Our Director of Public Health is Alice Wiseman.
Our Director of Public Health is:
Our Public Health directorate includes:
Alice Wiseman has been Director of Public Health (DPH) in Gateshead and Newcastle since April 2024.
Prior to that she was the DPH in Gateshead and has been registered with the UK Public Health Register since December 2009.
Before becoming a DPH Alice worked in a broad range of senior public health roles across Tyne and Wear.
Alice’s first degree was in social policy at Newcastle University, followed by a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE), before training in public health.
Alice is passionate about improving health and well-being with a particular focus on tackling the unfair inequalities faced by some communities. Alice believes that effective action to address these inequalities requires dedicated effort across the determinants of health, as set out in the first Marmot Review ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’ (2010).
Alice is driven by the injustice that two babies, born on the same day and the same hospital, can experience such different life chances, due entirely to the circumstances into which they are born.
Alice’s approach is firmly rooted in the belief that people, in their own communities, must be central to solving the issues of inequality; firstly, through sharing lived experience and secondly, through identifying innovative and creative ways to improve outcomes for their community.
Alice is also involved in the production of research evidence and in 2022 Alice led a collaboration between Gateshead Council and Newcastle University which secured a five-year NIHR contract with the Health Determinants Research Collaborative. Research priorities have focussed on opportunities to gain a better understanding of the lived experience, and impact of, Government policy on people in some of the most disadvantaged communities. Using research to give a voice to people who are least likely to be heard, and often easiest to ignore, is central to her work in tackling inequalities at a local level.
Alice is a vice president for the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) and the policy lead for addictions. In this role Alice, works closely with national colleagues and has given evidence to several all-party parliamentary groups and a parliamentary committee.