Deputy Director, Global Health Security, Department for Health and Social Care

Policy Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

Penny Walker-Robertson is Deputy Director of Global Health Security at the Department for Health and Social Care, where she previously supported the Covid-19 response. Before her current role, Penny worked as strategic adviser for the Director General of Strategy, Policy and Programmes at UKHSA.

Penny has worked in global health and health security at UNAIDs, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (formerly Department for International Development), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and now the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). She supported health worker deployment to Sierra Leone for the UK’s Ebola response and later used this experience to build the UK’s Public Health Rapid Support Team to tackle dangerous outbreaks before they cross borders. She worked closely with Dame Sally Davis to build the Fleming Fund, a £265 million investment to tackle antimicrobial resistance in developing countries. Penny spent three years in Sierra Leone with the FCDO, leading the Health and Education Team and delivering the £150 million Saving Lives programme, focused on improving maternal and child health.

Penny graduated from Cambridge in Social and Political Science. She has since specialised in global health with a Master of Public Health and a fellowship in Global Health Leadership from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.