Miriam Taegtmeyer is a Head of Department of Clinical Sciences and co-Director of the Institute of Resilient Health Systems at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). She works as a consultant physician in infectious diseases. Trained in infectious diseases, public health and education, her skills have enabled her to design and lead high quality implementation research, bridge disciplines and facilitate networks at the interface between the community and health systems. Miriam’s publications on new diagnostic tests, cost effectiveness, demand creation, community outreach, and appropriate models of service provision have informed World Health Organisation policy and Ministry of Health guidelines on HIV testing, lung health, vaccine hesitancy and on community health in sub-Saharan Africa. She proactively created opportunities to transfer lessons from the Global South to the Liverpool context (e.g. introducing rapid HIV tests to Liverpool, bringing lessons to the Liverpool COVID-19 response, adapting community-led approaches to improve vaccine equity in Liverpool and hosting a high-profile exchange programme for Kenyan and UK local government). She is recognised for her mentoring approach and has significant leadership and management experience, including establishing a large Kenyan NGO and running several multi-county studies. In 2015 Miriam was included in the Graduate Institute list of 300 Women Leaders in Global Health.

Miriam has taught undergraduate and postgraduate clinical and public health medicine since 1996 with a focus on resilient health systems, HIV and community health. Her teaching role at LSTM includes sessions on diploma and master’s programmes. She has held internal examining roles, been an external examiner for more than 20 PhD theses, and for six years was external examiner for the Oxford University MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine. Her master’s and PhD students focus on resilience in health systems. They cover topics such as malaria and HIV in pregnancy, experiences of teenage pregnancy in informal settlements, data use for quality improvement in health systems, health equity (including vaccine equity), and evaluation of quality improvement approaches at community level. Miriam provides strategic leadership in ensuring high quality student learning at LSTM.