Dr Dawn Branley-Bell is an Associate Professor of Cyberpsychology, a chartered psychologist and Past Chair of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Cyberpsychology Section. She directs the Psychology and Communication Technology Lab (PaCT Lab) at Northumbria University – one of few university-based dedicated cyberpsychology research and training facilities in the UK – and leads the Research into Health Technologies for Eating Distress (RHED) research group. 

Dr Branley-Bell specialises in digital health and wellbeing, including remote healthcare support. She held a Medical Research Foundation fellowship exploring Remote Healthcare for Eating Disorders and is currently leading the Evidence into National Action for remote Care Transformation in Eating Disorders project (ENACT-ED) addressing the need for national policy for remote eating disorder care in the UK.

<p>Dr Branley-Bell is also interested in the impacts of social media. As a former fellow of the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, she worked with data from the Library’s Twitter archive to investigate online communication around self-harm and eating disorders. More recently she has been exploring the impact of social media algorithms on the presentation of body-image related content.

<p>More widely, Dr Branley-Bell's research includes explainable AI and cybersecurity, and she is co-investigator on the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Citizen-Centred Artificial Intelligence.