About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

More about us

Katherine Parkin

Analyst, fairer start mission

Katherine is an analyst with a quantitative focus, working in Nesta’s fairer start mission.

She works on projects aimed at ensuring every child has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential in the early years.

Before joining the fairer start mission, Katherine worked in Nesta’s healthy life mission, focusing on improving the food environment and supporting the nation's health. Her work included contributing to Nesta’s groundbreaking blueprint to halve obesity, a toolkit for policymakers to evaluate the efficacy of different obesity reduction policies.

Alongside working at Nesta, Katherine completed a PhD in Public Health at the University of Cambridge. Her research focused on identifying adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) using routinely-collected linked data, and on early interventions to support young people’s mental health.

Katherine’s earlier experience includes working as an assistant psychologist in NHS community mental health teams, where she delivered and evaluated psychological interventions, and as a psychological wellbeing telecoach for a mental health crisis service. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychological and behavioural sciences at the University of Cambridge in 2016.

Outside of work, Katherine enjoys trying out new hobbies such as bouldering, badminton, and dog-walking, as well as reading and dabbling in drawing. Connect with Katherine on ResearchGate and LinkedIn.