Debra Jackson

Debra Jackson (BSN, MPH, DSc) is the inaugural Takeda Chair in Global Child Health and Co-Director of the MARCH Centre at LSHTM. From 2013-2020 she was Senior Health Advisor and Chief of the Implementation Research and Delivery Science Unit, Health Section, UNICEF, which focused on maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health program research, data and digital health.

She is also Extraordinary Professor at the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She has qualifications in nursing, public health, epidemiology and biostatistics. She has over 150 peer-reviewed publications. In 2023 she was recognized as a B-rated ‘Internationally Acclaimed Researcher’ by the South African National Research Foundation. She has experience working across Africa, Asia, Pacific Islands and the USA.

Previous research has included a multi-country trial on promoting exclusive breastfeeding and the National South African Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Evaluation. Her current research a multi-country study on heat and the health of mothers and children.