CIEH Wales Conference

Professor Isabel Oliver, Chief Medical Officer for Wales.  Isabel is a public health physician and epidemiologist who is dedicated to securing better health outcomes for all. She started her career working in acute hospital medicine in the West Midlands and the South West of England. After a few years, Isabel decided to pursue a career in public health to have a greater impact in improving and protecting health and reducing inequalities.

Isabel became Regional Director for the Health Protection Agency in South West England in 2008, leading a transformation of local health protection services to ensure services of consistent high quality delivered efficiently and effectively. In 2013, Isabel moved to Public Health England where she established the Field Epidemiology Service for England, learning lessons from the influenza H1N1 pandemic. This service was critical in the response to COVID-19 in England, enabling surveillance and contact tracing in the country. In April 2020 she took up the post of Director of the National Infection Service of Public Health England leading the organisation’s work for the surveillance and control of all infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic Isabel was also a senior clinical and public health adviser to NHS Test and Trace.

As UKHSA CSO, Isabel led the Science Group of the organisation and was accountable for the range of health security functions and services delivered by the group including microbiology and infectious diseases laboratories, protection from radiation, chemicals and environmental hazards including climate change and behavioural sciences.

She has since left the post of Director General of Science and Research and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at the UK Health Security Agency to take the Welsh CMO post.

Dr Henry Dawson CEnvH MCIEH, Senior Lecturer and Programme Director for Environmental Health at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Henry’s research interests focus on regulatory interventions for housing and health. His recent work includes national analysis of property licensing schemes and authoring of the recent updates to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) Operating Guidance. Henry sits on the Wales Housing Expert Panel, the Rent Smart Wales Advisory Panel, and the Welsh Housing Survey Advisory Panel. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Chartered Member of CIEH, and a member of the International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH).

Joanna Seymour, Partnership Director, Warm Wales. Joanna is a Registered Public Health Practitioner and Environmental Health Practitioner (MSc Environmental Health). She has 20 years of experience working in Local Authority and third sector in the field of housing and public health. Her current role at Warm Wales combines engagement, development and implementation, looking at identifying and cultivating new partnerships along with maintaining relationships with existing partners and services in the community, leading on the development of new project opportunities and following them through to implementation.

She joined Warm Wales in 2017 and has led many projects such as the Welsh Government Energy Advice pilot and Healthy Homes People Lives and Communities. Joanna was also responsible for setting up the model of delivery, Healthy Homes Healthy People (HHHP) which looks at tackling fuel poverty, reducing avoidable health inequality and improving health and wellbeing by linking the provision of energy advice, fuel debt, case worker support, income maximisation, awareness raising and behaviour change and wider wellbeing via social prescribing.

Joanna recently won an award at the UKPHR (UK Public Health Register) Awards 2024, innovation in Public Health for best Digital Initiative for the work that Warm Wales have been leading on, digitally integrating Health and Housing Support.

Sarah Johns, Chief Environmental Public Health Officer, Welsh Government. Sarah is a Chartered EHP, a Fellow and Trustee of CIEH and an Associate member of the Faculty of Public Health. She works as the Chief Environmental Public Health Officer for Welsh Government. Until March 2025 she worked as a Policy Officer (Environmental Health Wales) with the Welsh Local Government Association covering all areas of environmental health and licensing. Prior to that she worked for Pembrokeshire County Council for 17 years as the Public Protection Manager for Public Health, Housing and Licensing, where she managed private water supplies, land contamination, noise service, air quality, environmental permitting, bathing water quality, public health, private sector housing, pest control and dog control services, and a variety of licensing functions including alcohol, gambling and taxi licences.

Sarah is an active member on a number of national groups and has previously been the chair of the Wales Licensing Expert Panel for 6 years, the Directors of Public Protection for Wales strategic portfolio lead for licensing and the secretary for the Wales Pollution Expert Panel for 11 years.

Sarah qualified in environmental health in 2000 and since graduating has been involved with workforce planning, professional development and student training and remains actively involved with the CIEH as a professional examiner for the EHP Portfolio, Professional Interviewer and student mentor.

Graeme Mitchell, Environmental Health Programme Leader, Liverpool John Moores University (LIUM). After qualifying as an Environmental Health Practitioner (EHP) in 1992, Graeme spent the next 15 years working for various Local Authorities across the North West of England. Whilst he was involved in all aspects of Environmental Health, his career had a very public health focus covering areas such as pest control, nuisance, emergency planning and animal welfare.

In 2007, Graeme joined Liverpool John Moores University (LJUM) as the programme leader for their new BSc (Hons) Environmental Health (EH) programme. His research interests have resulted in publications/presentations on a number of topics: food safety; food allergens, risk management; pest control and managing student exceptions. In addition, he has worked on publications with colleagues from across the world on areas such as AI and Environmental Health. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic he has been a regular guest on various BBC and local radio stations to discuss the Public Health impacts of Covid-19 and other Environmental/Public Health issues.

Ian Andrews, Head of Environmental Health, CIEH. Ian joined CIEH in March after working for Operation Jigsaw, a national project hosted by Powys County Council. A Chartered EHP, he has worked for LA's in the Midlands and London and is a former chair of the National Food Hygiene Focus Group.

Mark Elliott, President, CIEH. Mark has previously served as both a Trustee and Chair at CIEH; he has been a member since 1978 and is now retired, with his most recent employment having been as Head of Public Protection at Pembrokeshire County Council. Prior to this, he was an Environmental Health Practitioner at a number of Welsh local authorities. He has also served as Chair of Environmental Health Wales and as a member of OFCOM’s Advisory Committee for Wales.

