Matilda Allen, M.Sc. PH, M.Sc.
Matilda was a public health specialty registrar at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust before taking up the Harkness Fellowship. She is a public health specialist with experience in academic and policy research, local government implementation, and health protection. Matilda has led and published high-profile research work, developed multiagency stakeholder networks, and provided expert advice and guidance across the health and care system at local, regional, and national levels.
Matilda’s work has focused on tackling health inequalities through action on the social determinants of health, with a particular interest in how these can be tackled through healthcare practice and the policies of healthcare institutions, an interest which she pursued during her Harkness year.
During her fellowship, Matilda was based at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), mentored by Dr Caroline Fichtenberg and Dr Laura Gottlieb, co-directors of the ‘Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network.’ Her planned research focussed on Anchor Institutions, but this broadened after arriving in the US to take more of an expansive view of the community-focussed work being done by hospitals outside of traditional clinical care.
Matilda’s research project, ‘How could and should US Healthcare Organizations be acting on the Social Determinants of Health in their local communities?’, involved interviews with healthcare leaders working in US health systems, and national experts. A number of publications are forthcoming.
Since going back to the UK, Matilda has returned to her role in the NHS as a Public Health Registrar, where she is currently working with UCL Partners and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and continues to be involved in work on Anchor Institutions and the potential impact of healthcare institutions on the social determinants.