Harnessing Academic Expertise to Challenge Poverty

Helen Yanacopulos, IKD member and Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of Academics Stand Against Poverty

Helen, whose areas of expertise include social movements and civil society networks, international NGOs, and public engagement and media in development, will be playing an active role on the board, with a specific remit to oversee and develop ASAP's fundraising strategy.

Founded in 2009, ASAP is an international professional association focused on helping academics use their research to develop concrete solutions to problems associated with global poverty and to launch their own, research-informed intervention projects. It also helps harness academic expertise worldwide for anti-poverty projects in such areas as aid, trade, health care, education, nutrition and climate change by bringing important academic work on global poverty to public audiences, policy makers and NGOs worldwide.

Its members include moral and political theorists, economists, environmental scientists, public health experts, and scholars from a range of disciplines.

Helen commented: 'It's tremendously exciting to be asked to join the Board of Directors. ASAP offers a fantastic opportunity for academics to influence wider debate about how best to challenge the structural causes of poverty. Its network of well-respected members, who together possess an incredible breadth of experience across international institutions and organisations, really does offer the chance to build a momentum for change. United we're quite a formidable force.'