Dr Celeste Foster, Academic principal investigator for the Landscape study, was awarded the 2025 Skellern Memorial Lecture. Celeste is an Associate professor in young people’s mental health nursing at the University of Salford, and an executive committee member of NAPICU.
The Skellern Lecturer Award, named in honour of groundbreaking mental health nurse Eileen Skellern, acknowledges individuals who have significantly advanced mental health policy, practice, and research, both in the UK and internationally.
The Skellern Lecture is one of two Skellern award categories, alongside the Lifetime Achievement Award. Nomination and is voted by a panel of peers – made up of Skellern alumni, mental health nursing academics, researchers, commissioners and clinical practitioners. The event took place on the 5th June, hosted by the University of Manchester.
Celeste is a child and adolescent mental health nurse and psychotherapist who has worked at the University of Salford as an academic and researcher for 21 years, first as a lecturer practitioner, then lecturer, senior lecturer and now associate professor. Celeste co-leads the mental health and neurodiversity research group in the Centre for Applied Health Research, in the School of Health and Society.
Her lecture focused on her applied research examining and improving care quality, interventions and outcomes for young people with complex mental health needs, and the staff who look after them.
You can read about the evening and see the synopsis of Celeste’s lecture here: https://www.skellern.info/2025