Speakers

Abdul Razaq is Director of Public Health at Blackburn with Darwen Council since March 2022 and former Director of Public Health at Suffolk County Council, Trafford Council and Executive Director at Trafford Primary Care Trust. Abdul has three decades of Public Health experience with extensive experience at senior Executive level. Abdul has held the positions of the chair of the North West Directors of Public Health Network, chair of the Greater Manchester Directors of Public Health and the North West Executive lead of the Association of Directors of Public Health. Abdul has been an expert commentator in Blackburn with Darwen working with Shared Futures CIC on a Climate Change People’s Jury.

Abdul is Honorary Professor at the University of Central Lancashire and has held academic roles as Visiting Senior Fellow, School of Health Sciences at the University of Suffolk and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. Abdul was instrumental in forming Food Active, a North West collaborative on tackling key determinants of unhealthy food leading to NCDs (non communicable disease).

During the COVID-19 pandemic Abdul published academic work on ethnic minority deaths with the University of Oxford and with was a co-author on the NHS COVID risk reduction framework.

Abdul is involved in two international charities that are developing capacity to build health and care systems and improving life chances for under-served communities around the world.