Biography
Professor Sally Theobald is Professor in Social Science and International Health and UKRI/FCDO Gender Senior Research Fellow in the Department of International Public Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), United Kingdom. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in collaborative global-health research, training and partnership, with a particular focus on health-systems strengthening, gender, equity and intersectionality in Africa and Asia.
Her research spans fragile and conflict-affected settings, informal urban communities, neglected tropical diseases, antimicrobial resistance, sexual and reproductive health, and the role of gender and social inequalities in shaping access to health services and health outcomes. She has contributed to major international research programmes including GEAR UP, ARISE, ReBUILD for Resilience and other multidisciplinary health-systems partnerships.
Professor Theobald has developed particularly strong research partnerships with Liberia. She is a senior investigator in the REDRESS programme — Reducing the Burden of Severe Stigmatising Skin Diseases through equitable person-centred approaches to health-systems strengthening — which brings together researchers, health workers, communities and institutions in Liberia and internationally. The programme focuses on improving care for people affected by severe stigmatising skin diseases, strengthening mental-health and psychosocial support, reducing stigma and discrimination, and building more equitable and responsive health systems. REDRESS has also supported the development of Liberian researchers and research capacity through locally grounded collaboration.
Her broader work includes research on community health workers, gender and equity within antimicrobial resistance, health-system resilience and accountability in urban health. Across these programmes, she has emphasised equitable partnerships, locally led research and the translation of social-science evidence into practical improvements in health policy and services.
Her long-standing engagement with Liberia and her expertise in social science, gender, equity and health-systems strengthening are particularly relevant to LAS priorities in public health, community-based research, health equity and the development of sustainable research partnerships between Liberia and international institutions.