Ann John, a public health trained former General Practitioner, is a Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at Swansea University Medical School with a research focus on suicide and self-harm prevention and children and young people’s mental health. She is a Principal Investigator at the National Centre for Mental Health and Co-Director of DATAMIND, the Health Data Research UK Hub for Mental Health. During the pandemic, Ann co-led a number of pivotal projects in the field including the Living Systematic Review.

Ann works across sectors translating research into evidence-based practice and policy to prevent suicide and self-harm. She played a key role in the development of Wales National Suicide and Self-harm Prevention Strategy, UK Cluster Guidance, UK Postvention Framework in Higher Education and leads the Suicide Information Database-Wales. She is regularly called upon to provide advice to both Wales and UK Government. Ann chairs the National Advisory Group to Welsh Government and co-chairs the Cross-Government Group on suicide and self-harm prevention, and is the national lead for suicide prevention for Public Health Wales. She has worked on a number of major TV storylines from Eastenders, Coronation Street to the BBC’s This is Going to Hurt enabling the responsible depiction of suicidal behaviours.