The UK-based social change charity Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has appointed Professor Carol Tannahill OBE to chair its board of trustees. She succeeds Will Haire CB, who recently stepped down after serving three full terms on the board.

Previously vice-chair of the JRF Board of Trustees, Tannahill was also Director of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health from 2003-2020. She was seconded part-time to the Scottish Government in 2014 as the first Chief Social Policy Adviser and held this position until her retirement in 2021. Her work focuses on approaches to improve population health and reduce inequalities in outcomes as well as the relationship between national policy and community-based delivery and experience.

She is also a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and of the Academy of Social Science, and Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow. She was awarded an OBE in 2018 for services to Public Health.

‘I feel very privileged to have been appointed by the Trustees to lead JRF as it delivers its new strategy. There is such potential for JRF and its partners across the four nations to make a real difference by combining ground-breaking research, creative policy solutions, astute campaigning, and ambitious backing for pioneers showing the way to transformative change,’ said Tannahill on her appointment.