Dr Mayada Abu Affan (Former Director of Public Health Dudley Local Government) UK

Dr. Mayada Abu Affan is the Former Director of Public Health and Wellbeing and Consultant in Public Health with Dudley Local Government leading on maternal and child health, reproductive health, healthy ageing and the lead for Public Heath training and workforce development. She graduated  from Khartoum Medical School in the Sudan, completed foundation training and the MD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Sudan. During her working in obstetrics and gynaecology she became convinced that a combination of population and clinical perspectives are the most powerful approaches to improving   health and achieving   a bigger impact on health and health service quality, as a resulted she  entered the Public Health higher specialist training programme in Scotland and  obtained the Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in 2006.

Following the attainment of the membership of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in 2009, she became one of few people who are dually accredited in Public Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health in the UK. She also works as a community gynaecologist on part time bases and as an honorary lecturer at the University of Birmingham. She has worked in different systems and diverse settings in the England, Scotland, the Sudan and Uppsala in Sweden. This has given her  the opportunity to experience the impact of culture, resources and political stability on population health. She is passionate about effective system leadership  and  its impact on developing health systems. In recognition of the importance of effective leadership in developing countries, she  co-authored  a  leadership course for developing countries. The course focuses on System Leadership and addresses challenges facing effective leadership in developing countries such as resource constraints and lack of political engagement. She has been taking part in teaching this course, with colleagues in the Sudan, for the past five years.

She is a founding member of the Sudanese Public Health Consultancy Group, a UK based charity focuses on building public health capacity in the Sudan. She is also a founding member and the Treasurer of Public Health Africa, a group of African public health consultants with an overarching aim of improving health in Africa. The group has four main objectives: contribution to health policy development, contribution towards achieving the MDG and other global, national and local priorities, sharing good practice, support partnership working amongst African countries and building public health capacity. She is a keen twitter, very passionate about effective system  leadership and brining the best out of people. As a transformational leader, she led a number of integration projects across health and social care systems which has resulted in measurable service transformation and health improvement.

Qualifications: MBBS Medicine and surgery, University of Khartoum, Sudan; MD in obstetrics and Gynaecology University of Khartoum, Sudan; Membership, Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, UK; Masters in Public Health, University of Aberdeen , UK; Fellowship, Faculty of Public Health, UK; Membership, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health, UK; Membership, Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, UK; Diploma in Leadership and management , Kings Fund, London; Certificate in System Leadership, Local Government Association, UK

Current roles: Consultant in public Health Dudley Local Government, West Midlands; Honorary consultant in contraception and reproductive Health , Birmingham University Hospital; Honorary lecturer, University of Birmingham; Training and workforces development lead , Dudley Local Government.