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Dr. Tracey Cooper

Chief Executive

About Me

Chief Executive

Tracey is the Chief Executive of Public Health Wales which is the National Public Health Institute for Wales. The organisation’s purpose is to protect and improve the health and wellbeing of the nation through a wide range of functions. These include delivering national screening programmes, health protection and microbiology services; advising government on public health policy and legislation; developing evidence-based interventions and delivering health improvement programmes; driving data-informed population health and delivering healthcare improvement support. The organisation is also a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on investment for health and wellbeing. Prior to joining Public Health Wales, Tracey was the inaugural Chief Executive of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in the Republic of Ireland, which is the health and social care regulator for the country. 

Tracey has significant experience nationally and internationally in public health, health and social care regulation and health system reform. She has extensive experience in working with partners across organisational boundaries to develop strong, effective and purposeful relationships to transform outcomes for the population. She also works closely with Ministers and senior officials at a national and international level, across the breadth of Government and has been actively involved in global health for the last twenty years. This has included working closely with the WHO, International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), the Commonwealth Secretariat, the InterAction Council, as President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care and advising Governments in a range of countries.

Tracey qualified as a doctor at Southampton University in 1990. Prior to her more recent roles, her clinical career was in emergency medicine, emergency care services and health system reform.