Professor Kevin Fenton

Biography

Professor Kevin Fenton joined Public Health England (PHE) on 12 November 2012.

Kevin has worked in a variety of public health roles across government and academia, before joining the PHE board in 2020.

Before taking up the London regional director role, Kevin held a joint position as Strategic Director of Place and Wellbeing and Director of Public Health (DPH) at London Borough of Southwark and Senior Advisor, PHE. As Southwark’s Strategic Director for Place and Wellbeing, he led the council’s planning, regeneration, community engagement and public health portfolios driving inclusive regeneration, asset-based community development and promoting health in all policies. As the DPH he led the Council’s public health programmes and worked across the Council and NHS to promote Health in All Policies, Social Regeneration and Digital Public Health. He is PHE’s Senior Advisor for HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health and provides strategic advice on PHE’s health improvement programmes.

Professor Fenton was previously PHE’s National Director for Health and Wellbeing and led PHE’s national prevention programmes including screening for cancer and other conditions, Health Checks, public mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and a range of wellbeing programmes for infants, youth, adults and older adults. He also established and led PHE’s Health Equity portfolio with a range of programmes and activities focused on addressing the social determinants of health and promoting place-based approaches to health improvement.

Between 2005 and 2012, Professor Fenton was the Director of the National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He also served as chief of CDC’s National Syphilis Elimination Effort and has worked in research, epidemiology, and the prevention of HIV and other STDs since 1995. Previously he was the director of the HIV and STI Department at the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency.