Jim McManus is Director of Public Health for Hertfordshire. He has worked in local government, the third sector, the NHS and commercial sector. Jim is Chair of the Behavioural Science in Public Health Network a Trustee of St Joseph’s Hospice, London and recently a Trustee of the Notre Dame de France Refugee Centre.  He is an Hon Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.

He recently completed a Health Foundation Generation Q Fellowship with postgraduate studies at Ashridge Business School. Jim is a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, Registered Public Health Specialist and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.  Jim is Population Health lead for the Hertfordshire and West Essex STP and leads the County Council’s corporate transformation Programme in prevention and demand management.

Jim has an interest in leadership and organizational development and has worked on leadership in a range of settings including recently joint leadership learning between local government, NHS and public health graduate trainees and registrars. Jim is one of a pool of leadership mentors for new DsPH and provides leadership training for people aspiring to practitioner registration with the UK Public Health Register. In 2011 he was awarded the Good Samaritan Medal for Excellence by Pope Benedict XVI, the highest honour for healthcare the Vatican can award.

Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy is President of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), having been elected in May for 3 years (2018 - 2021). Jeanelle’s priorities as ADPH president are to continue to develop the Association as a well-respected and vibrant DPH member-led organisation, promoting our unique voice as local public health system leaders. She is also passionate about advocating for equality in all its forms.

Jeanelle joined Tameside Borough Council in Greater Manchester as Director of Population Health in August 2018. Prior to this, she was Director of Public Health for the London Borough of Haringey for 8 years; she helped establish the London Association of Directors of Public Health in 2012 and was co-chair until 2014. She was Deputy Director of Public Health in Nottingham before becoming Director of Public Health for Haringey. Jeanelle trained and worked as a doctor in South Africa and the UK before specialising in public health in the UK.  

Mark is a Professor with an interest in local democracy and health inequalities he works in the field of local health systems, the voluntary sector and active citizenship. He is a professor at Leeds Beckett University and a fellow of the Faculty for Public Health. He has a specific interest in the inequality and the relationship that members of the pubic have with their local health system.

Mark is lay member on Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group, where he chairs their Patient Experience, Equalities and Engagement Committee and is vice chair of the Primary Care Commissioning Committee. He is also Chair of Citizens Advice Sheffield - the largest Citizens Advice Bureau in the country and was a commissioner on the Low Commission into the future of Welfare Rights and Legal advice.

Mark has worked at a national and local government level including in the Department of Health, and locally in Housing and Social Services and was the healthy city co-ordinator for Sheffield.

Alice Wiseman has been the Director of Public Health in Gateshead since May 2016 and registered with the UK Public Health Register since December 2009. Prior to this Alice worked in a broad range of senior public health roles across Tyne and Wear. Before retraining in public health Alice worked as a Primary School teacher in an inner-City Newcastle school.

Alice is the ADPH representative for alcohol harm and has an aspiration to change the tone of the conversation on alcohol harm. Alice believe the current popular narrative is overly laissez-faire for a drug which has such damaging health and social consequences.

Alice is passionate about improving health and well-being with a strong focus on tackling the unfair inequalities faced by some communities. Alice believes that effective action to address these inequalities requires focused effort across all the determinants of health. Her interest in tackling inequalities was shaped by the earlier part of her career in social policy and education – how can two babies, born on the same day, have such different life chances due entirely to the circumstances into which they are born?

Alice’s approach is firmly rooted in the belief that people, in their own communities, must be central to solving the issues of inequality; firstly, through illustrating a true understanding of the lived experience and secondly, through identifying innovative and creative ways to improve the outcomes for their community.

Alice is the vice chair of the NEADPH network and represents ADPH on drug and alcohol harm.

Alison, is a former solicitor, social activist, charity chief executive, public sector strategist, trustee and company director; a unique combination of experience gained over many years in business.

Alison managed the first tri-partite contract of its kind between Legal Service Commission, Local Authority & multiple service providers. This required high level engagement, influencing and negotiating.  Under her leadership it attracted national press and political attention as a trail blazing service, described by the Legal Service Commission as the “best Community Legal Advice Centre in the United Kingdom”.

She has pioneered commercial activity within a federated charitable structure, developed a trading subsidiary and group structure, led significant board development and governance improvement programme appointing Directors with commercial and financial acumen, people who understand risk, entrepreneurs and innovators.

Alongside this she has enabled problem solving throughout organisation by implementing a competency and behaviour framework, creating key performance indicators, introducing performance management & coaching techniques.

More recently, she has entered in to a ground breaking collaboration with local government, taking on the role of Strategic Lead for Poverty and Inequality for Gateshead Council, a catalyst for public sector reform, providing a single point of leadership across charitable and public sector, creating the conditions to push and pull resource to the needs of communities and individuals.   Alison in an advocate for social justice, driven to challenge the persistence of poverty and inequality, passionate about the public health agenda and service transformation.

Liz Gaulton is Director of Public Health and Wellbeing for Coventry City Council. Liz has worked in Coventry since 2016. Liz started her career as a general and mental health nurse and joined the UK Voluntary Register for Public Health in 2006.

Prior to her move to Coventry in 2016 Liz has worked predominantly in Merseyside and was previously Director of Public Health for St Helens and led on a number of work streams across Merseyside. She is an advocate of local government’s leadership of the public health agenda and believes that public health has come home. In additional to inequalities her interests include system leadership and of course now Covid! She is also Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) representative for West Midland Directors of Public Health

Liz is proud of the public health approach in Coventry and its reputation for innovation and whole system working. In addition to her leadership role in Coventry as a Marmot City, she lead the 2019 Year of Wellbeing across Coventry and Warwickshire and has a leadership role in shaping the wellbeing contribution and evaluation of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021.

Before taking up the DPH post at NHS Highland, Tim was Director of Public Health in the East Riding of Yorkshire, working both within local government and the NHS and was an Honorary Secretary of the Association of Directors of Public Health (UK). He has worked in epidemiological research and as a hospital doctor and studied medicine in Cardiff and Cambridge where he also studied Anglo-Saxon Norse and Celtic. His professional interests include musculoskeletal disease, coastal health and physical activity and he has run recreational public health cycling events.