Dr. Yonette Felicity Thomas is the founder and president of UrbanHealth360, an organization of multidisciplinary thinkers centered on a people-oriented, community-focused approach to urban health. Dr. Thomas is a globally acknowledged thought leader, urban health champion, and an advocate for valuing the health of women and girls as an economic imperative. A social epidemiologist/medical sociologist by training, she has served as the chief of Epidemiology at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the National Institutes of Health, held academic positions at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Howard University, and as a vice president for research. She founded Borjoner International and Strategic Transitions to influence the progress, health, and wellbeing of individuals and communities across the world. As a founding board member of Women’s Economic Imperative (WEI), she leads the organization’s focus on the health of women and girls as an economic value. Her work as global advisor for Evidence for Sustainable Human Development Systems in Africa (EVIHDAF) and the Centre for Urban Health and Development within the Asian Institute of Poverty Alleviation (CUHD-AIPA) extends her focus on the global south and the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals in this last decade. She is the Associate Editor for Women and Girls for Cities & Health. She is a founding board member of the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) and recently led the organization into sustainability by serving as the inaugural executive director (as a board member) and has served as a science advisor for urban health to the New York Academy of Medicine. She is a founding board member and former vice president of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) and served on the Steering Committee of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse for more than a decade. She served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Her primary research and publications have focused on the social determinants of health, health disparities, the health of women and girls as an economic value, the social epidemiology of drug abuse and HIV/AIDS and the link with geography, including edited volumes: Geography and Drug Addiction, Crime, HIV, and Health: intersections of Criminal Justice and Public Health Concerns.

Caglar Koksal is a Lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Manchester, with expertise in spatial planning, planning practice, housing and infrastructure planning, urban governance and policy, and health creation and inequalities. He has led and collaborated on numerous funded research projects at national and international levels, and he co-leads the Environment theme within the Healthier Futures Research Platform at the University. His research is grounded in a commitment to evidence-informed, practically engaged scholarship, using both quantitative methods (such as GIS and spatial analysis) and qualitative methods (including policy analysis and elite interviews). Dr Koksal’s broader research and consultancy work includes leadership on projects examining policy design and implementation, as well as collaborative work with local authorities, national government, think tanks, and private sector consultancies

Michael Wood is the Head of Health Economic Partnerships at the NHS Confederation. Prior to this he developed and held the role of NHS local growth adviser from 2015, for some of this time working as deputy local growth consultant for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Before that, he was senior European policy manager at the NHS European Office for more than seven years. He has also worked for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and for a Member of the European Parliament in Brussels. As Head of Health Economic Partnerships, Michael advises NHS leaders nationally and locally on policy, strategy, partnerships and funding relating to the local economy, including in areas such as skills and workforce, estates, innovation, population health and finance. Michael currently holds national advisory positions on the Civic University Network and the National Civic Impact Accelerator, as well as the Midlands Engine Health Board. He also advises NHS London on the development of its NHS Anchor Network.

Matt leads on shaping the strategic direction for the programme which aims to reduce air pollution emissions and associated health inequity. He also leads the team to fund and collaborate with a broad range of partners, such as community activists, cargo bike companies and national campaigning organisations. Matt has worked at Impact on Urban Health for 5 years, also working on our children’s health and food, and multiple long-term conditions programmes. He has also recently headed up ShareAction’s Health Team as part of a secondment.

Marcus is editor-in-chief of the Cities & Health journal. Marcus is former associate professor and deputy director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments at the University of the West of England, where he worked for some 20 years. His mission is to integrate the disparate scales of healthy urban places, linking work, neighbourhoods and communities with city policy to regional planning, and national and international initiatives. See LinkedIn for his full CV details.

Shira de Bourbon Parme, DPhil, MSc, is an urban development planner and social anthropologist dedicated to advancing place-based spatial and social sustainability. In her role within Ramboll's Regenerative Cities Team, she partners with public and private sector stakeholders to develop and deliver integrated urban strategies that foster liveable and resilient environments, nurturing human and planetary health. Her work is grounded in vulnerability-sensitive approaches to drive health, social and spatial equity. Shira holds a doctorate from the Future of Cities programme at the University of Oxford. She serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Urban Wellbeing. She has delivered annual lectures for University College London’s MSc Health in Urban Development and the University of Cambridge’s Future of Roads Programme. Notably, Shira led the development of Neighbourhood Futures, a framework for climate resilience and health equity, in collaboration with Impact on Urban Health, and conducts ongoing research on urban planning and social infrastructure for ageing populations.

As HDR’s director of social and behavioural sciences, Jeri leads our team of social scientists, researchers, and analysts, who use proven expertise, curiosity, and creativity to design and conduct credible research and evaluation focused on real-world outcomes. Jeri is highly adept at developing and implementing quantitative, qualitative, and multi-method studies, including representative survey research, programme evaluation, longitudinal and time series approaches, and applications of systems science. Jeri’s work generates actionable insights to inform a range of behavioural and experiential interventions in various built and social contexts including communities, organisations and buildings. She is driven to find solutions to the “people side” of complex problems, and to help our clients create highly effective human-centred strategies, programmes, and infrastructure. She has worked extensively with diverse urban and rural communities, and has led local-, regional- and national-scale studies impacting programmatic and built solutions.

Magali Thomson is an architect working at Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals. Here, she is setting out vision for a climate-resilient, healthy and child-friendly street, a healthy hospital street. She is particularly interested in preventive approaches to health and the impact our environment has on children’s health outcomes. She recently completed an Executive MSc in Cities at the London School of Economics, graduating with a Distinction. Her thesis focused on how children and their carers are impacted by air quality in Lewisham. She is also a built environment expert at the Design Council, a healthcare expert at the NLA and has positions on Design Review panels in Design South East, Southwark and Brighton. She previously led a successful education team to deliver award-winning schools at Marks Barfield Architects, where she was a director.