About us
The Global Health Policy Unit (GHPU) is a unique, cross-disciplinary team of researchers and lecturers who are committed to addressing the major global health policy challenges facing countries of all income-levels.
Our world-leading research and expertise allows us to offer practical solutions for decision-makers at all levels of governance, and collaborate with international actors such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, governments and other research and advocacy organisations globally.
Our research is organised around eight key themes:
- Health policy processes
- Power and governance
- Health systems
- Commercial determinants of health
- Equity and health inequalities
- Knowledges and epistemologies of health
- Care in formal and informal settings
- COVID-19: Response, recovery and preparedness
GHPU is also a leader in global health and health policy education and training, providing a range of programmes that attract the highest calibre of students from every region of the world.
If you have any questions about our degree programmes, courses, research, or other activities, please get in touch with us. Don’t forget to follow us on X and LinkedIn.
About us
Emily Adrion
Director, Global Health Policy UnitEmily is a Senior Lecturer in Global Health Policy. Her broad research interests include health care costs and utilisation, public and private health insurance markets, managed care, and health care financing.
Sudeepa Abeysinghe
Senior Lecturer, Global Health PolicySudeepa's research focuses upon the relationship between knowledge and policy in the global management of risk.
Eleanor Brooks
Senior Lecturer, European Health PolicyEleanor's research focuses on the political determinants of health in the context of EU health governance. She has a particular interest in fiscal governance and regulatory reform frameworks.
Jeff Collin
Professor of Global Health PolicyJeff's research interests focus on health policy and global health governance, with a particular emphasis on the role of the commercial sector.
Mark Hellowell
Senior Lecturer, Global Health PolicyMark is a senior lecturer in Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the financing and delivery of public health and healthcare.
Ben Kasstan-Dabush
Lecturer, Global Health Policy
Ben is a lecturer in Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh. A medical anthropologist, his research focuses on ideas of health protection, in the context of childhood vaccinations, and sexual and reproductive health.
Kristina Kim
Research FellowKristina is a research fellow within the Global Health Policy Unit. Her current project aims to develop an evidence synthesis of actions for addressing the commercial determinants of health at the local authority level. Kristina’s other research interests include tobacco control, decolonising global health and the relationship between evidence and health policy and practice.
Kathrin Lauber
Leverhulme Early Career FellowKathrin is a Research Fellow within the Global Health Policy Unit. Her research explores power dynamics in policymaking, with a focus on the role of the commercial sector, and she has a particular interest in food systems and advertising regulation. Kathrin's Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship explores the production of ignorance in the context of animal agriculture's climate and health impacts.
Nason Maani
Lecturer, Global Health PolicyNason is a lecturer in Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the structural and corporate determinants of health.
Kaveri Qureshi
Senior Lecturer, Global Health EquityKaveri’s research addresses how structures of racial capitalism, patriarchy and coloniality shape health inequality; experiences of family and intimate life; and the connections between family life and health.
Amrit Virk
Lecturer, Health PolicyAmrit's research is focused on health in low- and middle-income countries, spanning work across Malaysia, India, Thailand and Sierra Leone. Prominent themes include universal health coverage, health care financing, the political economy of health reforms and health systems strengthening.
Honorary Staff
Sarah Hill
PhD Students
Khuloud Alsaba
PhD StudentPhD Title: Social Determinants of Health in Conflict and War: Militarization and Health in Syria
Jyotirupa Das
PhD StudentMisbah Haqani
PhD StudentAbbie Irving
PhD Student
Lois King
PhD StudentPhD Title: Governance of Childhood Pneumonia: Assessing the Effect of Global Narratives on National Priorities and Implementation in Bangladesh
Jana Lohrova
PhD StudentPhD Title: The role of public health and epidemiological reasoning and expertise in the making of COVID-19 policies in the Czech Republic
Hilary MacDonogh
PhD Student
João Paulo Magalhães
PhD StudentPhD Title: Implications of the multiple redistributive policy priorities within the European Semester for health and wellbeing
Pooja Marwaha
PhD StudentSaqif Mustafa
PhD StudentPia Noel
PhD StudentPhD Title: An ethnography of the mental health system, aid, and modern nation-building in post-earthquake and federalising Nepal
Neerja Pathak
PhD StudentPhD Title: To be Named in Marriage: An Anthropological exploration of first name-change practice of women post-marriage in India
Helen Patterson
PhD Student
Laila Rajani
PhD StudentPhD title: Progress Paradox: exploring the intersections of psychiatry development and death in Tharparkar Pakistan
Meenal Rawat
PhD Student