Masha's research explores the combination of physical activity and mindfulness practice. She is particularly interested in how mindfulness practice can help change attitudes, mindsets and behaviour related to exercise, and how to best deliver this through digital health tools.

Masha's current project is developing and evaluating a digital mindfulness-based intervention aiming to support exercise engagement in insufficiently active adults. This new tool is being created through extensive consultation with its target audience and expert stakeholders. She is working with a mindfulness non-profit, Medito Foundation, whose mobile application has over 2 million downloads and hundreds of thousands of monthly active users. The guided mindfulness sessions they have developed will soon be freely available on their mobile application, Medito.

Through this work Masha hopes to expand the understanding of how the effects of mindfulness practice can help people engage in physical activity more regularly, and how this impacts their psychological wellbeing.

The project is supported by the ESRC SWDTP and supervised by Dr Max Western and Prof Paul Chadwick from the University of Bath, Dr Ben Ainsworth from the University of Southampton, and Dr Olivia Maynard from the University of Bristol, with a projected end date of June 2024.

Masha has experience with teaching and marking on a range of units, both at undergraduate and postgraduate taught level. Notable experience includes leading a seminar-based unit on Controversies in Psychology, teaching Advanced Research Methods & Designs, and facilitating a unit on Psychology of Wellbeing.

Alongside her research and teaching work, Masha is also a consultant to the University's Human Resources team. She provides expert advice, analysis and reports on the quarterly Work & Wellbeing Staff Surveys. Her consulting work feeds directly into the University Executive Board, where it helps shape the institutional work and wellbeing strategy.

Masha also served as the Faculty Doctoral Student Representative for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2020-2022. She sat on multiple Faculty and University-level committees, representing over 1000 doctoral students of her faculty.