This episode we are joined by Professor Kevin Fenton, current president of the Faculty of Public Health and Public Health Director for London. 

Professor Fenton has worked in a range of executive public health leadership roles across government and academia in the UK and internationally. In his regional director role, Kevin is currently the statutory public health advisor to the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority. In his role as FPH President, Kevin works across all 4 national of the UK and with FPH members across the world.

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Teaser

(00:23) Introduction

(01:08) What is Public Health campaign

(03:21) Reflections as Kevin steps down as FPH President

(06:37) Expectations of the role

(09:15) Highlights as President

(13:40) Message to the next FPH President

(14:37) A new paradigm of leadership

(18:59) FPH role in speaking truth to power

(24:49) Politics and advocacy in FPH

(27:12) Social media and public health

(31:07) The dark side of social media

(34:47) Dealing with professional failure

(36:27) Quick fire round

(40:33) Ending

A very special live recorded episode of the podcast at the 2025 UKHSA Conference, live and in partnership with the UK Faculty of Public Health.

We were joined by Professor Kevin Fenton, Professor Yvonne Doyle and Dr. Meera Chand to discuss the evolving landscape of public health leadership and the skills required for the challenges ahead. We delved into the challenges systems leaders face, their reflections on how to navigate chaotic environments and the practical advice for current and future leaders.

BIOS:

Dr. Meera Chand leads UKHSA's national specialist clinical and public health functions for emerging, respiratory and high threat infections. She has over two decades of experience in incident response and has been the incident lead for a range of high threat outbreaks including mpox, COVID-19, lassa fever and H5N1. Meera is also the clinical lead for the UKHSA-wide pathogen genomics programme.

Professor Yvonne Doyle brings over 40 years’ experience as a public health doctor who has worked in several senior roles including as the first Medical Director for Public Health at NHS England and had a leadership role in England for health protection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yvonne is currently a senior adviser to the WHO-Europe on ageing in good health and has a number of non-executive roles and chairs the Health Services Committee at the UK Faculty of Public Health.Professor Kevin Fenton is the President of the Faculty of Public Health and the Regional Director for London in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) within DHSC.  As regional director, Kevin is the statutory public health advisor to the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority. And as President of the Faculty, Kevin works closely with a wide range of partners who have interests in Public Health. 

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Introduction and setting the scene

(03:06) Panellist introductions

(05:55) Systems leadership and influencing change

(08:43) Delivering results in public health - long term vs. shortterm

(10:40) Systems leadership skills during acute response

(13:29) Leadership during chaos and uncertainty

(18:03) Preparing for chaos

(19:00) Knowing yourself and burnout

(21:29) Motivating staff

(25:08) Saying thank you

(29:19) Loyalty

(32:04) Leadership across borders

(35:22) Traits of incident response leaders

(37:50) Authenticity in leadership

(41:38) Healthy ageing

(43:24) Supporting leadership transitions

(45:38) Leadership development

(47:36) Q&A

(52:09) One career tip

In August 2024 we sat down with Dr. Ebere Okereke. Ebere is a public health doctor specialising in global health security and health system strengthening.  Ebere has built her expertise over a number of roles including as a senior health advisor at the Tony Blair institute for Global change, co-lead for the Africa CDC partnership for African vaccine manufacturing, a senior public health advisor to Africa CDC and was the lead for the former Public Health England’s IHR strengthening project. Ebere is also an associate fellow of the Global Health Programme at Chatham House. She also recently received awards for her work promoting women and under-represented groups in public health leadership.

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Introduction

(01:41) Ebere's career journey

(07:31) Transition to global health

(13:01) Supporting African Public Health systems

(14:45) What is Public Health?

(18:42) What is Global Health?

(24:52) Equity and Global Health

(30:12) Adressing inequity in Global Health Leadership

(38:47) Career mentorship

(45:07) Ebere's leadership journey

(50:26) One career tip

We are excited to welcome you all to a special series of episodes in partnership with the Faculty of Public Health to showcase the candidates running in the 2024 Faculty of Public Health elections.

