Professor Natalie Armstrong

Overview

Professor Natalie Armstrong joined City St George's as Executive Dean of the School of Health and Medical Sciences in January 2025. Natalie is an internationally recognised health services researcher whose work uses ideas and methods from the social sciences to better understand, and seek to address, problems in the delivery of high-quality healthcare.   Prior to joining City St George’s, Natalie was the Deputy Head of the College of Life Sciences at the University of Leicester, having previously been a Head of Department. As part of her role, Natalie was also the University-appointed Non-Executive Director to the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire Group.   Natalie is Professor of Health Services Research having completed a BSc (Hons) Politics & Sociology at the University of Warwick, an MSc in Medical Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London, and her PhD at the University of Nottingham.   Following postdoctoral positions at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Warwick, Natalie took up her first academic post in 2008 as Lecturer in Social Science Applied to Health at the University of Leicester. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in 2014, and to Professor in 2017.    Natalie’s appointment as the inaugural Executive Dean of the School of Health & Medical Sciences at City St George’s, followed the completion of the merger between City, University of London and St George’s, University of London. As part of her role, Natalie is delighted to be the University-appointed Non-Executive Director to the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group (GESH).

Qualifications

• Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice, University of Warwick, United Kingdom, 2008
• PhD, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, 2005
• MSc Medical Sociology, Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom, 2001
• BA (Hons) Politics and Sociology, University of Warwick, United Kingdom, 2000

Visiting appointments

• Honorary Visiting Professor, University of Leicester
• Honorary Professor, University of Manchester

Fellowships

• Elected Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences, 2023 - present
• Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy, 2016 - present
• Fellow, Higher Education Academy, 2008 - present

Memberships of committees

• Member, UK National Screening Committee, 2022 - present
• Member, NHS England National Overprescribing Review Short Life Working Group, 2019 - 2020
• Member, UK National Screening Committee Adult Reference Group, 2017 - 2022

Natalie's work uses sociological ideas and methods to understand health and illness, and to address challenges in the delivery of high-quality healthcare. Originally trained in sociology departments, she is committed to applied research and the practical impact of social science learning within healthcare and healthcare improvement. While at the University of Leicester, Natalie was a member of the Social Science, Applied Healthcare and Improvement Research (SAPPHIRE) Group, jointly leading SAPPHIRE from 2016-2018.

Natalie has worked across a range of health and care contexts, with particular interests in women’s and children’s health, preventative healthcare, and overdiagnosis/overtreatment. Her work has involved extensive interdisciplinary collaboration with both clinical and non-clinical colleagues. To date, she has been awarded over £33 million in external research funding as either lead or co-investigator. These awards include project grants, direct commissions for evaluations, infrastructure awards, capacity building awards, and two personal fellowships (an ESRC-funded knowledge transfer fellowship with the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office in 2009, and an Improvement Science Fellowship from the Health Foundation 2017-2020). Her work has been supported by a range of funders, including various NIHR programmes, the Health Foundation, NHS England, the Wellcome Trust, the ESRC, and The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute.

During her time at Leicester, Natalie held the role of Implementation Theme Lead for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East Midlands and was a Theme Lead (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications) within the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Training Programme in Genomic Epidemiology and Public Health Genomics.

Since 2023, Natalie has been a Co-Theme Lead within the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC), a role that continues after her move to City St George’s. Together with University of Leicester colleagues, Natalie leads the ‘Enhancing Cultures of Safety’ theme, which aims to explore and understand cultures of safety within health and care organisations to help identify ways to develop positive cultures and improve patient safety.

Research Funding

Natalie has provided extensive expert review of funding applications and final reports for key funding bodies across the health and social sciences, both nationally and internationally. She has served on, and sometimes chaired, funding panels for a variety of UK-based funders, as well as those in Sweden and Ireland.

She has served on several steering/oversight groups for research activity. She is currently a member of the oversight committee for the NIHR-funded project ‘What changes following the launch of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework in the English NHS?’ and chairs the steering group for the NIHR-funded Birmingham, RAND and Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Centre.

Publications by category