After 14 years at Hopkins Van Mil Anita is moving on
At Hopkins Van Mil (HVM) we are as committed as ever to shining a light on people’s stories, ideas and views. In practice this means that our Directors and team not only create a space for people’s voices to be heard, but also follow the path their own ideas point them towards. In this spirit we are announcing that Anita van Mil, HVM’s Director of Research and Engagement is taking up a new position from 1st November as Research Manager at St Mungo’s. We are delighted for Anita whose thoughts have been pointing for some time towards gaining a better understanding of homelessness in the UK.
Henrietta Hopkins and Anita founded HVM in 2005 as a research agency focused initially on heritage and cultural matters, particularly in the international arena. Over the last 14 years Anita has been instrumental in developing HVM’s reach so that voices are heard, learning is shared and understanding achieved on a wide range of social, technological and cultural issues. HVM is proud to have led many fascinating and inspiring social research, stakeholder engagement and learning and sharing programmes on:
Food, nutrition and health such as the innovative deliberative programme on the inter-relation of our food system with our health and the environment for the Wellcome Trust, and the recent Citizens’ Juries on Fair partnerships on the uses of data within the NHS sponsored by the Office for Life Sciences and commissioned by Understanding Patient Data, NHS England and the Ada Lovelace Institute;
Science and technology including programmes for the Royal Society on Genetic technologies and the most recent public dialogue From our brain to the world on neural interfaces;
Arts, culture and heritage including the current evaluation of the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Endowment programme;
Environment including our ground-breaking early iterative public engagement and dialogue programme at the Cuckmere Estuary and work for the Committee on Climate Change, as well as a recent pilot public dialogue for the Natural Environment Research Council on the digital environment;
A wide range of public dialogues focused on Wellbeing policy supported by Sciencewise and commissioned by the Cabinet Office, Public Health England, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing and the New Economics Foundation.
Anita will remain an important part of HVM as a founding Director, but will step back from day-to-day programme delivery from 1 November 2019. Henrietta will continue to work with our outstanding team of facilitators, researchers and content specialists building on varied portfolio of deliberation, engagement and learning and sharing programmes. HVM is excited about the future in which we’ll continue with current deliberative programmes for Understanding Patient Data, NHS England and the Ada Lovelace Institute as well as ongoing work for the National Lottery Heritage Fund and as part of the Learning, Sharing and Evaluation Consortium for Help through Crisis.
We are extremely grateful to Anita for establishing such firm foundations for HVM with her clear research insight, calm project management and ability to draw stakeholders together around a common purpose. We wish her well for the future at St. Mungo’s and leave the last word with her,
“It is with sadness and pride that I’m stepping back from my role as Director of Research and Engagement at HVM. Working with Henrietta and the team for such a wide range of fascinating clients over the last 14 years has been a truly inspiring experience. It’s no mean feat that we have pulled through the various crises the turbulent political and economic climate has thrown at us, yet the company is in a stronger position than ever. Despite the long hours we’ve all put in to get us this far we’ve had loads of fun along the way and there are many things I will cherish forever, particularly the unconditional support within the team.
My move is inspired by a desire to bring lived experience into research and be closer to the implementation of research findings. I know I’ve found a perfect home for this ambition at St Mungo’s, where research is conducted and commissioned to end homelessness and rebuild lives. Thanks to all HVM clients, colleagues, associates and friends for our time together. I hope we can keep in touch.”