Institute for Health and Human Development

Professor Sheila Adam

Position: Senior Fellow in Public Health

Disciplines: Public Health, Social Science, Health Services Research

Email: a.renton@uel.ac.uk

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Brief Biography:

Sheila Adam was Director of Public Health for NHS London, the Strategic Health Authority for London, from its inception in 2006 until her retirement in April 2007.

Born in Nottingham, Sheila graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Medicine in 1972, before completing her postgraduate training in Public Health at Oxford University. She has lived in East London for the past twenty-five years.

In 1981, she was appointed a consultant with Brent Health Authority, where she spent two years before moving to North West Thames Regional Health Authority. During a period that saw the emergence of HIV, with an early focus of infection in West London, Sheila played a crucial role in enabling, and securing funding for, the development of services to prevent HIV transmission and to care for those with AIDS. She was promoted to the position of Director of Public Health at North West Thames RHA in 1989. During this period she built one of the leading training schemes for Public Health in the country, and was responsible for recruiting and inspiring a generation of public health practitioners in the UK, many of whom are now in position leading the promotion and protection of the nation’s health.

From 1995, Sheila worked within the Department of Health, first as Head of Mental Health and NHS Community Care, then as Deputy Director of Health Services and, from 1999-2002, as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Director of Policy. In this last role, she led the National Service Framework programme to improve health and health care across the UK.

Sheila joined North East London Strategic Health Authority as Director of Public Health in June 2002. She led on health improvement and the development of health services across North East London, including overseeing the health input to the London 2012 bid and subsequent pre-Olympic planning. When NHS London, the Strategic Health Authority for London, was established in 2006, Sheila became the organisation's first Director of Public Health.

Sheila has held the posts of Visiting Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Honorary Professor in Public Health at Queen Mary, University of London. She has been an elected member of the General Medical Council, the Board of the Faculty of Public Health, and the Council of the Medical Practitioners Union. She was a founding co-Chair of the Association for Public Health (now the UK Public Health Association) and a member of the Board of the UK Voluntary Register for Public Health Specialists.

Sheila Adam was also the founding Chair of the Board of the Centre for Public Innovation, and has chaired the Panel on Population Screening within the Standing Group on Health Technology. She has served in a number of other areas, including as a member of the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health, the Health Advisory Committee for Prison Services, and the National Advisory Committee on Mentally Disordered Offenders.

Over the last 2 years Sheila has been a key supporter of the development of a strong community oriented public health research and training centre at University of East London which builds on the university’s strengths in social and cultural sciences, psychology and the Arts as well as health. This has taken shape as the new Institute for Health and Human Development.

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© 2010