Professor Diana Lockwood

Diana joined the RSTMH Board of Trustees in September 2019 and served until October 2022.

She worked as a clinical researcher, teacher, consultant leprologist, infectious disease physician and journal editor, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, University College Hospital, London until June 2019.

She leads a global leprosy research team based at LSHTM with overseas collaborations; improving the outcome of leprosy patients with nerve damage. She tested immune-suppressants in randomised controlled trial of leprosy nerve damage in Ethiopia, India, and Nepal.

She linked the top leprosy clinical research centres in the world (Brazil, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines), into a consortium to improve the management of patients with the leprosy complication Erythema Nodosum Leprosum. At the Hospital for Tropical Diseases she promoted good clinical practice through clinical excellence, evidence based medicine, teaching and research.

She is on leprosy policy committees at International Federation of anti-leprosy organisations, (ILEP) WHO, Lepra-India and the Leprosy Mission International Research Committee, and became a Trustee for Lepra in September 2014. She was editor of Leprosy Review from 1997 to 2014 and an associate editor on PLOS NTDs from 2009 to 2019.

Her campaign “A new face for leprosy” created a more positive image for leprosy through patient stories and images from leprosy patients in Ethiopia and India. She blogs about her work and travels. She has cycled across Tibet and four different continents.

She will bring enthusiasm about improving patient outcomes, interest in education and publishing to RSTMH.