Meet the team
The Social Research Unit team
SENIOR RESEARCH MANAGER
Donna Vascott
Donna is passionate about supporting clients to truly understand the difference they make. With over 15 years of experience, she brings a wealth of expertise in social research—spanning community development, social impact measurement, evaluation, and evidence-based decision-making. As Head of the Social Research Unit (SRU), Donna leads a talented team dedicated to delivering research that drives meaningful change. Known for her ability to see the bigger picture and anticipate long-term outcomes, she ensures that complex projects are delivered on time, on budget, and with exceptional attention to detail. Her calm, methodical approach is paired with creativity and a genuine commitment to making research accessible and impactful.
Donna has a strong focus on evaluating programmes that support disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, ensuring that research amplifies voices that are often underrepresented. She works closely with organisations to understand their challenges and design evaluations that measure real-world impact, helping them improve services and outcomes for those who need them most.
As the SRU’s lead on Social Return on Investment (SROI), Donna helps organisations uncover the social and environmental value that traditional financial metrics often miss. She takes a client-centred approach—listening carefully to needs and weaving in tailored solutions—while building strong networks and collaborative relationships. Her warm, personable style makes working with her a positive experience, and her design-oriented mindset ensures reports aren’t just accurate—they’re visually engaging and beautifully presented.
Donna has extensive experience in programme evaluation, designing and delivering evaluations that measure outcomes and impact for a wide range of social programs and initiatives. Her evaluation work combines robust methodologies with practical insights, helping organisations understand what works, why it works, and how to improve for the future. Alongside this, Donna is also an experienced evidence reviewer, with deep expertise in synthesising complex data and assessing the quality of research to inform policy and practice. She has led numerous systematic reviews and evidence syntheses, including a major review for NICE on oral health promotion.
Before joining SRU in 2014, Donna worked with the Clinical Neurology Research Group at the University of Plymouth, specialising in assessing outcome measures for Alzheimer’s disease trials. Earlier in her career, she worked in recruitment, gaining valuable insight into people and performance—skills that continue to inform her work today.
With an MSc in Psychological Research Methods and a First-Class Honours degree in Psychology, Donna combines methodological rigor with creativity and insight. She brings extensive research expertise across a broad spectrum of social methodologies and has deep institutional knowledge of university systems, knowing exactly who to approach for specialist input. Whether it’s crafting compelling reports, designing impactful visuals, or navigating complex methodologies, Donna delivers clarity, confidence, and care—always with an eye on the bigger picture.
Outside of work, Donna loves going on adventures with her toddler, spending time hiking, and experimenting with different recipes.
RESEARCH MANAGER
Melanie Brooks
With over 20 years’ experience across academic, public and commercial research environments, Melanie brings a strong applied and client-focused perspective to projects. Prior to joining the Social Research Unit, Melanie worked in a market research agency, developing expertise in commercially focused research design, robust data collection and clear, actionable reporting. This combination of academic and commercial experience underpins Melanie’s approach to delivering research that is methodologically rigorous, ethically sound and directly relevant to decision-makers, while remaining responsive to client priorities and needs.
With the Social Research Unit Melanie has vast experience of leading and co-ordinating a wide range of research projects, including evaluations, social research and market research studies. Melanie is skilled in overseeing all stages of the research life cycle, from shaping research questions and methodologies, through fieldwork planning and delivery, to analysis and dissemination of findings. Melanie has broad experience of leading and managing complex research projects from inception through to reporting, and her natural talent for project management ensures projects are delivered in a smooth, effective and efficient manner.
Melanie has strong expertise in mixed-methods research design and evaluation. She regularly works with qualitative and quantitative methods, selecting and combining approaches to best meet client needs and research objectives. She is highly experienced in analysing and synthesising research data to generate clear, actionable insight. She has extensive experience in communicating research in clear and engaging ways to support clients to use evidence to inform development, service design and strategic planning.
Melanie has worked with a wide range of clients across local government, culture, health, employment and skills. A key strength of Melanie’s is her ability to build trusted and collaborative relationships with clients and project partners. Recent clients include Exeter City Council, Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Culture, Marie Curie, RSM Consulting, Seetec Pluss, and the Devon, Plymouth & Torbay Careers Hub. This breadth of experience reflects her ability to adapt research approaches to different sectors and organisational contexts, while maintaining a consistent focus on quality, impact and usability.
Overall, Melanie brings a depth of experience in applied research, strong project management skills and a collaborative approach to working with colleagues and clients.
Away from work, Melanie loves going on holiday, keeping active with swimming, cycling and running, and making the most of time with her family.
RESEARCH MANAGER
Rachael Skelton
Rachael is an accomplished Research Manager with extensive experience in mixed method research, social value assessment, and impact evaluation across public, private and third sector organisations. She holds an MSc in Social Research Methods and a BSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Portsmouth.
Rachael is known for her exceptional ability to build rapport with clients, quickly understands what they need, and adapt processes and methodologies to suit each project’s unique context. She manages client relationships with confidence and care — particularly on complex or sensitive projects — and is recognised for navigating tricky situations with professionalism, patience and clarity. She doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations and brings a calm, solutions focused approach that clients trust.
