Jieun Lee
Jieun Lee is Programme Manager for Commissioned Research and UK Policy and Advocacy Advisor at the George Institute for Global Health, hosted at Imperial College London. She develops UK commissioned research and consultancy strategies and leads government engagement to advance evidence-based policy through The George Institute's world-class research across diverse health domains.
She has over 15 years of experience as a global health practitioner in programming, research, and policy advocacy. She spent most of her career with an international NGO specializing in community-based and primary healthcare systems strengthening. She’s also worked with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) as a researcher, improving health data usage in low-income settings. She has been active in UK and global policy advocacy on health systems strengthening in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
Originally from South Korea, she holds a Master of Science degree in Public Health for Development from LSHTM and now resides in Southeast London.
Working with children and adolescents' policy
Call for urgent ban on trans fats - new findings reveal hidden heart risk in Aussie supermarkets
In this water-rich Indian state 25 people drown each day, almost half are children
Keziah Bennett-Brook
Keziah is a Torres Strait Islander woman and Program Lead of The George Institute’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program, Australasian Injury Prevention Network Executive Indigenous rep and Board Member of Hepatitis NSW. Keziah has Chaired The George Institute’s Research Committee for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health since 2017 and leads the development and implementation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health strategy and policy, stakeholder partnerships and research coordination in a global research institute.
Keziah’s expertise includes social and cultural determinants of health, Indigenous methodologies, knowledge translation and impact that privilege Indigenous knowledges, and applying decolonising methods to organisational change. Keziah leads implementation of strategic organisational activities to increase cultural safety and capability within global research. Keziah implemented a series of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research workshops and developed/administered seed funding for Aboriginal health projects and skills development. Keziah developed and implemented several transformational organisational policies including an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health research policy resulting in a significant increase in Aboriginal health research, employment, and successful PhD completions of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students.
Dr Laura Downey
Dr Laura Downey leads The George Institute’s global program for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). She is a conjoint Senior lecturer in health economics and policy in the School of Population Health at UNSW, and an Advanced Research Fellow in the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, UK.
Dr Downey’s research is focused broadly on evaluating health system performance in relation to UHC goals, and developing innovative solutions to support equitable access to high quality, affordable care for the world’s most at-risk populations. She is a Senior Investigator and the Capacity Strengthening co-lead of a £10million NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-Communicable Diseases and Environmental Change, where her research focuses on community-driven multisectoral intervention design, delivery, and evaluation to strengthen health systems to protect populations in India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh from environmental issues such as extreme heat and air pollution. She was an expert member of the Health Economics advisory group to the UK Infected Blood Inquiry (2020-2024), whose work directly informed recommendations made by the Inquiry Chair to the UK Government on behalf of the tens of thousands of individuals who were infected with HIV and Hepatitis A, B, and C by the National Health Service. She was also an advisor to the Indian federal government between 2015 -2019 to support the establishment of a core Health Technology Assessment (HTA) function within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and remains an active advisor to the Indian Institute of Public Health in Shillong, and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Dr Downey has active research collaborators across Asia, Africa, and Europe and has worked in partnership with global institutions such as the World Health Organisation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. She has held previous positions with the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) UK, the Centre for Global Development Europe, and University College London.
DEEP DIVE: To end the silent epidemic of drowning, whose voice matters?
Associate Professor Jagnoor Jagnoor
Jagnoor Jagnoor is a global leader in injury prevention and trauma care, serving as Program Lead of the Injury at The George Institute for Global Health. She is Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Injury Prevention and Trauma Care.
With a background in injury epidemiology and global health, Jagnoor's research explores the impacts of injury, the social and economic determinants of injury burden, and the effectiveness of interventions to reduce harm and support recovery among populations experiencing vulnerability. She brings deep expertise across injury surveillance, road safety, drowning, falls, burns, whiplash, and mild traumatic brain injury, underpinned by a strong commitment to equity, system strengthening, and data-driven decision-making.
She has made significant contributions to policy reform, including informing compulsory third-party insurance models in Australia and contributing to national injury prevention strategies in Asia and Africa. Her research and advocacy have shaped global drowning prevention efforts and health systems responses to injury in resource-constrained settings.
In 2024, Jagnoor convened the Safety 2024 Conference, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, bringing together global experts to accelerate action on injury prevention and safety promotion.
In addition to her research leadership, Jagnoor serves on multiple advisory and governance boards, where she contributes her expertise to advance public health, evidence-informed policy, and research equity.
Associate Professor Clare Arnott
Associate Professor Clare Arnott is Director of the Cardiovascular Program at The George Institute for Global Health and Associate Professor in Medicine at UNSW Sydney.
A/Prof Arnott’s research focuses on women’s heart disease, heart failure, cardiovascular imaging, and cardio-kidney-metabolic (CKM) disease. Her work has significantly influenced national health policy and clinical management.
As an experienced clinical trialist and the recipient of $28 million in research funding, A/Prof Arnott is an expert in investigating novel cardiometabolic treatments and pregnancy-related cardiovascular diseases including pre-eclampsia and pulmonary hypertension.
She is also Pagent Director of Heart Lung Clinical Research at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Director and Founder of the Women’s Heart Clinic at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and Senior Staff Specialist Cardiologist at St Vincent’s Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney.
A/Prof Arnott is a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and the European Society of Cardiology, and member of the ANZACT Steering Committee, as well as serving on the editorial board of Heart, Lung and Circulation.