Programme and Keynote Speakers

Programme

The final programme for the conference is now available:

We are delighted to announce that we have three keynote speakers for the symposium:

Professor Louise Potvin, University of Montreal, Canada
Louise Potvin completed her doctorate in Public Health from Université de Montréal and post doctoral training in program evaluation. She is currently professor at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université de Montreal and Scientific director of the Centre Léa-Roback sur les inégalités sociales de santé de Montréal. She holds the CHSRF/CIHR Chair on Community Approaches and Health Inequalities. This Chair aims at documenting how public health interventions in support to local social development contribute to the reduction of health inequalities in urban settings. Her main research interests are the evaluation of community health promotion program and how local social environments are conducive to health. She was a member of the WHO-EURO Working Group on the Evaluation of Health Promotion. She is a member of the Canadian Reference Group on the Social Determinants of Health and of the WHO Scientific Resource Group on Health Equity Analysis and Research. She is a globally elected member of the Board of Trustees of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Professor Robin Kearns, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Robin Kearns is Professor of Geography in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. He began at the University of Auckland with a Medical Research Council post-doctoral fellowship (1988-1989), having completed a PhD in Geography at McMaster University, Canada. His research interests span social, cultural and health geography. Robin has published numerous articles and two books (with Wil Gesler) on the links between culture, place and health and he is associate editor of two journals: Health & Place, and Health and Social Care in the Community. Robin's public appointments have included the board of the Centre for Housing Research, the National Health Committee, and the Public Health Advisory Commiittee. His current research includes children's experience of higher density living, the cultural significance of recreational infrastrcuture, the re-use of former asylum spaces, and changing dynamics in coastal communities. Robin is a passionate teacher; in 2011 he was granted a University of Auckland Sustained Teaching Excellence Award.

Dr Alyson Learmonth, Locality Director of Public Health for Gateshead PCT and Gateshead Council, within NHS South of Tyne
Alyson lives in County Durham, and is also Head of the School of Public Health for the Northern Deanery, a Board member of SustaiNE, and of FUSE (the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health). She was accepted onto the UK Register of Public Health Specialists via the portfolio route in April 2006. She has a longstanding interest in tackling inequalities in health, and leads on this issue for NHS SOTW. This includes implementation of an action plan based on the Health Inequalities National Support Team focus on improving life expectancy in the short term, as well as developing a strategic broad based approach combining fiscal, social, legal and health policy.