Dr Susannah Mayhew is Professor of Health Policy and Reproductive Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her main research interests lie in analysing the health policy and systems development issues in relation to population, sexual and reproductive health and services – and how these relate to the SDGs, pandemics and changing climate contexts for global development. She has conducted research at policy, health systems, health service and community levels in a wide range of countries including in SE Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Her current interests lie in analysing implemention of health policy and development of health systems resilience in relation to cross-sectoral responses to climate and health challenges, including zoonotic outbreaks, with a focus on community engagement. She leads the NIHR funded Global Health Research Group PARES (Building Partnerships for Resilience) which is developing the evidence base on how to build community-shaped responses to health crises. Other current and recent work includes analysis of the international response to Ebola and its impact on building resilient health systems in post-Ebola Sierra Leone (MRC funded grant). She lead the Integra Initiative, a 7-year Gates Foundation funded evaluation of modalities for delivering integrated RH/HIV services in Kenya and Swaziland and Climate Governance, an ESRC-DFID funded research project to examine the accountability of global, bi-lateral and national (Ghanaian) institutions involved in climate change policy and governance. In Asia, her work has focused on investigating the health needs, service provision and policy protections for vulnerable populations including sex workers and injecting drug users in Pakistan and survivors of intimate partner violence in Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Susannah worked at the Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds and in various functions at LSHTM, where she is currently Head of Department of Global Health and Development. Susannah was born, and has lived, in West Africa.