Harold Moody Lecture 2026/2027
King's Building, Strand Campus, London
The Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine is proud to host the 2026 /2027 Harold Moody Lecture, an evening celebrating the legacy of the great Black Briton Dr Harold Moody. A Jamaican-born medical student at King's, Moody graduated top of his class in 1910. He became a much-respected GP in Peckham and founded Britain's first civil rights movement. The Harold Moody lecture series was created as an annual event to platform and celebrate King’s diverse alumni and current academic staff and champion race equality.
From Advocacy to Institution: Translating Commitment into Improved Outcomes for Mothers and Newborns
Featuring Her Excellency Toyin Ojora Saraki (President, Wellbeing Foundation Africa)
We are delighted to welcome Her Excellency Toyin Ojora Saraki, President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, as this year's keynote speaker. Renowned for her global leadership in health advocacy and women's wellbeing, Her Excellency will share insights on the challenges and opportunities shaping global maternal health.
This ‘In Conversation’ event will be hosted by Professor Melanie Amna Abas, and followed by a panel discussion with Her Excellency and King’s researchers in global maternal health.
Melanie is Professor of Global Mental Health an Director of the King’s Global Health Institute. As a psychiatric epidemiologist, Melanie’s work has been characterised by working through equitable partnerships with global south researchers and research capacity building for groups traditionally under-represented in academia. She has worked on African-led capacity building programs since 2010 including the US-African Medical Education Partnership Initiative across 13 African medical schools 2010 – 2019.
Our Panellists
Eka’s research offers a critical understanding of socio-economic transformation that centres spaces in Africa and parts of the Global South across the fields of economic development and peace.
Her current themes of interest include state capital and developmentalism, industrial development, structural transformation, creative economies, health, peacebuilding and reconstruction. Her research has been funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, EPSRC, ESRC, AHRC, IDRC, among others.
Dr Cristina Fernandez Turienzo
Dr Cristina is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Women & Children’s Health at the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s. Her background is in nursing, midwifery, and public health, with over 18 years of clinical, academic, and research experience across both high-income and low- and middle-income countries. She is a PRINCE2 Practitioner and holds a Diploma in Tropical Medicine, an MPH (Dist), and a PhD in Public Health, for which she received the King’s Outstanding Thesis Prize.
Dr Rishita Nandagiri (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at King's College London. Her research focuses on reproductive in/justice, gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and reproductive governance in the Global South(s). Working inter-disciplinarily, she examines questions of power, ethics, and social justice in global health, with a particular focus on how reproductive lives are shaped through policy, law, and everyday practices. Working in collaboration with feminist movements and advocacy organisations, her research explores how scholarship can contribute to advancing reproductive justice and health equity.
Timings
18:00-20:00 (In conversation and panel discussion)
20:00-21:00 (Drinks Reception)
Following the lecture
Guests are warmly invited to attend a drinks reception and networking session.
Hosted by Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine and the People & Culture Team
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