Deborah Holt

Dr. Deborah Holt is a Lecturer in Mental Health Promotion and Health and Wellbeing at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. She has been with the institution since 2010 and currently serves as the Director of Students, a role she assumed in August 2024, focusing on student wellbeing and experience enhancement, particularly for Widening Participation students. She is also the School’s Widening Participation Champion, working to improve support for such students and collaborating with external partners. Her roles include leading the School’s Gender Equality Subgroup and contributing to various research hubs and networks.

Deborah holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Edinburgh, focusing on primary school teachers’ responsibilities in mental health promotion, alongside a PGCE and a BA in Language and Linguistics.

Her research interests center on mental health promotion within educational settings, educator wellbeing, and the social and emotional integration of refugee children. She also explores sex education and the role of higher education in health promotion. Deborah leads courses such as the Health and Wellbeing Promotion in the University Community and Beyond, designed to enhance student wellbeing across disciplines, and contributes to programs like the MSc Inclusive Education.

In teaching and supervision, she oversees several undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including electives on promoting health in primary schools. She supervises PhD students in areas such as teacher wellbeing interventions, refugee family experiences in education, and menstruation narratives. Current students include Beth Davies, April Steffeck, and others, focusing on topics ranging from pandemic impacts to sex education.

Deborah is affiliated with the PCRE Research cluster, ScotSMART, and the Social Justice and Inclusion research hub. She collaborates on projects like the Place2Be partnership and ReAct initiatives to support refugee children’s inclusion. Her work emphasizes practical strategies for schools and teacher training to embed mental health promotion effectively.