Dr Anna Skeels

(she/her)

BA (Hons), MA, PhD

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Biography

I have worked in the voluntary sector in Wales on a range of issues including children’s rights and participation, child protection, community safety and youth offending.  More recently, I have worked in the humanitarian sphere, for example as a Consultant for UNHCR and as the lead for Save the Children on an academic-practitioner collaboration measuring the separation of children in emergencies in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Prior to joining SPARK, I was the Head of Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), leading a team funding and supporting innovative new solutions to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian response.

I have significant experience of establishing and leading new initiatives, collaborative working and managing project-focused teams.

I hold a PhD from Swansea University’s Centre for Migration and Policy Research (CMPR), an MA in Cultural Geography from the University of British Columbia and a BA in Human Geography from the University of Oxford.

Academic positions

Senior Research Fellow, Wales Centre for Public Policy, SPARK, Cardiff University

Supervisions

Child slavery 

Refugee and asylum seeking children's protection, rights and participation

Humanitarian child protection and children's participation in emergencies

Participation in humanitarian response

Unaccompanied and separated children / family separation in crisis settings

Child poverty

Past projects

I am currently a second supervisor to Safaa Ahmed, undertaking her professional doctorate on Arab adult refugees access to education and employment in Wales.  I am also a progress reviewer for Agnes Szorenyi who is undertaking her PhD on 'Promoting the development of resilience and social capital in looked after child refugees from Ukrainian institutions through mentoring'.