A strong project manager, Rachael leads projects from inception through to delivery, ensuring high quality outputs, clear communication and smooth co-ordination throughout. She has a proven track record of managing complex, multi stakeholder projects and brings tenacity, organisation and thoughtful leadership to every piece of work. An ideas driven thinker, she regularly contributes creative, practical solutions that strengthen project design and enhance impact.
Rachael began her career as a Researcher with Hampshire Police, specialising in research relating to vulnerable victims and witnesses within the Criminal Justice System. She has contributed to major studies on antisocial behaviour, institutional racism in policing, public confidence, and the experiences of child victims of abuse. Her work also included large scale evaluations of policing initiatives—such as the roll out of body worn video—and the delivery of key surveys including the Police User Satisfaction, Confidence and Internal Staff Surveys.
She brings strong expertise in theory of change development, impact measurement, cost benefit analysis and SROI, alongside advanced qualitative and quantitative skills. She is experienced in in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic approaches, survey design, fieldwork management, statistical analysis and working with vulnerable or seldom heard groups.
Since joining the Social Research Unit in 2021, Rachael has led a diverse portfolio of research and evaluation projects for clients such as Sport England, Trevi, Plymouth City Council and Recoop, a criminal justice support charity. Her work helps organisations understand, measure and strengthen the social, economic and community level outcomes of their services, providing meaningful insights that demonstrate value, inform strategic planning and drive continuous improvement.
When she’s not working, Rachael can usually be found on a Cornish beach, out on a long walk with her dog, or spending quality time with her family.
RESEARCHER
Helen Barrett
Helen brings over 12 years of professional research experience with the SRU, where she has delivered and managed a wide-ranging portfolio of research and evaluation projects for clients across the public, private, and third sectors. She has developed an extensive body of work focused on supporting vulnerable groups, including prisoners, veterans, and women experiencing trauma, delivering projects for organisations such as Recoop, The Veterans Advocacy Service, and Pause Plymouth.
Helen is recognised as a highly versatile, all-round researcher with extensive expertise across both quantitative and qualitative methods. Her work spans survey design and analysis, in-depth interviews, focus groups, case studies, literature and evidence reviews, and the development of theory-based evaluation frameworks. Known for her high attention to detail and clear, engaging writing style, she brings rigour and clarity to complex research questions.
Her portfolio also includes significant work in local economic development, business and labour market research, and health related topics. She has delivered and managed projects for clients including Exeter City Council, Devon County Council, Power to Change, Innovate UK, the Royal Devon & Exeter (RD&E) NHS Foundation Trust, and Marie Curie. She has also authored evidence reviews for national bodies such as NICE and the National Screening Committee.
Helen is proficient in specialist research tools including Snap Surveys, NVivo, and SPSS. She also has formal training and practical experience in Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis and in conducting systematic reviews.
RESEARCHER
Aimée Ralls
Aimée is a social impact researcher specialising in the evaluation of programmes that support communities, young people, and under-represented groups. She has worked with public sector bodies, charities, and national funders – including Sport England, Active Devon, and Trevi – to help them understand what their initiatives are achieving and how they can create meaningful, lasting change.
Known for her meticulous attention to detail and proactive approach, Aimée brings a combination of quantitative and qualitative expertise to every project. Her methodological experience includes stakeholder and participant interviews, focus groups, online surveys, process learning interviews, and the use of analytical tools such as Nvivo and SPSS.
Aimée takes time to understand each client’s context and requirements, enabling her to shape research that is both robust and genuinely useful. Aimée's research is characterised by her ability to build strong rapport with participants and stakeholders, ensuring that voices from diverse and under-represented groups are authentically captured. She excels at translating complex data into clear, visual representations that communicate impact effectively to both academic and non-academic audiences. Her thorough approach to data analysis enables her to identify key themes and evidence that drive decision-making for clients.
Aimée holds a BA in Tourism Management from the University of Gloucestershire and is passionate about continuous professional development. Her work supports organisations in demonstrating impact, learning from evidence, and driving positive social change.
Outside of work Aimée enjoys walking her dog on Dartmoor, swimming and spending time with her family.
RESEARCHER
Adam Bennet
Adam is a flexible researcher who’s comfortable working across the whole research cycle, bringing a mix of quantitative know how and qualitative experience. He’s confident with data and advanced analysis, using tools like SPSS and Snap Surveys, and he enjoys turning complex information into clear, useful insights.
Adam’s technical expertise includes developing sophisticated data visualisations using Power BI, integrating multiple datasets to produce clear, interactive dashboards. He also leads on stakeholder and network mapping, using Kumu to analyse relationships and system dynamics in an accessible and insightful way.
Recognised as a reliable and trusted member of the team, Adam is known for delivering high quality work quickly and accurately. He maintains strong communication throughout projects, ensuring stakeholders are well informed and supported. Calm, quietly confident, and great with people, he’s particularly strong in interview settings and keeping communication flowing throughout a project. His analytical, problem solving approach helps him adapt easily to whatever a project needs.
Adam holds an Integrated Masters in Psychology from the University of Plymouth and brings strong analytical and problem solving abilities to every project he works on.
Email — 01752 588951
Get in touch
We would love to hear from you and assist with any enquiries about how we can work together on future projects.
You can send us an email at sru@plymouth.ac.uk or fill in the form.
All of our team are contactable directly on the Team page.