Professor Lucy Gilson
BA MA PhD
Professor
of Health Policy & Systems
LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom
I have lived in South Africa since 1995, first working at the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and since 2007, holding a joint appointment between the LSHTM and the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town - where I am head of the Health Policy and Systems Division.
From this joint position I am committed to the development of health policy and systems research as an innovative, applied and interdisciplinary field, at the cutting edge of health systems and societal development. Research in this field is integrally connected to policy and wider social engagement, and to capacity strengthening for health system development.
I support a wide range of health policy and systems research (HPSR), with a particular focus on on leadership, governance and the politics of policy change. I was the co-Research Director of the Resilient and Responsive Health Systems consortium (RESYST), a UK-DFID funded research consortium bringing together researchers from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Thailand, India, Vietnam and the UK (http://resyst.lshtm.ac.uk). In South Africa I engage closely with the Western Cape Department of Health, supporting health system development and working closely with the South African Collaboration for Health Systems Analysis and Innovation (CHESAI www.chesai.org). I also support various HPSR capacity strengthening initiatives - including but extending beyond formal psotgraduate educational activities. From my UCT base I currently coordinate the Health Policy Analysis Fellowship programme, a doctoral mentoring programme funded by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. I also currently support the LSHTM Executive Programme for Global Health Leadership. Finally, I led the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA www.hpsa-africa.org), an eleven partner consortium of African and European universities which was funded by the European Union.
I am a Board Member of Health Systems Global and a section editor for Health Policy Processes of the journal Health Policy and Planning.
My background is in development studies, health economics and health policy.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
My LSHTM teaching commitments focus on PhD supervision, support for distance learning courses and occasional on-site teaching. I also support teaching activities in South Africa with a focus on health leadership, health policy and health systems - at postgraduate Diploma, MPH and PhD levels.
Research
My primary research interests include concerns for: equity in health and health care; governance and leadership in health systems; how health care is funded and organised; the relational dimensions of of health systems; and how decisions about health and health care policies are made by political, managerial and household actors. I am also interested in methodological and theoretical developments that support this range of research interests - and that engage with the complexity of whole system change.
Selected Publications
