Speaker Feature : Abdul Razaq

We are looking forward to welcoming Abdul Razaq to our 60th anniversary event at the House of Commons where he will be giving his thoughts on the future role of health promotion in reducing inequalities.

Abdul is Director of Public Health at Blackburn with Darwen Council since March 2022 and former Director of Public Health at Suffolk County Council, Trafford Council and Executive Director at Trafford Primary Care Trust.

All at IHPE are excited that he will be speaking at this event and IHPE Honorary Treasurer Sylvia Cheater said “Abdul Razaq has extensive experience in senior public health roles across the north west region of England.  He’s also recognized for his work on reducing inequality in black and ethnic minority populations and I’m looking forward to hearing his views on the future for health promotion in reducing inequality – the core value of IHPE”.

Abdul has three decades of Public Health experience with extensive experience at senior Executive level. He has held the positions of the chair of the North West Directors of Public Health Network, chair of the Greater Manchester Directors of Public Health and the North West Executive lead of the Association of Directors of Public Health. Abdul has been an expert commentator in Blackburn with Darwen working with Shared Futures CIC on a Climate Change People’s Jury. He has held academic roles as Visiting Senior Fellow, School of Health Sciences at the University of Suffolk and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. Abdul was instrumental in forming Food Active, a North West collaborative on tackling key determinants of unhealthy food leading to NCDs (non communicable disease).

During the COVID-19 pandemic Abdul published academic work on ethnic minority deaths with the University of Oxford and with was a co-author on the NHS COVID risk reduction framework. Abdul is involved in two international charities that are developing capacity to build health and care systems and improving life chances for under-served communities around the world.