Professor Judith Rankin

Judith Rankin is Professor of Maternal and Child Health, co-lead of the NIHR North East and North Cumbria Applied Research Collaboration’s Supporting Children and Families theme, a member of the NIHR National Maternity and Child Health Priority Programme Management Team and holds an honorary contract with Public Health England. She has published over 220 papers and received more than £20 million in research funding. Her prevention maternal and child public health research focuses on developing better and integrated maternity and child health and social care to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities. Her research, co-created across sectors, directly supports the Better Start in Life programme and continuities of care across childhood. Her aim is to develop and implement evidence-based, integrated prevention approaches in maternity and child health to improve equality in health status, access to care and outcomes for parents, children and families. She also has an international reputation in research on children with complex conditions; her current work focuses on health and educational outcomes for these children through a European Union Horizon 2020 programme. Her research on reproductive loss from a multiple pregnancy with parents and health professionals has resulted in co-produced guidelines for health professionals as well as the introduction of Butterfly cot cards to indicate a baby has died from the multiple pregnancy which have been widely adopted. Prof Rankin is chair of an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship panel and regularly reviews for national funding bodies. She has supervised 12 doctoral students to completion and is currently supervising six others. She is Newcastle University’s Dean of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.