Experienced environmental health professional ‘honoured and humbled’ after being awarded MBE

A dedicated environmental health professional awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list has paid tribute to the profession that helped shape her career.

Debi Waite, from Darlington, started her career in local government as an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) before her career took her into roles in national regulation.

The 63-year-old has been recognised in the honours list published on Saturday (14 June) for services to health and housing, something Debi said she was ‘incredibly touched by’ as she has dedicated her career to helping people to live in ‘safe, healthy homes’.

“I feel incredibly honoured – and quite humbled too,” Debi said. “It’s not something I ever expected.

“My family are quietly proud, I think, and probably a bit overwhelmed like I am. My husband and children have always stood by me, even when the work took over or meant long hours. They’ve seen the effort it takes behind the scenes, so this recognition means a lot to them too.

“For me, the MBE reflects not just my work, but the efforts of so many brilliant people I’ve worked with over the years. I’ve always tried to do work that matters - helping people to live in safe, healthy homes - and I hope this honour helps highlight just how important that work really is.”

Debi said she came into environmental health almost by accident, after attending an Open University weekend to encourage women into science and one of her lecturers suggested she looked into environmental health as she thought it would suit her.

After completing her qualifications with the Open University, she got an offer to study Environmental Health at Nottingham Trent University, all at the same time as raising her children.

“Most of my revision happened late at night or early in the morning when they were asleep,” she explained. “Gaining my qualification was life-changing, and I’ve never looked back.”

With a career spanning 32 years Debi has worked in a range of roles, starting in local government and mainly in environmental health and private sector housing, but also managing a range of other related regulatory functions.

She became known nationally for introducing intelligence-led enforcement and introducing the concept of “offender pays”. From there she moved into national policy at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), helping to shape work on the private rented sector and leasehold reform.

Later, she joined the Building Safety Regulator as one of its first senior managers and helped lead its early operational work. she now works in national regulation, but Debi said she still draws on her environmental health background every day and maintains a huge passion for the profession.

“The environmental health profession has always had a sense of purpose - it’s about protecting people and making a real difference to their lives,” she said “I’ve loved the variety too - from doing inspections and enforcement to shaping national policy.

“But what stands out most are the people. The profession is full of dedicated, humble individuals who quietly get on with protecting the public, often without recognition. It’s a privilege to be part of that.

“Without question, I owe all of my success to my career in environmental health. It gave me the grounding, the values, and the confidence to grow into other roles — and that’s why I’m sure this honour belongs to the profession.

“I would love to see more environmental health professionals being recognised and getting even bigger accolades. There are many other deserving people working in the profession, I’ve just been lucky enough to be put forward – I was just doing my job like so many other EHOs.”

Environmental health, as a career, has suffered from recruitment challenges in recent years and challenges in attracting the next generation of EHOs and Debi hopes this honour and the varied career path that she has undertaken will help encourage others to consider environmental health as a career.

“It’s a deeply rewarding job that changes lives - it certainly changed mine,” Debi said.

President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) Mark Elliott, congratulated Debi on her MBE and for her ongoing support for the environmental health profession.

He said: “I would like to congratulate Debi for this deserving honour and thank her for her kind words and continued passion for our profession. Her success during her career shows the wonderful and diverse routes a grounding in environmental health can take people on and how you can make a real and positive difference to people’s lives.”

Find out more about a rewarding career in environmental health – visit https://www.cieh.org/