Dr Rachael Thomson

Biography

Dr Rachael Thomson is the CEO of the LIGHT Consortium, a six-year, cross-disciplinary global health research programme funded by UK aid. Led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), LIGHT brings together partners from Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and the UK to generate new evidence on gender-sensitive approaches to tuberculosis care in urban settings. As CEO, Rachael provides strategic leadership, shaping the consortium’s vision and ensuring timely delivery of impactful, sustainable outcomes.

Beyond her role at LIGHT, Rachael serves as a technical adviser to the ReDress programme in Liberia and continues to contribute to health systems research on neglected tropical diseases at LSTM.

Previously, she directed the CouNTDown research consortium in LSTM’s Department of Tropical Disease Biology, which focused on developing cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable strategies to control and eliminate common neglected tropical diseases.

Rachael’s earlier career included roles with the UK Department for International Development, where she focused on communicable disease policy, and with a non-governmental organisation supporting primary healthcare delivery in fragile and conflict-affected settings, including Yemen and Somalia.

Research interests

Whilst at LSTM, Rachael worked for many years on projects focusing on extending tuberculosis and lung health services to primary health care level, neglected tropical diseases and pluralistic health systems. This work has a strong equity focus and resonates with the key aims of Universal Healthcare Coverage around ‘Leaving No-one Behind’. Her PhD explored pluralistic health systems in a fragile state (Sudan), mapping the plethora of public interactions with health services. Given her extensive background in health systems strengthening and health policy research across many low- and middle-income countries, Rachael is motivated by ensuring the voices of the most vulnerable populations are heard, through evidence-based findings.

Teaching

Rachael currently supervises a PhD student based at the Makerere Lung Institute in Kampala, Uganda, whose research focuses on enhancing tuberculosis case detection within health facilities.