Michaela is Professor of Longitudinal Research and the Director and Principal Investigator of Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow.

Michaela is the 2nd director of Understanding Society and took up the role in July 2015, 10 years ago, having previously been the deputy director for two years.

Before joining ISER, Michaela was Director of the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study, at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow. She has also worked at Queen Mary University of London, East London and City Health Authority, the London School of Economics and the King’s Fund.

Michaela’s research interests focus on the social and economic determinants of health across the lifecourse and the measurement of health in social surveys.

Michaela is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2022 Michaela was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and she was awarded a CBE in the 2024 New Year’s Honours List