Josie Holley joined the Wales Centre for Public Policy in 2026 as an Embedded Impact Research Assistant. She works alongside project teams to support reflection on how the Centre’s practices shape the use of evidence in policy and public service decision-making.
She is completing an ESRC-funded PhD in Social Sciences at Cardiff University. Her research examines the relationship between wellbeing policy, public health practice, and the third sector, with a particular focus on social prescribing of community arts and nature-based practices. It examines how these approaches are understood, funded, and positioned within governance, and how they support relational, cultural, and place-based wellbeing in post-industrial communities in South Wales.
Her background is in qualitative, participatory, and creative research methods. Alongside her doctoral research, she has also undertaken applied evaluation with third-sector organisations delivering community arts for wellbeing programmes.