CIEH Public Health Protection Conference

Bruno Cvetković PhD, President of International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH). Bruno is a Certified Environmental Public Health Practitioner. He holds a Masters degree in Environmental Public Health from University of Sarajevo, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Environmental Health) from the University of Rijeka. He is Deputy Director of the Andrija Štampar Teaching Institute of Public Health. He has held various key positions at the Institute including senior advisor and head of several departments. Bruno is President of IFEH.

Dr Helen Roberts, Exotic Disease Control, Non-livestock Disease Policy, Science and Risk Advisor, Defra. Helen has a BSc in Zoology and a PhD in Parasitology from Imperial College London. She spent ten years in academia in the UK including field work in Colombia and a secondment in Australia, studying neglected tropical diseases, then several years working for international health NGOs. In 2007 she joined Defra, as part of the National Epidemiology Expert Group for outbreaks. In 2008 Helen moved to the international trade team becoming head of international disease monitoring and risk assessment in 2010. She is currently Defra’s policy advisor for non-livestock diseases including wildlife and New Emerging Diseases and science/risk advisor. She also leads for animal health horizon scanning and risk assessment across government departments. Helen is chair of the UK Human-Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance group and she is on the EFSA Animal Health and Welfare Panel.

Dr Sarah Anderson, Deputy Director, Regional Specialist Services at UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). In her role as Deputy Director for Regional Specialist Services, Sarah leads the pan-regional Programme Delivery Unit (PDU). This unit supports UKHSA’s health protection professionals to prevent and respond to infectious diseases by facilitating quality improvement and innovation. Currently the PDU are updating the national Communicable disease outbreak management: operational guidance, this work being informed by Sarah’s role as a UKHSA National Incident Director for COVID-19 and iGAS. Sarah is a public health consultant and fellow of the European Sciana Health Leaders Network. She previously led the implementation of PHE’s Tuberculosis (TB): collaborative strategy for England which over 5 years reduced TB incidence by 29%.

Tracy Daszkiewicz FFPH, Executive Director of Public Health for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Wales. Tracy holds the office of the Vice President of the Faculty of Public Health. Her career has spanned health and social care, across the civil service, NHS, local government and the voluntary sector. She also has expertise in disaster risk reduction and recovery, having worked on a number of major incidents, including: pandemic flu, flooding, Foot and Mouth, Anthrax, and HIV. She led the local public health response during the Novichok incident in Salisbury in 2018 and more recently she has worked on the COVID-19 response. She is currently working towards a Professional Doctorate in Public Health, researching the role of public health in the human aspects of recovery following major incidents. She is a visiting professor at the University of the West of England (UWE), and she holds two honorary doctorates and visiting lecturer roles with both UWE and Exeter University. She is also a Trustee of Swindon Domestic Abuse Support Service.

Mark Elliott CEnvH FCIEH, President at Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). Mark previously served as both a Trustee and Chair at CIEH. He has been a member since 1978 and is now retired, with his most recent employment having been as Head of Public Protection at Pembrokeshire County Council. Prior to this, he was an Environmental Health Practitioner at a number of Welsh local authorities. He also served as Chair of Environmental Health Wales and as a member of OFCOM’s Advisory Committee for Wales.