Danielle Hutcheon (née Kelly)
Research Fellow
Yunus CentreDani Hutcheon is a Research Fellow working as part of the Communities, Citizenship and Participation research theme at the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, GCU. Dani is also Research and Engagement Lead and Impact Champion for the Yunus Centre. Her research focuses on community empowerment and resilience, community asset ownership, community wealth building and community-led activity for the health and wellbeing of underserved groups.
Dani is a mixed-methods researcher who holds an MA (Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Public Health from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).
Dani is currently co-investigator on the NIHR-funded COWBELLS (Community Wealth Building Evaluation: Learning Lessons from Scotland), a mixed-methods evaluation of the impact of Community Wealth Building on economic and health outcomes and health inequalities.
Previous to this, Dani was co-investigator on the WIGWAM-S project, which aimed to explore how Men’s Sheds and other male interventions can support positive behaviour change and health and wellbeing in working-age disadvantaged men.
Between 2022-2024, Dani was Principal Investigator on the British Academy and Nuffield Foundation-funded ‘Rural Assets: Policy and Practice Insights from the Devolved Nations’, which aimed to understand the impacts of the processes of community asset acquisition upon the empowerment, resilience, and well-being of rural communities across the UK.
Previously, Dani was the lead researcher on the Big Lottery-funded Sheds for Sustainable Development project, looking at the developmental challenges of Men’s Sheds in Scotland, as well as the health and well-being impacts of shed activities. Dani was also part of the MRC/ESRC- funded CommonHealth project, which aimed to develop methods to evidence social enterprise as a public health intervention.
Dani has published her research in peer-reviewed journals, such as BMC Public Health, the Journal of Rural Studies, and Health and Place. She is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and sits on the Scottish Government National Action Group for Community Asset Transfer. Dani is currently the module tutor for Advanced Skills in Qualitative Research. She previously acted as module leader for Social Innovation Solutions and module tutor on Global Social Entrepreneurship.