Dr Nina Abrahams

Global Diet and Physical Activity Research Group Current work and interests Nina is a Research Associate and member of the Global Diet and Activity Research Group and Network (GDAR). GDAR aims to better understand urbanisation and climate-change (syndemic)-related NCD hazards in LMICs. Nina’s research interests include health promotion and evaluation, non-communicable disease prevention, disability studies, and complexity of health systems. Background and experience Nina graduated in History and Psychology (2015) and holds an MPH in health systems (2018) from the University of Cape Town. In 2023 she obtained a cotutelle PhD in Exercise, Nutrition, and Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town and the University of Bristol. Her PhD explored the use of mixed-methods social network analysis in scaling-up and sustaining physical activity and healthy eating community-based programmes in low resource settings. Her previous experience includes working at an action-based research and development hub using sense-making software, as a disability researcher and assistant for staff and students in academia, as well as work in HIV related research, including a World Health Organisation systematic review and quality control in randomised-controlled trials.

Dr Aliko Ahmed

Dr Aliko Ahmed is a public health physician, epidemiologist, and global health diplomat with decades of working experience in clinical medicine, academia, and public health practice across low- and high-income countries. He is currently the Regional Director of Public Health for the East of England region and is responsible for the strategic development and oversight of public health programmes aimed at preventing ill-health, improving population health outcomes, and reducing health inequalities within the region. Aliko’s global health interest is in sustainable health policy solutions, particularly in the translation of evidence into public health policy and practice in Africa. He works and advises African governments and public and private institutions in Africa. He is a Senior Fellow, the convenor of the Public Health Africa Policy Forum at Chatham House, and one of the global commissioners appointed to the recently launched Chatham House Global Commission for Universal Health. He is an Associate Director at Cambridge Public Health and a Fellow of Wolfson College at Cambridge University. He chairs the UK Faculty of Public Health’s Africa Group and holds honorary Professorships in Public Health at several universities

Dr Gabriel Okello

He is an Assistant Research Professor and The Kings Global Sustainability Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and a founding member/Research Lead at the UrbanBetter Academy. He is a leading exposure scientist driving action at the nexus of climate change, air pollution, health and sustainable development in rapidly urbanising cities. With over a decade of experience, his work confronts the climate crisis by advancing long-term, context-specific strategies that safeguard population and planetary health. Gabriel’s approach is deeply collaborative, engaging stakeholders across academia, policy, business and communities to co-design strategies that are evidence-informed, scientifically robust and socially grounded. Gabriel is also passionate about promoting citizen science and locally relevant interventions. He currently works with collaborators across Africa, the UK, Europe, Asia and the U.S., building bridges between research and policy, and fostering training and engagement that reflect lived realities.

Prof Tolullah Oni

She also holds an Honorary Professorship in Public Health at the University of Cape Town, where she lived and worked for more than a decade. Born in Lagos, she is a pan-African British public health physician and urban epidemiologist living in the diaspora, with affinities in Nigeria, South Africa and the UK, and a deep commitment to advancing health across the African continent and globally. Her career spans medicine and urbanism, science and science diplomacy, academia and advocacy, the global South and North. She has learned to navigate these intersecting worlds with urgency and care, fostering coordinated approaches between science, policy and society. Her research employs mixed, participatory and transdisciplinary methods to design creative, long-term strategies that address complex urban, population and planetary health challenges in rapidly growing cities. For the past 15 years, she has worked at the intersection of urbanisation, climate and health, guided by a single conviction: we cannot medicalise our way to a healthy future. Instead, we must design urban environments that both confront the climate crisis and sustain health. She has served as a scientific adviser to several organisations, including the World Health Organisation, International Society for Urban Health, UK Research and Innovation’s Planetary Health board and the World Obesity Federation. She sits on the editorial boards of PLOS Global Public Health, Lancet Planetary Health, Cities and Health and the Journal of Urban Health. With more than 150 academic publications, she has been profiled in The Lancet, Science and the British Medical Journal. She is a Fellow of the International Science Council and the African Academy of Sciences, a Next Einstein Forum Fellow and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.