Three Appointments for UK Researcher M.E.L

Birmingham, UK-based M.E.L Research has appointed Emily Preston-Jones as Senior Evaluation Manager, and Sophie King as SRE; and has promoted Richard Newman to Research Executive.

M.E.L helps clients to deliver better public services in a range of areas from health and wellbeing, housing and transport to waste, arts & culture, and community resilience. In the past year it has strengthened its Evaluation practice with the additions of Skye Curtis as Head of Evaluation, Dr Holly Taylor-Dunn as Senior Evaluation Lead and Dr Kathy Seymour as Research Manager in its Qualitative team.

Preston-Jones worked previously as Evaluation Lead at the charity Frontline, helping to design and implement evaluation activities for England's largest government-funded training programme for social workers. Earlier she worked at the What Works Centre, Youth Futures Foundation, managing evaluations of youth employment programmes, particularly for vulnerable groups. In her new role, areas of focus will include youth employment, the care system, poverty and disadvantage, and the aging population.

King brings more than seven years of freelance experience in market research and copywriting, across sectors including healthcare, retail, and the museums/culture sector, for clients including NHS trusts and museums, as well as educational institutions, local councils, and law enforcement agencies.

Newman has worked at the company since 2018, with a previous background in radio and television, and in his new role will take responsibility for quant and qual project support, conducting interviews, workshop facilitation and analysis. His experience includes work in areas such as poverty, health and wellbeing, mobility, infrastructure, and the environment.

MD Karen Etheridge states: 'We are thrilled to welcome Emily and Sophie to M.E.L Research and to promote Richard internally... This melting pot of experience and perspectives, combined with the sector knowledge they bring aligns perfectly with M.E.L's values - enhancing our ability to deliver insightful, impactful, and inclusive research for our clients'.

The firm is online at www.melresearch.co.uk .


Pictured L to R: Emily Preston-Jones, Sophie King and Richard Newman