Oliver Johnson is a visiting lecturer in global health at King's, an honorary researcher at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and Managing Director for the Global Health Institute at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He has a BSc in International Health from UCL and a medical degree and PhD from King's. His doctoral research focused on strengthening leadership by health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa.

From 2013 to 2015, he was based in Freetown as the founding director of the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership, a health systems strengthening program embedded in the country’s main teaching hospital and medical school. From 2015 to 2022, he was based in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he worked with Africa Health Placements, a South African non-profit that focused on the recruitment and retention of health workers in rural government hospitals.

He is co-author of the book 'Getting to Zero: A Doctor and a Diplomat on the Ebola Frontline'.