Cheryl McQuire is a Research Fellow in Public Health Evaluation with particular interests in alcohol-related harm and maternal and child health, specialising in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). She teaches on the University of Bristol undergraduate medicine and postgraduate public health courses.

Current Projects:

• Multiagency interventions to reduce youth violence, exploitation and victimisation: Feasibility and Pilot Study (Youth Endowment Fund)
• Improving Clinical Coding for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
• Evaluating ADViSE to support sexual health clinicians to respond to domestic violence and abuse and sexual violence. 
• Mapping the landscape of prenatal alcohol prevention in the UK: a collaborative review. 
• Preventing prenatal alcohol exposure in the UK: a systematic review of the published and grey literature. (PROSPERO protocol).

Current Student Supervision:

• ‘No alcohol in pregnancy – better safe or better worry? A digital and social media analysis of the acceptability and unintended consequences of the abstinence message’ (3.5 years from Oct 2021; GW4 DTP PhD project supervisor)
• Analysing misinformation on X/Twitter: Discourse Dynamics, Influencer Intent and Enhancing Detection through AI. Sep 2020 March 2025

Background 

Cheryl has led systematic reviews and meta-analyses on intellectual disabilities and pre/postnatal mental health for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

She has worked in a research and applied capacity for the National Offender Management Service, as well as in residential settings for families with complex needs (including mental health and substance misuse issues).

Cheryl completed her BSc in Applied Psychology at Cardiff University (First Class Honours), followed by a MSc in Forensic Psychology (Distinction) and gained her PhD in Epidemiology for the thesis "Epidemiology of Prenatal Alcohol Use and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders" from Cardiff University.

In 2017 Cheryl joined the Centre for Public Health back in her home town at the University of Bristol, where she has continued to grow her methodological and subject-matter expertise in the areas of child and maternal health and alcohol-related harm.