Dr Helen Roberts

BSc (Hons), ARCS, Ph.D., DIC

I have a BSc in Zoology and a PhD in Parasitology, both from Imperial College, London. I spent ten years in academia in the UK including field work in Colombia and a secondment in Australia, studying neglected tropical diseases, then several years working for international health NGOs (on human health issues, such as malaria and school children’s health). In 2007 I joined Defra, as part of the National Epidemiology Expert Group for outbreaks in the VLA (now APHA). In 2008 I moved to Defra’s Global Animal Health team (imports section) becoming head of international disease monitoring and risk assessment in 2010. I am currently Defra’s senior policy advisor for non-livestock diseases including wildlife and New Emerging Diseases and science/risk advisor on all exotic animal diseases and exotic zoonoses. I lead a team of research programme managers, covering our £10 million plus annual budget for science research and I am part of a consortium for developing new technology for animal and plants diseases. I lead for animal health horizon scanning and risk assessment across government departments such as the biosecurity programme in Defra, the cross government international natural hazard forward look and was covering one health in the G7 health track UK presidency in 2021. I am chair of the UK Human-Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance group, on the EFSA Animal Health and Welfare Panel and a member of the WOAH Collaborating Centre on Risk Assessment and Modelling and as such have been involved in delivering training on WOAH guidelines for risk assessment and FAO consultancy on animal disease risk in multiple international environments.