Professor Tessa Parkes is Director of the Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research at the University of Stirling, and Deputy Convenor of the Drugs Research Network Scotland. She graduated with a First Class degree in Nursing from the University of Edinburgh in 1994 and with a Ph.D. in Mental Health from the University of Kent in 2002. She has expertise in the field of alcohol and drugs, harm reduction interventions, homelessness, mental health, and social inequalities. Her current research activity focuses on enhancing the experience of people who experience problems with alcohol or drugs when using health, substance use, or homelessness services, the effectiveness of peer support within homelessness and substance use services, and interventions to reduce drug-related deaths. She is a member of Research England’s Equality and Diversity Panel and has sat on a number of Scotland’s drugs policy advisory committees over the past seven years.