Alumni Profile: Verena Hinze
Discovering Green Templeton
Dr Verena Hinze (DPhil Psychiatry, 2017) first encountered Green Templeton College in 2016 while visiting Oxford during her master’s degree. Invited by her then supervisor, a Green Templeton Fellow, she was struck by the kindness and strong sense of community. When applying for her DPhil in Psychiatry, Green Templeton was her first choice.
Student life and connections
As a doctoral student, Dr Hinze immersed herself in college life. Embodying the interdisciplinary spirit of Green Templeton, she attended seminars ranging from medicine and public health to journalism and business, rowed competitively (winning blades), and joined social brunches. A particular highlight was mentoring a secondary school pupil through the GTC–Cheney School mentoring progamme. She describes that helping them develop their own research project and seeing them thrive was incredibly rewarding. These experiences shaped her belief in the value of connections across disciplines and generations.
Returning as a Fellow
In 2025, Dr Hinze returned to Green Templeton as a Research Fellow. She describes the experience as a full-circle moment, welcomed with the same warmth she had felt as a student. From October (2025) she will mentor students and sit on the Student Welfare Committee at college all the while chairing the Academic Career Development Working Group the Department of Psychiatry, helping others navigate the often-complex pathways of academia.
Research and impact
Her research focuses on the link between chronic pain and the risk of self-harm thoughts and behaviours in adolescents – an area often overlooked. She investigates which young people with chronic pain are at increased risk, how that risk changes over time, and what might help to protect them. She is particularly interested in the role of healthcare systems, such as how fragmented care, diagnostic uncertainty and delays in treatment may affect mental health. Her goal is to support early intervention and integrated care pathways that treat young people as a whole.
One of her proudest moments was presenting her findings at a national pain services conference: ‘It felt like my research was beginning to make a real-world difference.’
Looking ahead
Dr Hinze is now establishing her own research group and seeking funding to develop clinical interventions informed by her findings. By improving how we detect and respond to the risk of self-harm thoughts and behaviours, especially in clinical settings, her research aims to improve care. Her ambition is to ensure that her work moves beyond academia to make a meaningful impact in the lives of young people so that no young person faces these challenges alone.
Full circle
Her journey reflects many circles: from welcomed student to committed Fellow, from mentee to mentor, from researcher to change-maker. Her story is rooted in curiosity, compassion, and a belief in the power of inclusive and supportive academic communities.
