Professor Paul Johnstone is National Director for Place and Regions at Public Health England and leads key programmes for the pandemic response since early 2020. Previously he was North of England's Regional Director then Regional Director of Public Health Yorkshire & Humber (2002-10) and Director of Public Health for Tees and Durham (1999-2002).
Paul has worked extensively in the NHS as a hospital doctor, GP and executive director. His career includes international work, most recently as PHE's lead in Sierra Leone during Ebola, as an adviser to the WHO and the UK's Department for International Development in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Montserrat, West Indies. In the 1990s he entered public health in Oxford, worked for the Cochrane Collaboration then Oxford University as honorary senior lecturer, then was appointed as a new chair in Public Health at the University of Teesside. He is currently a visiting professor at Leeds Beckett University. His interests are in health inequalities, evidence based healthcare, universal heathcare and global health.
