Cecile Knai

Professor Cecile Knai, based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), is a leading scholar in public health policy with a focus on commercial determinants of health. As Head of the Department of Health Services Research and Policy and Director of the Food Policy Impact Lab, she leads evaluations of public-private partnerships, food industry self-regulation, and the influence of large food corporations in England and abroad. Her work employs qualitative systems methods and policy evaluation frameworks.

• PhD, LSHTM (2007)
• MPH in Nutrition, University of California at Berkeley (1998)
• BA in History, McGill University (1994)

Her research spans systems approaches to obesity prevention, food system transformation, and health equity in policy. Recent work includes analyzing the UK's Adverse Weather and Health Plan and leading a Gates-funded project on emergency food assistance in Lebanon. She supervises doctoral students and co-organizes LSHTM's short course on Commercial Determinants of Health.

Key article trends include: food industry influence (6/15), youth participation in policy (4/15), systems modeling (4/15), and health equity in food environments (3/15). Geographically, her work spans the UK, Lebanon, Norway, Portugal, and South Africa.

• Burgen Scholar Prize Award (2008)
• Public Health Alumni Association Fellowship (1997)
• Susan Kersch DeYoung Memorial Scholarship in Nutrition (1997)

Professor Knai has secured major grants including NIHR Policy Research Unit funding (2024-2028), Gates Foundation support for Lebanon research (2023-2025), and EU Horizon 2020 funding for CO-CREATE (2018-2023). She actively engages in journal editorial roles (Food Policy, 2018-2023; Public Health Nutrition, 2011-2016) and serves on review panels for NIHR and the European Commission.