Dr Hilary Davies

Biography

Hilary is an epidemiologist and state registered dietitian with experience of working in the fields of primary and secondary care databases, maternal and child health, dietetic clinical experience and organisational administration in both the United Kingdom and South Africa. She obtained a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Psychology and Postgraduate Medical Honours degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Cape Town, MSc in Maternal Nutrition from the University of Stellenbosch, and a PhD in Epidemiology and Health from UCL. She was awarded an NIHR NSPCR PhD studentship in 2012 and supervised by Dr Irene Petersen, Professor Irwin Nazareth and Dr Fiona Stevenson. She used a mixed methods approach which focused on drug use and opioid substitute treatment in pregnancy, using evidence from electronic health records (The Health Improvement Network and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)). She also worked alongside Professor Ruth Gilbert, from the Institute of Child Health, exploring the prevalence of neonatal abstinence syndrome in England using HES. She is continuing to examine primary care and HES data to explore the longitudinal outcomes for children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. She has established a number of collaborations and networks with national and international partners, including those in Australia, Canada, South Africa and the USA.

Prior to joining the University of Surrey, She worked as a dietitian in the NHS and St Mary's University as a Lecturer in the School of Human Sciences where she obtained her PGCHE. She took a year's sabbatical from lecturing in 2009 and worked as the Research coordinator in South Africa for the Philani Mentor Mothers' Research Study, a randomised controlled study run in collaboration with Stellenbosch University and sponsored by UCLA. The project involved recruiting and training mothers from within the community to become community health workers to help support pregnant women and their children.

After completion of her PhD, she worked as a Research Associate at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL, with Professor Andrew Steptoe on the Promoting Independence in Dementia (PRIDE) project which is funded by The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Hilary joined the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey as a Lecturer in 2017.