During her degree in Social Policy and Social Work, Tina specialised in mental health and subsequently became a specialist mental health social worker, with a particular interest in advocacy and community work. She was involved in initiating and implementing a project incorporating user involvement and control in mental health services.
Tina undertook doctoral work which focused on developing post-Foucauldian theory, utilising this approach to explore the racialisation of community care policy. She then went on to become an ESRC post-doctoral fellow involved in a project examining commissioning and contracting in health, local authority and voluntary sector services.
Tina spent some time in both the Strategic Planning Department and the Equalities Unit in a major local authority, examining the racialisation of commissioning and contracting policies and procedures within the strategic planning process; she was also a senior investigating officer in a local authority social services context. She is actively involved in community politics, in particular, the Black community care forum - she co-authored their landmark community care focused document 'Talking Back'.