Dr Helena King

Professional Biography

Dr Helena King is a Senior Lecturer in Management and Health at the triple-accredited Open University Business School, leading the MBA module Leaders of Change and the MiM module Fundamentals of Management. Her career spans UKRI-funded postdoctoral and Knowledge Transfer Partnership roles, third-sector management, interdisciplinary applied research, and teaching across professional degrees in human resources, public health, and public protection.

Inspired by a two-year co-produced group coaching project with a UK peer-led charity, Helena pursued training and accreditation in coaching and psychology. She became a pro-bono coach for the Cranfield Trust in 2024 and now works 1:1 with health and welfare charity leaders. Her interests centre on integration, insight and interconnectedness, the potential of group coaching, and emancipatory practice to improve outcomes for marginalised people- via direct work and by equipping leaders to build more inclusive cultures.

Research Interests

Helena takes a broad interdisciplinary theoretical approach, drawing primarily on psychology, sociology and organisational studies, to explore connections between social-spatial settings and inner experience, and between mental and physical health. Current research spans three areas: conceptualising how health stigma manifests in organisations; exploring group coaching as a means of addressing it; and investigating the mechanisms of change that make coaching effective. Her PhD, postdoctoral fellowship and KTP internship examined how people engage with different habitat types, whether biodiversity levels shape the psychosocial benefits derived, and how land-management policy and practice shapes those habitats.

Education

PhD Environmental Psychology, Cranfield University
MSc Psychology (underway), Open University
PGCert Academic Practice, Open University
BA Business Organisation, University of Hertfordshire
Prof Dip Coaching & Mentoring, Institute of Counselling
DipHE Arts and Humanities, Open University
APM PMQ, Association for Project Management

Open University teaching 

Current modules

• B877 Fundamentals of Management (MiM Masters in Management)
• B875 MBA Project: Leaders of Change (MBA Master of Business Administration)

Past teaching

• B894 Dissertation (HRM) - MSc Human Resource Management
• BXY130 Professional Practice - BA Management Practice
• K243 Critical Perspectives on Mental Health in Society - BSc Public Health 
• K240 Mental Health and Community- BA Health and Social Care
• BXY132 Concepts and Theories in Policing - BSc Prof Policing Practice

Affiliations 

CABS Certified Management and Business Educator 

HEA Fellowship

BPS student member

Psychology of Health and Wellbeing member

Research into Employment and Equitable Futures member

Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership member

Centre for Policing Research and Learning member