Professor Anthony Kessel is a public health physician, academic and author. Since 2019, Anthony works as Clinical Director (National Clinical Policy) at NHS England. Prior to this, Anthony worked for a decade as Director of Global Public Health at Public Health England and National Director of Public Health Strategy, Director of R&D and Medical Director at the Health Protection Agency. Anthony is also currently Senior Public Health Advisor to the Football Association (FA), and advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on public health. Previously, Anthony was Director of Public Health and Medical Director at Camden Primary Care Trust (2004-2009), and is also a GP.

In parallel, Anthony holds a university position as Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where he co-established the International Programme for Ethics, Public Health and Human Rights. Anthony has over 100 publications in areas of public health, environmental health and the medical humanities. Anthony is a Trustee Director of BookTrust, a Trustee Director of a mental health charity, Innate Health, a Council member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and a former Trustee of GambleAware. Anthony has trained as an executive coach, and writes a personal column exploring his leadership work through a lens of psychological wellbeing, ‘Global Health Experience’ (https://medium.com/@AKessel).

In 2013, Anthony published a fiction book for young children, The Amazing Adventures of Perch the Cat (Matador, 2013). Anthony’s new 4-book ‘DON’T DOUBT THE RAINBOW’ adventure series for middle-grade children is centred on a 13-year-old detective, Edie Marble. The first book, The Five Clues, was published by Crown House in 2021 and has been short-listed for several awards, including CrimeFest best children’s crime book of the year. The second book, Outside Chance, will be published in July 2022. Threaded through the series is an approach to support mental health and resilience in this age group, focused around understanding how our mind and our psychological system works.