People

James is a medical doctor by background with further training in global health, humanitarian affairs and medical anthropology. He has worked for over a decade in various academic and programmatic humanitarian health roles. He currently works as a Lecturer at UCL and the School of Advanced Studies, and is a Visiting Fellow at the UN University’s International Institute for Global Health. He is passionate about the pursuit of health equity, and the radical global political and economic changes required to achieve health justice. 

Shirley Hodgson, BSc, BM, BCh, DM, FRCP, FRSB, trained at UCL as an undergraduate, gaining a BSc in Physiology, and then went to Somerville College, Oxford, to do her clinical studies. She initially trained in paediatrics, and then worked as a general practitioner whilst her children were young. In the 70’s, she spent six months working in Saadi Hospital, Shiraz, Iran.

She became a registrar in Clinical Genetics at Guy’s Hospital, 1980, and worked with Prof. Dubowitz at the Hammersmith Hospital on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at a time when the first genotype–phenotype correlations were emerging. She became a Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in 1988, then Consultant/Reader in Clinical Genetics at Guy’s from 1990. She became interested in Cancer Genetics from 1989, specialising in the subject, and developed Regional Cancer Genetics services from Guys and later St George’s Hospitals in London. She was appointed Professor of Cancer Genetics at St.George’s, University of London, in 2003, now emeritus, and currently works part time as a consultant in Cancer Genetics in Leicester. She did translational research with ICRF (now CR-UK), investigating aspects of inherited cancer predisposition. She has published widely on the subject, and co-authored several books, notably “A Practical Guide to Human Cancer Genetics”, now in 4th edition. 

Shirley has participated in international research, and is developing genetic counselling in collaboration with Indian and Chinese colleagues. Recently she designed and initiated the clinical paediatrics course in the Medical School in Windhoek, Namibia, at a time when this was the only Medical School in the country. She has continued her interests in Namibia by supporting research into malnutrition there. She remains very committed to international collaboration. She has been a member of MAPW, MCANW, and now Medact, all her working life, and is very committed to applying a medical perspective on current world issues such as the prevention of war, climate change, refugee concerns and health inequities. She is a trustee for several charities, including the Catherine Bullen Foundation, the Adelphi Forum and is chair of the Lionel Penrose Trust. She and her husband set up a charity Nutritional Research and Education for Namibia, which she chairs.

Naz is a medical doctor and campaigner whose practice is rooted in her passion for health and social justice. She is currently based in Bristol working as a Clinical Teaching Fellow in undergraduate medical education. She is interested in understanding how advocacy and the co-production of knowledge can help form more inclusive and representative medical education. 

Naz has been involved in organising around issues of racism, migrant rights, and the climate emergency. She has campaigned with Doctors of the World and Patients Not Passports. During university, she coordinated a volunteering project for Healthy Planet UK aimed at equipping primary school students in London with the tools they need to talk about the climate crisis and advocate for healthier environments. In 2021, Naz established Medact Bristol’s branch of Health for a Green New Deal, which provides a health perspective to support local climate campaigning.

She has completed an intercalated bachelor’s degree in global health and continues to pursue an academic branch of her career in researching health inequalities and the structural determinants of health.

Sonia is an NHS doctor and campaigner. She has become a “political doctor”, as she believes we cannot address the prevalent health inequality we all see without structural and political changes to our society. She campaigns to improve women’s health, is on the executive committee for abortion rights and previously worked for a women’s rights charity. Whilst volunteering for Doctors of the World, she saw the appalling harm caused by hostile environmental policies in the NHS, which led her to campaign with Medact and Docs Not Cops. 

She has previously worked in national health policy as a former National Medical Director’s clinical fellow, with the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.

Working as a GP in Tottenham, she sees every day the impact of social and economic deprivation on the health of her patients. Sonia believes healthcare professionals have a duty to campaign and advocate for progressive policies to improve the health and well-being of everyone in our society.