Rosanna O’Connor
Director of Alcohol, Drugs, Tobacco & Justice Division
Public Health England
Rosanna O’Connor leads the alcohol, drugs tobacco & inclusion health agendas in Public Health England (PHE). Prior to PHE’s establishment Rosanna was Director of Delivery at the National Treatment Agency for substance misuse with responsibility for all drugs policy development and performance management across England.
Rosanna has led many of PHE’s early successes in key policy areas including the series of ground breaking evidence reviews on e-cigarettes and the 2016 internationally welcomed alcohol evidence review. More recent achievements have been the strong focus on the harms of tobacco and alcohol in the NHS long term plan and, last summer, the highly acclaimed review of prescribed medicines that lays bare prescribing practises and the links to deprivation. Next steps will be to publish an evidence review of the public health harms of gambling later this year.
Rosanna has a significant track record in challenging the impact of disadvantage and health inequalities on individuals and communities and has recently begun to develop PHE’s approach to Inclusion health. She has extensive experience in the youth justice, housing & homelessness and voluntary sector.
In PHE Rosanna currently leads a high performing, impactful team and is keen to push boundaries to achieve health improvements and reduce inequalities.
