معرفی
Dr. Katie Rakow serves as a Research Fellow at King's College London within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, specifically in the School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences and Department of Psychology. She currently leads research on the U-Belong project with Dr. Nicola Byrom's team, focusing on reducing loneliness among first-year undergraduate students through evidence-based interventions.
Her academic foundation includes a PhD from King's College London funded by the ESRC LISS-DTP, featuring a practical placement with Student Minds—the UK's leading student mental health charity. This training established her expertise in mixed-methods research design.
Rakow's scholarship centers on the intersection of educational technology and mental health, with particular emphasis on virtual learning environments' impact on student and lecturer wellbeing. She employs reflexive thematic analysis and focus group methodologies to explore loneliness, social connection, and curriculum design within higher education contexts, consistently advocating for theoretically-driven public health applications.
Her 2022-2025 publications reveal evolving research trajectories: early work examined VLE technology usage patterns, while recent studies analyze systemic wellbeing interventions aligned with the University Mental Health Charter, demonstrating increasing policy relevance through stratified reviews of mental health outcomes.
Key recognitions include:
- Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (awarded 2016)
- Competitive ESRC LISS-DTP doctoral funding
As an active contributor to King's student mental health research theme, Rakow collaborates with clinical teams and charities like Student Minds to translate findings into practical university wellbeing frameworks. Her current U-Belong project investigates social connection mechanisms while her teaching practice extends to undergraduate psychology instruction, creating synergies between research and pedagogy.
