Professor Siân Griffiths OBE is Chair of Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health and Development.
She is also Emeritus Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London, interim Deputy Chair of Public Health England, Chair of the PHE Global Health Committee, Trustee of the Royal Society of Public Health and Deputy Chair of Gambleaware, an independent charity tasked to fund research, education and treatment services to help minimise gambling-related harm in Great Britain.
Her career in healthcare began at medical school in Cambridge in the early 1970s, before qualifying as a doctor in 1977. She undertook her clinical training at Kings College London, beginning her public health career as a registrar in the capital. She moved with her family to Oxford and became a Director of Public Health for Oxfordshire. She was Co Chair of the Association of Public Health in 2000 and, between 2001-2004, she was President of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians.
Whilst President, Siân was asked to co-chair the Hong Kong SAR government Inquiry into the 2003 SARS outbreak. She was later invited to join the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to lead the development of their School of Public Health and Primary Care as its Director. She was made Justice of the Peace by the HKSAR government in 2010 for her contribution to health in Hong Kong and, in 2012, was named Professional of the Year in the American Chamber of Commerce [AMCHAM] Women of Influence Awards. After returning to the UK in 2013, Siân now supports CUHK as an Emeritus Professor and Senior Adviser on International Academic Development and continues her specific interest in healthcare in China as an Associate of the Moller Institute, Cambridge University.
The Award of Honorary Doctor of Staffordshire University is bestowed upon Siân in recognition of her major contribution to the field of public health on a national and international level and her unstinting leadership and support as independent Chair of the University’s Centre for Health and Development, which focuses on the public health needs of Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, particularly those of vulnerable populations.