Yitka is a staunch advocate of ensuring inclusion and representation for people living with obesity and MBS in research.
Becky Richards
Psychologist
Dr Becky Richards (PhD CPsychol) is a Practitioner Psychologist specialising in building and scaling digital specialist weight management services.
She is currently serving as Specialist Obesity Service Lead and Lead Psychologist at Second Nature. With extensive experience across NHS, academic, and health tech settings,
Becky applies innovative psychological approaches, including third-wave cognitive behavioural therapies, to support weight management. She is part of the British Psychological Society Obesity Significant Interest Group and was previously trustee for the Association for the Study of Obesity.
Denise Ratcliffe
Psychologist
Dr Denise Ratcliffe is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who specialises in providing psychological input for people living with obesity. She wrote “Living with Bariatric Surgery: Managing your Mind and your Weight” and “Understanding & Managing Emotional Eating: A Psychological Skills Workbook”. She worked in the NHS for 20 years and now works in private practice.
Emma Boyland
Psychologist
Emma Boyland is a Professor of Food Marketing and Child Health in the Department of Psychology at the University of Liverpool, where she is Deputy Executive Dean for the Institute of Population Health.
Emma is an experimental psychologist whose studies explore unhealthy food marketing and the impact this has on eating and eating-related behaviours, particularly in children. She works extensively with the World Health Organization in relation to child health, and has informed policies in the UK and internationally to restrict food marketing to children. She receives research funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Kamal Mahawar
Bariatric Surgeon
Kamal Mahawar is a consultant bariatric surgeon and lead for Upper GI Surgery at South Tyneside & Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust. He is also a Visiting Professor at University of Sunderland. He is an executive council member, treasurer and trustee of British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society.
He has over 260 peer-reviewed publications with an H index of 45. He is an Associate Editor of “Obesity Surgery” and “Annals of Royal College of Surgeons England”and is on the editorial board of SOARD and Clinical Obesity. The journal “Obesity Surgery” published his biography in 2018 recognising his contribution in the field.
Emma Boyland
Primary Care Physician
Dr Parretti is a clinical associate professor in primary care at the University of East Anglia. In addition to carrying out health care research, she works once a week as a GP. She has also worked in several specialist weight management services based in hospital and the community. She has a research interest in obesity and has been involved in several studies in this area. She has particular interests in patients’ healthcare experiences and post-bariatric surgery care. She also has an interest in patient and public involvement (PPI) and was recently appointed as Director of Citizens Academy, a PPI hub for health research and teaching at UEA.
Dr Parretti was a member of the NICE obesity management clinical guidelines committee and is a member of the NICE quality standards for obesity committee. She was an expert advisor for the NICE early value assessment on technologies for delivering multidisciplinary weight management services to adults. She is the GP representative and an elected member of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society Council.
Jason Halford
Psychologist
Jason Halford is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Leeds. Before that, he spent twenty years at the University of Liverpool, developing the Appetite and Obesity Research Group. He is a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
Jason is the Treasurer of the World Obesity Federation (WOF) and Board Member of the European Coalition of People living with Obesity (ECPO). He is an Honorary Fellow and former Chair of the UK Association for Study of Obesity (ASO UK) and former President of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO).
Throughout his career, Jason has worked on and around the development of Obesity Management Medication (formally termed anti-obesity drugs. He has also worked on satiety more generally, looking at the roles of fibre, protein, and portion size on appetite regulation. And for 20 years, he has also worked on the impact of advertising and marketing on children’s food choices, which directly fed into WHO guidance for advertising control for national governments and the UK 9 pm food advert watershed.
Jason maintains a keen interest in psychological aspects of obesity, including mental health and patient access issues to health care systems. He chaired and co-chaired the ACTION-Teens and ACTION-IO studies, looking at barriers to obesity treatment across the world. He also works with fellow patient advocates for obesity to be recognised as a disease and against obesity stigma and bias.
John Wilding
Researcher
Professor John Wilding leads clinical research into Obesity, Diabetes and Endocrinology at the University of Liverpool, where he has worked since 1996, after training in Southampton and London. His clinical interests focus on caring for people with diabetes and obesity and he leads specialist services for obesity at Aintree University Hospital – designated a Centre for Obesity Management by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.
John’s research team focusses on developing and evaluating treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes. He has published over 350 papers, chapters and review articles, including clinical trials in diabetes and obesity, as well as studies of adipocyte biology and metabolism.
He has advised NICE and NHS England on various aspects of obesity care. He is past President of the World Obesity Federation.
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