Professor Ian Walker, Professor and Head of School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine Health and Life Science, Swansea University. Professor Ian Walker is an environmental psychologist who specialises in psychology and behaviour in the areas of transport, energy and water. He particularly specialises in working on bringing user needs into multidisciplinary projects with engineers and architects. He is psychology lead for the VSimulators building motion simulators and has worked extensively on in-home displays for energy and water that take end-user understanding into account. He also has a long-standing interest in choices and behaviours around sustainable active travel. He particularly specialises in unconscious and low-awareness influences on behaviour, such as habits, social norms and environmental cues.

Russell Moffatt, Director and Co-founder, Meta Street.  Russell is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner with over 20 years’ experience in private housing regulation. In 2013, he led the development, launch and management of England’s first borough-wide selective licensing scheme in Newham—setting a new standard for proactive local authority intervention.

In 2017, he co-founded Metastreet, a company at the forefront of transforming private housing regulation. By combining practitioner-led design with cloud-native software, big data analytics, and AI-driven technology, Metastreet empowers councils to deliver more intelligent, efficient and transparent regulatory services. The company is dedicated to reshaping the sector through automation, insight, and continuous innovation.

Russell also contributes to professional development and sector knowledge. In 2019, he co-developed a postgraduate CPD module on Advanced Private Housing Regulation, and in 2022, he co-authored Regulating the Privately Rented Housing Sector: Evidence into Practice—bridging the gap between policy, evidence, and practical implementation.

Sam Lauder, Assistant Director of Health Protection, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Sam is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner, member of the CIEH and Associate member of the Faculty of Public Health. Sam is the Assistant Director of Health Protection for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in North Wales, responsible for a regional Health Protection Service delivering against Welsh Government health protection principles. Sam has worked for the National Health Service for 5 years having joined the Public Health Wales Health Protection Team during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sam’s experiences in Health Protection include supporting the response to high consequence infectious disease emergencies overseas. Sam graduated in 2003 and spent 15 years working in Local Government in England and Wales.

Ellis Turner, Senior Lecturer Environmental Health, UWE Bristol. Ellis leads the Environmental Health Msc programme and teaches on Environmental Health and Public Health across UWE public and health and social care programmes. His research interests and papers include evaluating housing and hoarding interventions. He has contributed to a range of Environmental Health publications and is an active advocate of EH across a range of networks to promote the profession and workforce development. He enjoys organising and hosting regional EH networks and CPD events at UWE for students, graduates, and practitioners in partnership with regional EH teams. Ellis is also a member of the CIEH housing advisory panel.

Matt Dicks, National Director, Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru. Matt is the national director of CIH Cymru and leads the team in Wales. Matt took his current role armed with a breadth of knowledge of the Welsh policy landscape following 17 years of working as a senior communicator at the heart of Welsh civic and political life. He joined the National Assembly for Wales (now Welsh parliament) as its head of news after spending 8 years as a Political Correspondent for ITV Wales, before leading the Chartered Institute for Housing in Wales.

Jill Stewart, Associate Professor in Public Health, University of Greenwich. Jill is currently Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Greenwich, Jill has spent a decade working in housing in local government before taking her first academic post in 1999. Her research and teaching work largely focuses on housing and health, including the environmental health housing workforce, featuring across a range of publications, media and conferences. Jill is a Fellow of the CIEH and a Chartered EHP, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and an Associate of the Faculty of Public Health. She is co-chair of the London Public Health Housing Network and a member of the CIEH Housing Advisory Panel. She is a founding member of the Environmental Health Research Network. 

Zena Lynch, Honorary Associate Professor, University of Birmingham. Previously programme lead, Zena still teaches on MSc Environmental Health courses at the University of Birmingham.  Before this, as Health Policy lead for the West Midlands Regional Assembly and Director of ‘Living Well West Midlands’, she led extensive community-based, health and wellbeing projects.  Her passion for social justice related to the impact of poor and insecure housing on people’s lives was sparked by her early Environmental Health work. She is joint author of the second edition of  ‘Environmental Health and Housing’ published in 2018 and a contributor to ‘Regulating The Privately Rented Sector’ published 2022, amongst other publications. She recently led an international conference on building resilience to extreme events and has been supporting Healthier Homes project work in Oxford and Healthy Housing work for the Centre for Ageing Better. She chairs the CIEH MPAG group and is an expert advisor on the WHO PSF review for Environmental Health.

Professor Liz Green, Consultant in Public Health / Programme Director for HIA, Public Health Wales (WHIASU). Liz is an Honorary Professor at the Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool and holds a PhD in ‘Health Impact Assessment (HIA) as a tool to mobilise Health in all Policies’ from Maastricht University. She has extensive experience in HIA, ‘Health in All Policies’ including incorporating health into spatial planning processes and plans, and provides training, advice and guidance about HIA and other IA processes. She has been recognized as a Woman of Influence 2022 for her work in spatial planning and public health and is co-author of ‘Public Health Spatial Planning in Practice’ with Michael Chang. 

Katie Pettifer, Chief Executive, Food Standards Agency (FSA). Katie is responsible for the FSA’s strategy, communications, legal, regulatory compliance and governance work. Katie also leads the FSA’s Achieving Business Compliance Programme, which is reforming the way that food businesses are regulated by local authorities. Before joining the FSA in July 2021, Katie was the Public Policy Director at Ofcom, where she played a major role in shaping Ofcom’s work to improve mobile and broadband coverage across the UK and to develop new regulation to protect people from harmful content online. She also led on Ofcom’s diversity and inclusion strategy. Before that, Katie spent two decades in the civil service, and held senior roles in the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office and the Northern Ireland Office.