Ruth Lawson

Deputy Permanent Representative for Global Health and UK Representative to the Global Health Boards, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), United Kingdom

Ruth Lawson is a medical doctor with specialist qualifications in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Public Health. She joined the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in 2011, initially leading UK global maternal, newborn and child health policy, with subsequent postings to Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Sudan. She took up her current role in August 2024. 

Prior to joining FCDO Ruth worked as an National Health Service (NHS) clinician and public health physician, followed by seven years in Ethiopia as a hospital CEO and Director of a national health care reform programme. 

Dr Lawson is a graduate of Glasgow University Medical School and the University of London, a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom, and a Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.