Jane South is Professor of Healthy Communities at the Institute for Health & Wellbeing at Leeds Beckett University, where she leads a research programme on active citizens, volunteering and community health.

She is currently on secondment as the national adviser on communities working within the Health Equity and Mental Health team of Public Health England.

Her current programme of work is looking at dissemination and application of evidence on community engagement, asset-based approaches and social action in public health.

In her university role, Jane was Director of the Centre for Health Promotion Research at Leeds Metropolitan University (now Leeds Beckett University) from 2013-16 and has led two National Institute for Health Research studies on lay and peer interventions.