Alfonso Pezzella, SFHEA, FETNA, is an academic leader, mental health educator and researcher specialising in equality, LGBT+ inclusion, transcultural health, professional education and student experience.
He is Director of Programmes for Mental Health Post-registration and Continuing Professional Development, Director of Programmes for Step Up to Social Work, and Senior Lecturer in Mental Health at Middlesex University. He is based in the School of Mental Health and Social Work within the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education.
Alfonso joined Middlesex University in 2012 following an academic and clinical health psychology background. Since then, he has developed an extensive portfolio of leadership across mental health, social work, curriculum development, quality enhancement and professional education. Within the School of Mental Health and Social Work, he serves as Learning and Quality Lead and has held programme leadership responsibilities across postgraduate mental health studies, advanced clinical practice, mental health practice and continuing professional development.
His wider institutional leadership includes representing the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education on Middlesex University’s Education and Student Experience Committee, contributing to university-level discussions and decision-making on educational quality, academic enhancement and the student experience. He is also Convenor of the Faculty’s Digital Literacy and Generative AI Working Group, supporting the development of responsible, inclusive and effective approaches to digital capability and generative AI in teaching, learning and assessment.
Alfonso is the founder of Middlesex University’s Inter-Professional Learning Symposia. After joining the University, he identified a gap in the interprofessional learning available to mental health nursing, adult and child nursing students and developed the Symposia in response. The initiative began in 2013 with four sessions and, following strong attendance and growing demand, expanded gradually to more than 30 events per year. Individual sessions have attracted more than 200 participants, bringing together students, academics, practitioners and members of the wider community from health, social work, education, other faculties and a broad range of professional disciplines.
He has extensive experience of leading and contributing to large-scale European research and education projects. He is Principal Investigator and Project Coordinator for IENE-LGBT+, a European Commission-funded project that developed a culturally competent and compassionate LGBT+ curriculum for health and social care education. He has also contributed to several other IENE projects, including work focused on migration, refugee health, intercultural education and socially assistive artificial intelligence in health and social care.
Alfonso was also UK Coordinator and Co-investigator for the FREE Project: Fostering the Right to Education in Europe, an international research collaboration examining how educational institutions respond to sexual orientation and gender identity and how more inclusive environments can be created for young people. His wider European project experience includes the BEING ME initiative, which supported the development of inclusive education and practice for professionals working with older LGBT+ people.
His external academic roles include serving as External Examiner for the MSc Clinical Mental Health Sciences and MSc Psychiatric Research programmes at University College London. Alfonso also works as an expert assessor and evaluator for Innovate UK, Horizon Europe, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and COST, contributing specialist expertise in mental health, equality, education and social innovation.
Alfonso’s teaching and scholarship span mental health, research methods, quantitative data analysis and SPSS, LGBT+ health and inclusion, equality and diversity, health inequalities, and transcultural approaches to health and social care. He has contributed to curriculum development across mental health nursing, advanced clinical practice, social work, continuing professional development and interdisciplinary education.
His research focuses on LGBT+ mental health, culturally and structurally competent care, inclusive education, identity, discrimination, health inequalities and professional practice. He has published in peer-reviewed journals, edited collections and professional publications and has presented his work at national and international conferences.
Alfonso is Chair of the International Sexuality and Social Work Association, promoting international collaboration in research, education, policy and professional practice relating to gender, sexuality and sexual identity. He is also Secretary of the European Transcultural Nursing Association, through which he supports international collaboration and the advancement of culturally responsive health and social care education.
He has also made sustained contributions to institutional equality and inclusion through his involvement in Middlesex University’s Athena SWAN and Stonewall Workplace Equality Index self-assessment work, supporting activity to advance gender equality and LGBT+ inclusion across the University.
Alfonso’s work has received sustained institutional and national recognition. He received Middlesex University Staff Awards for Contribution to the Wider Community in 2018 and Contribution to the Community and Society in 2019. In 2025, he received the Middlesex University Teaching Excellence Award for Community Impact and was runner-up in the Queer Student Awards’ Role Model in Education category. In 2026, he was included in the inaugural QSA Pride List in recognition of his contribution to LGBT+ inclusion in education.
His work is driven by a commitment to creating more inclusive educational environments, strengthening professional practice and improving the quality of health and social care for marginalised and culturally diverse communities.
Creating an LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Curriculum
https://www.youtube.com/embed/OP4gsyAAgFA?si=ytAJcCLSmvq_T2Au%22
0000-0002-2000-5760
