Eva Lloyd is Professor of Early Childhood in the University of East London’s School of Education and Communities. She directs the School’s International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare, which she co-founded in 2007 with Emeritus Professor Helen Penn. Her research focuses on early education and childcare policies and systems, particularly marketised systems’ impact on the life chances of children growing up in poverty. She previously held Eva’s interest in early childhood policy and practice goes back to 1985 when she joined the Thomas Coram Research Unit at the University of London's Institute of Education, after graduating in Psychology at UEL (then NELP). She spent the next fifteen years with children's NGOs; working in policy and research for Save the Children and Barnardo's and as CEO of the National Early Years Network.

In 2013 Eva was awarded an Honorary OBE for Services to Education

posts at Bristol University’s School for Policy Studies and University College London’s Institute of Education, alongside honorary positions at Cambridge University, the Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Muenster, Germany. She is Visiting Professor in UCL’s Thomas Coram Research Unit. Eva has extensive experience working with national and international policymakers and co-authoring policy studies for government departments. As member of an Expert Group she is advising the Irish government on a new funding model for their childcare strategy.