William McGovern is an Associate Professor within the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing. He is also the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Director of Patient, User and Public Involvment. Will is a widely recognised as a subject expert in the field of Substance Use and Recovery and also an emerging expert on Mental Health and Well Being. He has over 30 year experience as a drug and alcohol practitioner, public involvment lead, researcher, academic and community activist.
Will has a undergraduate (BA Hons) and post gradute degree (MA) from Durham University and a Phd from Newcastle University. He is a professionally qualifed youth worker, community development worker and teacher. Since completing his Doctoral studies in 2017, Will has went on to be awarded an Individual Career Development Grant from NIHR and he has participated in over 30 funded research/consultancy/CPD projects. Will's work is concerned with exploring concerns like inequality, discrimination and stigma and then expaining the experiences of marginalised and underserved communities.
Will has been involved in and led a number of edited collections of work on Stigma, Drugs and Identity (2022) Safeguarding Children in Schools (2022) Teaching Sensitive Subjects and Topics (2023) An Anthology of Poetry on Recovery (2024) and Public Involvement and Community Engagement in Applied Health and Social Care Research (2025). He has also held Directors roles in a number of charities and previously been nominated and won awards for Public Speaking, Contributions to Youth Work and Recovery in the North.
Addison, M.; Stockdale, K.; McGovern, R.; McGovern, W.; McKinnon, I.; Crowe, L.; Hogan, L.; and Kaner, E. (2017 submitted) Exploring the intersections between Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and other substance use in a police custody suite setting in the North East of England, Special issue of Drugs, Education, Policy and Practice
Addison M, Stockdale K, McGovern R, McGovern W, McKinnon I, Crowe L, Hogan L, Kaner E. Exploring Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) use and its consequences for police practitioners and substance users in the North East of England. N8 Policing Research Partnership, 2017
James, D. Hall, A. Lombardo, C. and McGovern, W. (2014) "A video feedback intervention for workforce development: exploring staff perspective using longitudinal qualitative methodology" Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.
McKenna, L., Graham, P., Goss, J., Gallagher. J. Robson, I., McGovern, W. (2012) “Social Impact Assessment of SAFC Foundation of Light’s Wider Family Learning Programme”, Evaluation Report, for the SAFC Foundation of Light (Unpublished)
McGovern, W. (2012) Guide to the toxic trio: Managing multiple parental problems, substance use, mental health and domestic abuse, Community Care Inform.
McGovern, R. and McGovern, W. (2011) Voluntary risk-taking and heavy-end crack cocaine use: An edgework perspective. Health, Risk & Society, 13 (5). pp. 487-500. ISSN 1369-8575.
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