The Good Society

Kate Pickett is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of York, where she leads the Public Health & Society research group and is Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change. She is also an academic co-director of Health Equity North, and a Fellow of the RSA, the UK Faculty of Public Health and the Academy of Social Sciences.

Her landmark book, The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, co-written with Richard Wilkinson, is an international bestseller and was chosen by the Guardian as one of the 100 most influential books of the century and by the New Statesman as a top ten book of the decade. It reshaped the debate on fairness, health and wellbeing. Their follow-up, The Inner Level, confirmed Kate’s status as one of our most rigorous and compelling public thinkers. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Guardian, Nature and New York Times; she has delivered more than 500 keynote speeches, including at the United Nations, the European Parliament and within UK government departments. She is the co-founder and patron of The Equality Trust. In 2023, Kate received an OBE for services to societal equality.