Sheena Asthana

Academic profile

Professor Sheena Asthana

Professor
Peninsula Medical School (Faculty of Health)

The Global Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Sheena's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Goal 01: SDG 1 - No PovertyGoal 03: SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-beingGoal 05: SDG 5 - Gender EqualityGoal 08: SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic GrowthGoal 10: SDG 10 - Reduced InequalitiesGoal 11: SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and CommunitiesGoal 14: SDG 14 - Life Below WaterGoal 16: SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong InstitutionsGoal 17: SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

About Sheena

Professor Sheena Asthana is Director of the Centre for Health Technology and the co-Director of the Centre for Coastal Communities, the first of its kind in the UK. SheenaÂÌñ»»ÆÞ™s research interests include the role of digital health technologies in supporting the shift towards prevention and health inequalities, with a particular focus on levelling up the coastal divide in health outcomes. Recent publications include Asthana, S., Agarwal, S. and Gibson, A. (2026). The Challenges Facing BritainÂÌñ»»ÆÞ™s Coastal Communities: a neglected divide. Policy Press.

Sheena has been an applicant on over £40 million of funded research projects, £30 million since 2020. Her impact case studies on the formula funding of public services were rated 4* in REFs 2014 and 2021. 

She also has a strong track record with respect to senior level governance, non-executive directorships/committee memberships including the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Royal Society of Public Health and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. 

Supervised Research Degrees

P. Evans: Urban Mosquitoes and Measures for their Control in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Awarded 1995; ESRC funded.

P. Vong-Ek. Factors Affecting the Incidence and Duration of Breastfeeding in Thailand: Implications for Health Promotion. Awarded 2000. WHO funded. 

S. Burley. Changing Childbirth: the Role of Antenatal Services. Awarded 2004. University Scholarship, ÂÌñ»»ÆÞ. 

S. Richardson.The Challenge of Interagency Information Sharing. A Systemic Analysis of Two Sure Start Children's Centres. Awarded 2007, ESRC funded

E. Williams. Non-Governmental Organizations and HIV/AIDS in Kolkata, India: A Discursive Analysis of Policy and Programming. Awarded 2009. ESRC funded.

C. Featherstone. Health and wellbeing outcomes and social prescribing pathways in community-based support for autistic adults. Awarded 2023.

Teaching

Health policy; social justice; international social policy; sustainability; and globalisation and health.

Highlights

Fishing nets
Centre for Coastal Communities
Identifying deep-rooted, structural challenges facing coastal communities and co-creating solutions to overcome them
Centre for Health Technology
Centre for Health Technology
Bringing together digital health and technology experts from industry and the University to co-produce, implement and evaluate innovative technological products and services in health care
REF
Redesigning public services funding allocation formulae to maximise social benefit
Getty UK
Shaping how billions of pounds is spent on healthcare access across the UK
ÂÌñ»»ÆÞœI conducted a study on disease prevalence estimates which showed that rural and coastal areas, which were more affluent on paper, were shown to have higher levels of need than urban areas.ÂÌñ»»ÆÞ
getty. group sat on bench by the sea
Forget about the North-South divide, children in coastal communities are being left behind
Why have the many problems facing coastal communities been overlooked in media, academic, policy and political accounts of deprivation in modern Britain?