Joining the Wolfson Institute of Population Health means that you’ll be taught by experts in their fields whose work impacts health outcomes and influences policy
Two or our academics, Dr Jonathan Kennedy and Dr Jennifer Randall, received teaching awards in 2022.
Dr Jonathan Kennedy won an award in the 'Pandemics' category of the US-UK Fulbright Commission's inaugural Global Challenges Teaching Awards (GCTA), a programme aimed at increasing access to global learning for students on either side of the Atlantic. Jonathan will collaborate with Jessie Dubreuil, Associate Director for Learning at the Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Together they will develop a 'virtual exchange' that will allow their students to learn about the similarities and difference between health inequalities in the US and UK.
Dr Jennifer Randall was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by Advance HE in recognition of her outstanding record as an educator and in enhancing the student learning experience. Jennifer played a central role in the development and launch of MSc Global Public Health (online) and has also been key to the development of the 'Stepping Stones' and 'Get Ahead' programmes, established to support students across Queen Mary in making the transition to university-level study. She was also awarded 'Teacher of the Year' in the Queen Mary Students' Union Education Awards, and named 'Lecturer of the Year' by the Barts and The London Students' Association in 2021.
Dr Wiam Alashek participates in student assessments and supervision of students projects and MSc dissertations. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and practised General Surgery for years before achieving the Degree of the Board for Medical Specialities in Community and Preventive Medicine. Dr Alashek is interested in Educational Psychology (MSA) and Strategic Direction and Leadership (Level 8, Chartered Management Institute). She completed her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham.
Wiam's research interests include Clinical Epidemiology, Renal Failure and Public Health.
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Dr Clinch is currently the lead of the Global Public Health and Policy Unit, which delivers an intercalating and postgraduate Global Public Health degree and burgeoning programme of research and scholarship. I am also the Public Advisory Panel lead, a theme that crosscuts all Wolfson Institute of Population Health (WIPH) activity. In this role she is working with colleagues from across the WIPH, QMUL and local stakeholders to co-design a strategy for socially engaged research and teaching that aims to tackle health inequalities across east London.
Megan is a Social Anthropologist, and undertook her doctoral research at the BIOS Centre, London School of Economics. She has conducted research at the Institute of Public Health at the University of Cambridge, the Faculty of Social Science at the Open University, and undertaken a visiting postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
Her research focuses on developing methodologies for the collective and equitable production of public health knowledge. This entails critical engagement with practices of co-production and public involvement in research, including the development of community-based climate and flood adaptation measures. Through this interest she has developed several projects in which she collaborates with socially engaged arts practitioners and members of the public to co-produce knowledge that seeks to act on complex public health challenges.
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Maria Berta Ecija is a Lecturer in Global Public Health, teaching on Health Inequalities and Social Determinants of Health.
Maria's research focuses on understanding the relation between foreign policy and health - particularly looking at international cooperation in health and the role of security, trade and human rights in the decision-making around health at the international level. Maria's main area of expertise within that framework relies on South-South Cooperation in health, specially with regards to Brazil as a global health player.
Maria's research interests include:
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Dr Harmer holds a PhD in International Relations and has expertise in global health governance, politics and policy. Andrew is a HEA Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Global Public Health in the Centre for Public Health and Policy. Dr Harmer is the Director of the Centre’s online MSc in Global Public Health.
Dr Harmer received his doctorate in 2006 from the University of Southampton, and since then has published widely on a range of global public health issues, including: global health partnerships, health systems strengthening in low and low-middle income countries, the role of emerging economies in global health, and climate change and health. He has taught at various universities in the United Kingdom and globally.
Andrew's research interests include:
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Dr Filippon has a BSc in General Nursing, MSc (University of São Paulo, Brazil) and a PhD in Public Health (Queen Mary University of London, UK). Jonathan has worked in clinical settings in South America and the UK, mostly with public and mental health policies, primary care and vulnerable communities. His research focuses on the political economy of health and healthcare, studying the aspects related to Health Systems and Social Welfare.
Dr Filippon is the course lead of the MSc in Global Public Health and Policy and co-lead of the Wolfson Institute of Population Health postgraduate courses.
His research projects have included studies of social health organisations in Brazil, economic crises and its effects on the healthcare workforce and European health systems, universal health coverage in Africa, and the IMF and health policy making. Jonathan's research interests include:
More information about Jonathan Filippon
Dr Kennedy is a Reader in Politics and Global Health in the Centre for Public Health and Policy and co-Deputy Director of the Centre for Public Health & Policy.
Jonathan's research use insights from sociology, political economy, anthropology and international relations to analyse important public health problems. For example, his research has explored the link between populist politics and vaccine hesitancy in Europe, the negative impact of the CIA drone strikes on polio eradication efforts in Pakistan, and how Saudi-led bombing of Yemen resulted in the world’s worst cholera outbreak in 2017.
