Dea is a Research Fellow at the University of York and the Bradford Institute for Health Research. She is part of the ActEarly Healthy Livelihoods theme, and works on a project to understand the state of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Bradford, and how parents/carers feel about accessing the ECEC system. Dea started as part of ActEarly in April 2023, and alongside this role she continues her work as a Research Fellow in the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub, where she runs evaluations of early life interventions for parents and children. Dea completed her PhD in Human Communication Sciences at the University of Sheffield in 2017, and has a background in developmental cognitive psychology and children’s language development. Her broader research interests include intervention development and evaluation, early years education, and determinants of children’s health and wellbeing.