Amy Barnes is a Senior Public Health Policy and Research Specialist with over 15 years’ experience, currently serving as Deputy Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change at the University of York and Healthy Livelihoods lead for the Bradford Health Determinants Research Collaboration Policy Hub. Her work focuses on bridging divides between academia, policy, and communities to tackle systemic disadvantage, advance health equity, and embed social justice in climate action.
Amy’s practice is grounded in embedded and participatory research, co-designing solutions with communities to ensure policy reflects lived experience. Through projects like Co-producing Bradford’s Just Transition: Community Climate Evidence, she has trained local residents as Climate Community Researchers, co-facilitated workshops in wards most at risk of being left behind, and developed community-led climate manifestos informing Bradford’s Climate Action Plan. She emphasises a person-first approach, framing climate action around health, safety, and everyday life to promote genuine participation.
Her Made in Common research explores cooperative models, food co-ops, and credit unions as vehicles for economic democracy, demonstrating how wealth redistribution and community ownership can support both socially just and sustainable outcomes. Amy also works on cross-sector initiatives with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to embed inclusive retrofitting and Net zero planning into local strategy, linking climate action with health and livelihoods.
Key challenges in her work include sustaining meaningful community participation, navigating fragmented governance systems, and addressing the limits of time-bound project funding. Her approach is guided by public health ethics, social justice, and democracy, emphasising autonomy, non-judgmental engagement, and co-creation of knowledge.
Through the Practice-Builders’ Network, Amy aims to share insights on integrating public health, socio-economic justice, and climate action, and to learn from peers on joining up action across sectors to accelerate an equitable path to net zero.