Prof Arpana Verma has been an active member of the Manchester’s Conference Ambassador Programme for many years, having been involved in many meetings and events in Manchester over the years.
Prof Verma is Head of the Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care at The University of Manchester. She is Director of Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health (MUCH), a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre and Honorary Consultant in Public Health at Public Health England.
International Festival of Public Health
The International Festival of Public Health takes place in Manchester every year. The festival brings together hundreds of delegates from a wide range of fields and stages of their careers to attend plenary lectures from special guest speakers in the world of public health.
The first edition of the festival was held in Manchester in 2012 and the tenth edition took place at The University of Manchester in July 2022. Arpana Verma has acted as Festival Chair since the event’s inception.
The festival offers first-rate plenary lectures as well as a wealth of other sessions, including Special Sessions that have been arranged by experts around a particular topic, and parallel and poster sessions where delegates are able to present their own work.
11th International Conference on Urban Health 2014 (ICUH)
Prof Verma Chaired the 11th International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH), which took place at Manchester Central Convention Complex from 4-7 March 2014. It is the annual conference of the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH), a global non-governmental organization solely focused on advancing urban health and health equity by addressing the broader determinants of health.
The conference was hosted by the University of Manchester and attracted more than 1,000 participants from across the world to exchange insights, intelligence and knowledge on global urban health issues. Delegates included scientists, practitioners, policy makers and community organisations spanning sectors, disciplines and geographic boundaries. The theme of the conference was “Crossing Boundaries: Partnerships for Global Urban Health”.
Prof Verma was the principle investigator (PI) of the European Urban Health Indicator System project (EURO-URHIS 2) and is also the president of the European Public Health Association section on Urban Health. She is also PI on a number of health service research projects, primarily in hepatitis C and blood borne virus prevention, infection control, immunisation including MMR and HPV vaccine.
Prof Verma is also an expert for WHO, which has led to several publications. She also holds an honorary consultant post at Public Health England.