Dr Kennedy's research seeks to understand why, when physicians and public health practitioners know how to prevent many infectious diseases, these diseases still persist. Jonathan uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with key informants and national and sub-national statistical analysis. In the past couple of years, he has published research on the political determinants of cholera in Yemen, vaccine hesitancy in Europe, and the impact of armed conflict on efforts to eradicate polio in a variety of countries, including Syria, Pakistan, Nigeria and Somalia.
Dr Kennedy has written a book Pathogenesis, an alternative history of humankind as seen through a microscope, which will be published in April 2023. It uses insights from a variety of academic disciplines – from genomics to economics – to understand the impact that infectious diseases have had on human society from 50,000 years ago to the present date.
More information about Jonathan Kennedy
Dr McMullen is a social scientist, the module lead for Gender, Sexuality and Global Health on the MSc programme and regularly teach on research methodologies across the Global Health programmes.
Heather's background is largely in the non-governmental sector working in research and advocacy on aspects of gender, and sexual and reproductive rights and health, including with the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the World Health Organisation. Dr McMullen has also worked for many years with young people in youth centres and on projects related to adolescent health and wellbeing.
These experiences inform Heather's academic interests which span three broad areas:
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Dr Montag has long experience among indigenous and non-indigenous people in rural and urban areas of the Peruvian Andes and the Amazon.
Doreen received her DPhil in Anthropology from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research, which was funded by the Radcliff-Brown Trust of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the Bamborough Fund, the Linacre Trust Fund and the Peter Lienhardt Memorial Fund from the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford, is an ethnography of fever in the Peruvian Amazon. It focuses on how historical factors, embodied biopolitics, current environmental degradation and increase in emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases impacts upon urban Shipibo-Konibo people’s experiences of fever.
Doreen’s work covers anthropology, global health, environmental governance, climate change, sustainable development and public policy analysis, with a regional focus on the Amazon and Andes (Peru, Ecuador) and Mexico.
Dr Montag teaches on the Global Health and Public Policy masters programmes.
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Dr Damilola Omodara is a sociologist with a background in Biochemistry and Public Health. She holds an MA in Public Health and a PhD in Sociology and Public Health. Damilola has experience working in and on health issues facing Black and Minority ethnic groups. She has worked collaboratively on various international health projects on health promotion, non-communicable diseases through the lens of the social determinants of health, and implementation of innovative healthcare.
Dr Omodara has experience working in and on health issues facing Black and Minority ethnic groups in the UK and works collaboratively on various international health projects on health promotion, non-communicable diseases through the lens of the social determinants of health, and implementation of innovative healthcare. Damilola is involved with BAME Health outreach in East Midlands, to promote awareness on cancer and diabetes prevention and management. She has been involved in various community projects among the Black and minority ethnic groups and is a strong advocate for community-led approaches to healthcare, health promotion and community health, and upstream intervention.
Damilola's research interests include:
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Dr Randall is a critical medical anthropologist and a passionate, award-winning educator with teaching experience in the USA, UK and China.
Anthropology, harm reduction and critical pedagogy underpin how and why Jennifer teaches. She employs these principles to engage in critical, empathetic and reflective dialogue. Dr Randall believes learning is not the transmission of information, but the transformation of identities. She invites students to reflect on why they live the life they lead, connect to new ideas, people, and disciplines, acknowledge their power to engage in change, and recognise that empathetic dialogue is key to solving the social issues we now face. Jennifer hopes to inspire students to engage in advocacy and activism.
Dr Randall's research interests include:
Jennifer was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by Advance HE in recognition of her outstanding record as an educator and in enhancing the student learning experience. Dr Randall played a central role in the development and launch of MSc Global Public Health (online) and has also been key to the development of the 'Stepping Stones' and 'Get Ahead' programmes, established to support students across Queen Mary in making the transition to university-level study. She was also awarded 'Teacher of the Year' in the Queen Mary Students' Union Education Awards, and named 'Lecturer of the Year' by the Barts and The London Students' Association in 2021.
More information about Jennifer Randall
Dr Giuliano Russo is a Senior lecturer in Global Public Health with over 20 years of professional experience in academia and in the public and private sector, having previously worked for the University of Lisbon (Portugal), the Overseas Development Institute (UK), the Government of Mozambique, the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (Mexico), as well as for SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals (Spain and the UK). Giuliano is currently Associate Editor for the journal Human Resources for Health.
A health economist by training, Dr Russo's recent work has focused on pharmaceutical policies and markets in low- and middle-income countries, the economics of human resources for health, health systems in low-income settings, and on global health aid architecture, with a geographical focus on African and Latin-American countries.
He holds an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York, and a Doctorate in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
At Queen Mary, Giuliano is the Principal Investigator for a research project on the impact of the economic crisis and COVID-19 on health system and workforce in Brazil funded by the Medical Research Council, and co-investigator in other two UKRI projects on the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of health services in the African continent. Within QMUL Global Policy Institute, Dr Russo is the Academic Lead for the area of health system resilience and trauma.
