Rate My Professor Kirstin Mitchell

Professor Kirstin Mitchell is Professor of Social Science and Public Health in the Public Health Unit of the School of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. She holds a BSc in Human Sciences from Oxford University, an MSc in Health Promotion from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD in sexual health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her career commenced with research on young people's sexual health in the UK at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In the late 1990s, she relocated to Uganda to lead the process evaluation of a community-based HIV intervention trial. Subsequently, she worked several years in the third sector, designing and coordinating an HIV/AIDS peer-support programme for street children in Kampala with GOAL Uganda and providing monitoring and evaluation expertise to HIV/AIDS Alliance country offices. Her mid-career PhD advanced holistic conceptualisation and measurement of sexual function. From 2008 to 2015, she was an overseas-based Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, leading projects on repeat emergency contraception use in Ethiopia, factors influencing sex work in Rwanda, and community facilitators of postnatal practices in Ethiopia. Since 2018, she has served as an MRC Investigator at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow, leading a team investigating social relationships and health at dyad, small group, and community levels using diverse methods. She co-leads the Sexual Health and Wellbeing group of approximately 12 staff and students.

Mitchell's academic interests centre on sexual wellbeing, gender-based violence, and the role of social relationships in public health, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. She employs expertise in intervention design and evaluation, co-production, methods innovation, creative approaches, effective communication, and an inequalities lens, collaborating with clinicians and third-sector organisations to translate research into practice. Principal projects include the NIHR-funded Equally Safe at School cluster randomised controlled trial evaluating a whole-school approach to tackling gender-based violence in Scottish secondary schools in partnership with Rape Crisis Scotland, co-investigator on the Wellcome-funded National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles-4, and principal investigator of the MRC-funded Good Measure Project developing improved measures of adolescent sex and sexuality. Key publications include 'What is sexual wellbeing and why does it matter for public health?' (The Lancet Public Health, 2021), 'Sexual function in Britain: findings from the third national survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles (Natsal-3)' (The Lancet, 2013), 'Lifetime prevalence, associated factors, and circumstances of non-volitional sex in women and men in Britain: findings from Natsal-3' (The Lancet, 2013), 'Painful sex (dyspareunia) in women: prevalence and associated factors in a British population probability survey' (BJOG, 2017), and 'Development and validation of a brief measure of sexual wellbeing for population surveys: The Natsal Sexual Wellbeing Measure (Natsal-SW)' (Journal of Sex Research, 2025). She is Editor of the Annual Review of Sexual Research, an elected member of the International Academy of Sex Research since 2015, and editorial board member of the Journal of Sex Research from 2019 to 2025. Mitchell is Culture Champion for the School, chairs a group on collaboration and leadership, sits on the National Oversight Committee for Sexual Health and BBV in Scotland, co-chairs the National Monitoring, Assurance and Research Group, and supports Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland strategies.