Health innovator receives honorary degree

Halima Khan is a Board Trustee of Diabetes UK, previously a Council Member of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and Executive Director of the Health Lab at Nesta – the UK’s leading innovation charity.

In 2007, Halima became Deputy Director at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, where she developed policy advice for Number 10 and Cabinet Office ministers on a range of domestic issues, including health and social care. Then, in 2010, she joined Nesta, where she was initially Director of the Innovation Lab. There she has worked with innovators across public services, civil society and business to develop and scale new responses to social challenges, such as ageing and public service reform. This year, Halima became Executive Director of the newly launched Health Lab at Nesta.

In 2013, Halima published Five hours a day: systemic innovation for an ageing population, in which she makes a compelling case for systematic review of how we live our lives within an ageing society. With life expectancies increasing by five hours a day, she highlights the need for society to adapt to a changing demographic by taking a close look at how our social institutions operate, and by finding new and smarter ways to help people help one another.

Professor Thorne said: “A resident of Cambridge, Halima has spent her career to date striving to improve the lives of people with a range of health and social problems and as such, she is an excellent role model for our students.

“By recognising her achievements, we have the opportunity to build closer links between our University and Nesta, and to share learnings from our Postgraduate Medical Institute’s ongoing research into dementia, and Nesta’s work on health and ageing. We are delighted to welcome Halima Khan to our Anglia Ruskin community.”

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Jamie Forsyth
Press officer
Anglia Ruskin University
jamie.forsyth@anglia.ac.uk
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