Giuliano's research interests include:
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Professor Trevor Sheldon studied medicine, economics and medical statistics. He is a Professor of Health Services Research in the Global Public Health Unit of the Centre for Public Health and Policy and also Research Mentor at the Bradford Institute for Health Research. He joined Queen Mary in July 2020 where he is currently interim director of the Centre for Public health and Policy. Previously he was at the University of York where he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor and then Dean of the Hull York Medical School.
Professor Sheldon co-directs the UK Prevention Research Partnership- funded ActEarly consortium which focuses on early life changes to improve the health and opportunities for children living in areas with high levels of child poverty; Bradford, West Yorkshire and Tower Hamlets, London (https://actearly.org.uk/).
Trevor is a member of the PREPARE partnership between the King’s Fund and the University of York, supporting policy making by providing fast, responsive analysis for the Department of Health and Social Care (https://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/health-policy/research/health-policy-projects/prepare/).
Professor Sheldon's research interests include:
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Dr Dominik Zenner is Senior Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and has a background in infectious disease epidemiology and migration health. He is also a General Practitioner in east London.
Before joining Queen Mary, Dominik worked as Senior Migration Health Advisor for the Regional Office for the EEA, the EU and NATO of the International Organization for Migration (the UN Migration Agency), where he was responsible for the development, co-ordination, and supervision of migration health program activities, strategies and priority setting in the EU and EEA area in coordination with national, regional and international partners, agencies and organisations.
Previously, Dr Zenner worked as consultant epidemiologist and head of TB screening in the national TB section in Public Health England, UK. He helped develop and implement the TB strategy for England, including leading the roll-out of the national latent TB screening programme, the health aspects of the UK refugee programme and the UK pre-entry TB screening programme. Dominik has a demonstrated academic and strategic interest in infectious disease epidemiology and migration health, including several high impact publications and several prizes. His work has informed national and international policy, including ECDC and WHO guidelines.
Dominik read medicine at the University of Cologne, Germany, where he obtained his medical degree and later medical doctorate. He is an alumnus from the University of East Anglia (MA International Relations and Development Studies) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MSc Public Health). Dr Zenner is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health.
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Professor Dezateux is the programme director and ‘Actionable Information’ theme leader for the MRes/PhD Health Data in Practice. She is also Associate Director, Health Data Research UK.
Professor Dezateux’s research uses health information collected about children to understand the household, social and environmental circumstances that may lead to them becoming severely overweight and the consequences for their health and wellbeing.
Carol cites this as a major problem for children and their families and for society, particularly in east London where more than a third of children leaving primary school are overweight or severely overweight, and especially for children from south Asian backgrounds who, if severely overweight as children, are more likely to develop diabetes as adults or while pregnant.
As part of this work, Professor Dezateux is joining up information about children’s weight and their health from school, general practice, hospital and community records and working with families, communities, public health and health service planners in east London to find the best ways to help. This builds on more than twenty years of experience in east London, working in trusted partnerships with the use of patient data to improve the health of, and health services for, the population which has created a ‘learning health system’ so that every patient contact is available to learn from no matter where they are seen. This has already helped improve health and health care for adults with diabetes, heart, lung and kidney diseases.
Dr Freestone works principally in the fields of forensic psychiatry and psychology, conducting both epidemiological and health services research into the efficacy of treatments for offenders. He is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at East London NHS Foundation Trust and a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute. He has consulted on forensic mental health issues for NHS England and the BBC television show, Killing Eve.
His recent work includes an examination of the epidemiology of violence, outcomes research in forensic mental health services, causal inference networks for violence risk management, clinical sub-types of personality disorder and psychopathy, substance misuse as a risk factor for violence, and patterns of service use by young men in the UK. Mark’s latest research is around the understanding of causal mechanisms in risk assessment using advanced statistical modelling, and the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for offenders with personality disorder.
He is the Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes in the Wolfson Institute, and teaches on the MSc Public Mental Health.
Professor Pat Healey is Professor of Human Interaction in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, ‘Human-Data Interaction’ Theme Leader for the MRes/PhD and teaches the ‘Design for Human Interaction’ module.
Pat’s research applies models of human communication, largely drawn from psychology and sociology, to understanding the processes involved in capturing, modifying and projecting communicative actions such as words, gestures and expressions using digital technologies. He uses technology both as an experimental tool for the study of interaction and as an application area for testing and developing theories of interaction.
Professor Swinglehurst is Professor of Primary Care, NIHR Clinician Scientist and Director of Graduate Studies, and the Theme Lead for ‘Health Data in Practice’ on the MRes/PhD Health Data in Practice. She is a General Practitioner and primary care researcher, combining her academic role with working as a GP in rural Suffolk.
Deborah's research explores interfaces between medicine, social science and linguistics and focuses on the role of interaction and social relationships in primary health care settings. She explores a range of concerns including the role of information technologies in practice; quality and safety of repeat prescribing; multimorbidity, polypharmacy and medicines optimization; medical overuse; the meaning of ‘quality’ in health care; how health policies shape practice; and patient and professional experiences of health care.