Dr Helen Walls
BSc MPH(Hons) PhD
Associate Professor
of Global Health and Food Security
LSHTM
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom
My research interest is the structural drivers of population health. This work particularly focuses on the political economy of food systems and nutrition.
I have an MSc(Hons) from the University of Auckland and a PhD in epidemiology from Monash University. After working at the Australian National University I was awarded an NHMRC Sidney Sax Public Health Fellowship and began working in 2012 with the School. Since this time I have also been affiliated with the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH).
Prior to my PhD studies, I worked in public health in New Zealand regionally and with the Ministry of Health. I have also worked with the World Health Organization (Geneva) on trade policy, diets and non-communicable disease.
I am an Associate Editor of the journal BMC Obesity. I am also an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a Research Associate at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Teaching
I am the Module Organiser for PHM109 'Health Policy, Process and Power' on the distance learning MSc in Public Health. I also lecture on the module 'Globalisation and Health'.
I currently supervise several PhD students. I also welcome applications from current MSc students to supervise summer projects on food systems and policy, and other areas related to my research interests.
Research
I am currently involved in two programmes of work funded by the Drivers of Food Choice Competitive Grants Program (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; UK Department for International Development).
One of these research projects, which I lead, examines the impact of Malawi's agricultural input subsidy programme on food choice and dietary diversity. This is in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Malawi and SOAS University of London.
The second of these projects examines the use of financial incentive schemes to incentivise fruit and vegetables consumption in rural India. This is in collaboration with a range of research institutions in India.
I am also a co-investigator on two additional projects. One of these, funded by the Health Services Research Initiative, examines the linkages between migration, gender and health systems responses in South Africa. The other, funded by Public Health England, is an evaluation of how health and corporate actors have used a particular campaign to reduce alcohol consumption.
Selected Publications
