Professor Stavroula Leka

Stravroula Leka is Professor of Organisations, Work & Health and Director of the Centre for Organisational Health & Well-Being at Lancaster University.

She is a Chartered Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Higher Education Academy.

Her research interests include work organisation and the promotion of healthy workplaces through the management of risks to the physical and mental health of workforces. Her research has been translated into guidance and international standards for several organisations.

Stavroula has worked as an expert advisor to the European Commission, the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organization, the International Standardisation Organisation, the European Agency for Safety & Health at Work, the European Parliament, and the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the provision of national-level occupational health programmes.

As a member of the Board of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), President of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology (EAOHP) and Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine in Ireland, Stavroula is a highly regarded leader in occupational health research internationally. She is on the editorial boards of three international journals and is the Associate Editor of the journal Safety Science.

Dr Ou Lin

Ou Lin joined the School of Law as a Lecturer in Employment Law in September 2023. Her research interests lie in the field of employment law. Her expertise include the regulation of platform work and other precarious employment relations. In addition to doctrinal analysis of the law, she embraces socio-legal methods to observe the interactions between law and real world working practices.

Ou holds a PhD in Law from the University of Glasgow in July 2023, supported by scholarship from the European Research Council as part of their ‘Work On Demand project (2018-2023), investigating the evolving nature of contracts relating to casual, ‘zero-hours’, and self-employed workers in the gig economy.

Ou's doctoral thesis examines 'Workers' Spontaneous Struggles and Resistance in the Chinese On-Demand Economy'. It draws on initial insights gained from her role as the Principal Investigator for the research project 'Empirical Research and Legal Solutions for On-Demand Work', funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Prior to moving to the UK, Ou graduated with a PhD in Law and Economics from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. She worked as a Lecturer in Law in China and passed the Chinese National Judicial Examination. Ou also taught Employment Law and Labour Law at the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde.

Professor Hilary Ingham

Hilary Ingham is Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics at Lancaster University. She is an applied economist with extensive experience in teaching, research, and academic leadership, and has worked in UK universities for several decades. Her research combines applied econometrics with policy-relevant economic questions, particularly in the areas of labour markets, productivity, economic development, and education.

Her research has examined a wide range of topics including labour market transitions, caregiving and employment, education and skills, financial development and economic growth, foreign direct investment and productivity, and the economic performance of developing and transition economies. She has published widely in peer-reviewed academic journals and has worked with large-scale longitudinal and international datasets. Her work frequently focuses on understanding how economic policies and institutional structures affect individuals’ economic opportunities and long-run development outcomes. More recent research includes studies of labour market adjustment during major economic shocks, including the COVID-19 period, as well as projects examining education finance and international aid.

Alongside her research, Hilary has extensive experience in academic leadership and programme development. As Head of Department, she is responsible for the strategic direction of Economics at Lancaster, including curriculum development, student recruitment, and research planning. She has played a key role in shaping undergraduate and postgraduate economics programmes and in supporting early-career researchers and doctoral students. She has supervised PhD students working across a broad range of applied economic topics and has served as examiner and reviewer for academic journals and research proposals.