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Dr Tilly Paz

Dr Tilly Paz (DPhil, MSc, MA, SFHEA)

Associate Professor and Deputy Course Lead, MSc in Public Health
E: t.paz@bsms.ac.uk
Location: Watson building, Falmer, BN1 9PH

Public Health; Assessment in Higher Education

Research areas: Food, Poverty, Inequalities, Environment

Other faculty positions: Assessment Lead for the Postgraduate degrees; School Research Ethics Officer; Research Governance and Ethics Committee Reviewer; EDI Department Rep

Preferred gender pronouns: She/her

Biography

Tilly is an Associate Professor in Public Health who focuses on the ways food and poverty interplay in the lives of children, as well as the broader contexts of inequalities and stigma. She is the co-author of the Brighton and Hove Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for food, poverty and inequalities, and works closely with civil society organisations and local authorities across England to promote food security for all children.

Prior to her academic career she worked with professionals and individuals on the challenges of emotional and intuitive eating, while also volunteering with the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership to promote better food systems for the city and better eating habits for residents.

Her PhD in Law focused on the challenges and the surprising positive aspects of the ways in which the legal system worked with sexual assault victims. At the time, she also worked with the sexual assault crisis centre to promote better communication between all the participants of the process. In that capacity, she provided lectures and training to professionals within the legal system.

Research

Tilly is a qualitative researcher, with extensive experience of using in-depth as well as constructed and semi-constructed interviews, focus groups and qualitative questionnaires. She also trains and supports others in qualitative data collection and processing.

She is passionate about large-scale interventions, and the ways they are implemented in complex systems and organisations. She especially enjoys the evaluation processes of such projects and is currently taking part in the evaluation of the Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF) at Medway, as well as the one of Poverty Proofing the School Day at Brighton & Hove.

Her research projects are impact focused and designed to promote change based on the direct experiences of those affected by the decisions and actions of others. The collection of data is done by those who work in the field, and the processing is deeply influenced by their point of view.

Teaching

Tilly has an extensive teaching experience in academic and non-academic settings, and she lectures and facilitates workshops and CPDs for people from all age groups and walks of life.

She currently leads the modules Principles and Practice of Public Health & Principles of Epidemiology for the MSc in Public Health, as well as many extracurricular activities about nutrition, racism in health, and health impact assessments.

Selected publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

Paz, T. (2024). A holistic approach to building a community of learners: Implementing and reflecting on shared responsibility and building meaningful relationships in the classroom. Educational Developments, 25(1), pp. 22–25. Link

Paz, T. (2021). Changes in the back yard. In N. Levenkorn & T. Kritcheli Katz (Eds.), Law, Society and Culture, pp. 329–352.

Paz, T. & Paz-Fuchs, A. (2017). Is There a Free Lunch? Normative, Nutritional and Legal Aspects of School Dinners. In A. Gross & Y. Tirosh (Eds.), Law, Society and Culture, pp. 95–124. Link

Paz, T. (2015). Beyond Legislation: Genuine Change in the Interaction between Victims of Sexual Crimes and the Criminal Law System. Israel Law Review, 48(3), pp. 357–385. Link

Recent Conference Papers

2025 – Inclusive Assessment Support for Different Learning Styles, AHE (Assessment in Higher Education) Conference.

2025 – Inclusive Assessment Support, Educational Research and Scholarship Symposium, University of Brighton.

2024 – Designing Inclusivity for Different Learning Styles, University of Brighton Education and Student Experience Conference.

2024 – What Do Children Want? Rethinking Food Security and Poverty in Schools, World Congress on Nutrition and Public Health.

2024 – Poverty-Proofing School Food, Designing Brighton & Hove 5-Year Food Strategy Conference.

2023 – Formative Assessments and the Use of Peers, University of Brighton Education and Student Experience Conference.