Kate Pickett is an epidemiologist who studies the social determinants of health and health inequalities.
She is Professor of Epidemiology, Deputy Director of the Centre for Future Health, and Associate Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity and leads the Public Health & Society research group, all at the University of York.
She is co-author, with Richard Wilkinson, of The Spirit Level (2009) and The Inner Level (2018).
Kate is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow by Distinction of the UK Faculty of Public Health, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List, 2023.
Kate works and campaigns at global, national and local levels. Internationally, she is a full member of the Club of Rome and a trustee of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. In the UK, she is a co-founder and patron of The Equality Trust and recently chaired the Greater Manchester Independent Inequalities Commission. Local to York, she is a patron of St Nicks Centre for Nature and Green Livingand Home-Start York.
Kate is a lead researcher with the Born in Bradford research programme.
Kate attended a comprehensive school, The Ecclesbourne School, in Derbyshire, then studied Archaeology & Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, focusing on biological anthropology. She lived for 16 years in the USA, where she received a Master’s in Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, and a PhD in Epidemiology at University of California, Berkeley. After four years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, she returned to the UK. Kate was an NIHR Career Scientist from 2007-2012.