MYTHBUSTER · RESEARCH · POLICY
Equipping people with the information they need to meet their family goals.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
01
What we believe
We believe that on average, people who want to build families will build happy ones.
02
What we see
We observe a gap between the number of children people want to have and the number they have.
03
What we do
We are here to close that gap with clear information: myth-busters, research and policy ideas.
Explore our Mythbuster Blog and Policy Blog.
ABOUT THE CFE
Myths about family are everywhere.
The Centre for Family and Education (CFE) was established by Peter Foreshaw Brookes because he saw a problem. Myths about family are everywhere — from fertility windows to climate impact.
We believe that bad and incomplete information leads to bad decisions! The CFE counters myths, provides clarity on family issues and delivers policy suggestions for governments to better support people in their family aspirations.
OUR WORK
The CFE’s answers
02
Mythbuster Blog
Short, skimmable posts that set the record straight on common family myths.
OUR TEAM
The people behind the CFE

Peter Foreshaw Brookes
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORRead bio +
Peter Foreshaw Brookes
Peter is the executive director and founder of the CFE. He is also research associate at the Institute for Family Studies and founder of Foreshaw Brookes Education, a tutoring company. He has been featured in a wide range of outlets, from The Guardian to the Daily Wire, and has produced a number of academic papers on exogenous shocks to fertility.
He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford, specialising in game theory, econometrics and philosophy of religion. He currently lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and son.

Alexander Norris
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORRead bio +
Alexander Norris
Alexander Norris teaches Classics and English at an inner-London state school. He holds a degree in Literae Humaniores from the University of Oxford, and is the founding Managing Editor of Bedrock Magazine.
Alexander also helped to found the Ruskin Centre, an academic institute offering Great Books courses to working professionals, and is currently its Director of Studies. He currently lives in Surrey with his wife and daughter.

Dr. Lyman Stone
SENIOR ADVISORRead bio +
Dr. Lyman Stone
Lyman is Senior Advisor to the CFE. Lyman is a senior fellow and director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies. He is also the Director of Research at the consulting firm Demographic Intelligence. He has a PhD in fertility preferences from McGill University.
His work has been covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Vox, and The Federalist, as well as numerous local outlets. He formerly worked as an international economist for USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and four children.

Prof. Darby Saxbe
SENIOR ADVISORRead bio +
Prof. Darby Saxbe
Prof. Saxbe is Senior Advisor to the CFE and Co-Director of the USC Center for the Changing Family. Her current work focuses on the transition to parenthood and the “fathering brain,” using neuroimaging to scan fathers both prenatally and again postpartum.
Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and she received a Fulbright Fellowship to study the parenting brain in Spain in fall 2019.

Bartek Staniszewski
ASSOCIATE FELLOWRead bio +
Bartek Staniszewski
Bartek is Associate Fellow at the CFE. Bartek Staniszewski is the Head of Policy at Bright Blue and the Director and Co-Founder of Bright Blue Europe. He read Philosophy at the University of Oxford and has been featured, among others, in the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Critic, City A.M., the Spectator and on the BBC and GB News.
He is the author of numerous think-tank reports, including on planning policy, democratic business, young people’s political priorities, affordable housing, social security and race inequality. He is also an IPR Policy Fellow.

Roberto Salvia
RESEARCHERRead bio +
Roberto Salvia
Roberto is a researcher at the CFE. Roberto read History and Modern Languages (Specialising in Russian) at the University of Cambridge. He is also a lawyer with an interest in family law and has previously worked as a parliamentary researcher.
He is currently researching how different conservative movements across the globe are developing policies to support family formation.

Oliver Mears
CONSULTANT ANALYSTRead bio +
Oliver Mears
Oli is a consultant analyst for the CFE. Oli read Economics and Statistics at University College London (UCL). His research has spanned from optimal tax reform for policies to optimal planning reform.