Alison Clarke joined the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) as a Research Associate in April 2026. She works on a variety of projects across WCPP's three priority areas, but particularly within Community Wellbeing.
Before starting at WCPP, Alison worked as Research Associate (Capacity & Capabilities) at Insights North East, a collaborative hub for place‑based policy based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Here she led on policy projects to support public services and local government organisations in the use of evidence. She was also Research Fellow at the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN), working to strengthen the UK’s national brokerage infrastructure and improve coordination across the academic-policy ecosystem.
Alison's broader career history is perhaps best described as 'squiggly': she has held roles in Professional Services at Newcastle University (International Office and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences); holds a PhD in the history of art dealing (University of Liverpool/the National Gallery); and previously worked as an in-house translator from French and Italian.