We will be joined by the candidates for President and Vice president and will be exploring their vision for the Faculty of Public Health and why members should consider voting for them.

Voting opens on Thursday 14 November and closes on Thursday 12 December.

In the fourth episode in the series, we are joined by Professor Zafar Iqbal:

Zafar has a wealth of experience as Director of Public Health, Medical Director and Deputy Director Public Health as well as currently being Chair of the NHS Provider Public Health Network and a board member UK Faculty Public Health. He has served the Faculty for over a decade in various roles such Assistant Registrar, during which time he led the four nations Public Health workforce strategy.  

Zafar has served on the Global Health Committee for over a decade and sits on the FPH Health Services Committee. He is also a visiting professor in four institutions and is active in training, previously receiving a Trainer of Year award.

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Introduction

(01:55) Why Prof. Iqbal is running for vice president of FPH

(03:50) Prof. Iqbal's priorities as vice president

(07:24) Supporting FPH members

(10:10) Prof. Iqbal's leadership brand

We are excited to welcome you all to a special series of episodes in partnership with the Faculty of Public Health to showcase the candidates running in the 2024 Faculty of Public Health elections.

We will be joined by the candidates for President and Vice president and will be exploring their vision for the Faculty of Public Health and why members should consider voting for them.

Voting opens on Thursday 14 November and closes on Thursday 12 December.

In the third episode in the series, we are joined by Rachel Flowers:

Rachel is a seasoned leader in public health with over three decades of experience and a proven passion for tackling health inequalities. She has been a vocal advocate for equity and career pathways in public health and brings a unique perspective, having started her career as an Environmental Health Officer.

Rachel’s background spans local government, the NHS, the Greater London Authority, and central government roles. She has served as Director of Public Health in two different areas over 13 years, and has actively contributed to public health organisations, holding positions like Vice Chair of the UK Public Health Association and serving on the Faculty of Public Health’s Board.

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Introduction

(01:53) Why Rachel is running for FPH Vice President

(03:35) Rachel's key priorities

(05:28) Supporting FPH members

(09:30) Rachel's leadership brand

We are excited to welcome you all to a special series of episodes in partnership with the Faculty of Public Health to showcase the candidates running in the 2024 Faculty of Public Health elections.

We will be joined by the candidates for President and Vice president and will be exploring their vision for the Faculty of Public Health and why members should consider voting for them.

Voting opens on Thursday 14 November and closes on Thursday 12 December.

In the second episode in the series, we are joined by Dr. David Walker:

David has over 3 decades experience working across the public health system - both nationally and internationally. David originally trained in medicine and infectious diseases before training in public health.

David has developed his senior leadership skills across a wide range of roles in his career - including as a CCDC in Durham, Director of Public Health in Newcastle and North Tyneside, Regional director of Public Health for the North-east and as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England between 2013 and 2015. 

He also held a number of senior roles including Chair of the UK National Screening Committee and national lead for Rare Diseases as well as a number of academic Professorial appointments across a number of universities.

More recently, David retired from his role as the chief medical officer at the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation trust, one of the largest acute trusts in the Country.

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Introduction

(02:16) Why Dr. Walker wants to be FPH President

(07:40) Vision for FPH

(13:34) Addressing the needs of members

(16:05) Dr. Walker's leadership brand

We are excited to welcome you all to a special series of episodes in partnership with the Faculty of Public Health to showcase the candidates running in the 2024 Faculty of Public Health elections.

We will be joined by the candidates for President and Vice president and will be exploring their vision for the Faculty of Public Health and why members should consider voting for them.

Voting opens on Thursday 14 November and closes on Thursday 12 December.

In the first episode of the series - we have the pleasure of hosting Presidential candidate, Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz:

Tracy is a well-known and proven public health leader with nearly three decades experience working across the public health system - including NHS, local government, civil service and voluntary sector. 

Tracy has developed her senior leadership skills across a wide range of roles in her career including as Director of Public Health at Wiltshire council where she played a pivotal leadership role in the response to the 2018 Novichok poisoning incident in Salisbury. 

She also held roles as the Deputy Director of Population Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England and the Director of Public Health for Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham Borough councils

She is currently the executive director for public health and Strategic Partnerships at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in Wales, current Vice President of the Faculty of Public Health and a visiting professor at the University of the West England in Bristol. She is also a visiting lecturer at Exeter University and a Trustee of the Swindon Domestic Abuse Support service.

(00:00) Introduction

(02:19 Why Professor Daszkiewicz is running for FPH President

(04:07) Professor Daszkiewicz's 3 year vision and priorities

(07:03) Plan to address the needs of FPH members

(11:33) Professor Daszkiewicz's leadership brand

In this episode we sat down with Chikwe and Vivianne Ihekweazu to talk about their public health careers and the experiences shared in their new book called 'An Imperfect Storm: A memoir of a pandemic and the coming of age of a Nigerian institution."

Vivianne Ihekweazu is currently the Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch. A health communication and advocacy organisation based in Nigeria that advocates for improved health and access to health care. Vivianne has over 20 years experience in health communication and has built her skillset over a range of leading communications and research agencies across Europe and Africa in the development, media and real estate sectors. 

She has an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, an MSc in Development economic and is currently an African Public Health Leaders Fellow at Chatham House. Vivianne’s work has ranged across a number of key areas in global health including maternal, newborn and child health as well as immunisation and health security. She played a leading role in the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria - supporting the Nigeria centre for Disease Control in public health communication and developing guidelines.

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu is the Assistant Director-General for the Division of Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems in the WHO Emergencies Programme. He leads the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence - a global collaboration that aims to address future pandemics with better access to data, better analytical capacities and better tools for decision making.

Chikwe has over 25 years experience in epidemiology and public health and served as the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control between 2016 and 2021. He has developed skills across a number of senior public health and leadership positions including at the South African Institute for Communicable Diseases, the UK’s former Health Protection Agency and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute. He has also completed the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training as well as the UK public health speciality training programme in 2008.

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Teaser and introductions

(03:08) The story of the book

(07:29) Early years at the Nigeria CDC

(11:28) Motivating staff during challenging times

(21:00) Inspirational stories of staff

(23:18) Public health communication during uncertainty

(28:40) Public trust and infodemic management

(31:56) Politics and public health

(35:43) Personal toll

(42:23) A love letter to Nigeria

(46:45) Brain drain and global equity

(49:30) Parachute research from high-income countries

(52:10) Career tips

Episode 4 of our special series in partnership with the Faculty of Public Health where we explore one key question - What is Public Health?

It may seem like a simple question, but Public Health is no single thing. The aim of the series is to shine a light on the breadth of Public Health and the challenges ahead by talking to key figures in the field.

This episode we sat down with Professor Yvonne Doyle. Yvonne is a medical doctor by background with over 30 years experience in public health and has worked across a range of senior leadership roles across the NHS, Department of Health, UKHSA and academia. 

Between 2013 and 2019 she was appointed Director of Public Health for London and was the Statutory Health Advisor to two London Mayors. In 2016 she was awarded a CB for her contribution to improving public health. 

In 2019 she was appointed as the medical director and Director of Health Protection for Public Health England and played a pivotal role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 she was appointed as the first NHS medical director for public health. And in April last year she partially retired but has maintained an active role in public health across the system. 

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Teaser and introduction

(03:41) Yvonne's career

(06:25) What is Public Health?

(08:03) Local-regional-national public health leadership

(10:27) The importance of DPHs in the public health system

(12:53) Developing public health leadership skills

(14:34) Values driving leadership

(17:11) Integrity in public health leadership

(19:05) Leading during chaos

(22:54) Communication skills in public health

(28:13) Social-media and public health

(30:42) Public health challenges ahead

(34:30) System integration in public health

(37:18) Public health system design

(41:42) Advocating for better systems integration in public health

(42:52) One career tip and end