Halima is a former Executive Director at the Greater London Authority (GLA) and an Affiliated Researcher at the University of Cambridge.

Passionate about developing people-powered approaches to public services which harness the insights and motivation of frontline staff and citizens, Halima has been involved in research, design, funding and implementation as a policymaker in national, regional and local government, and as an executive director at the leading national innovation charity, Nesta.

At  Nesta, Halima was responsible for launching the Health Lab and building Nesta’s health and care work into an influential body of work collectively brought together as People Powered Health.  She left to take up the post of Executive Director Communities and Skills at the GLA, including supporting the work of the Mayor on communities, adult skills and public health through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prior to joining Nesta, between 2007 and 2010 Halima was Deputy Director of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit (PMSU), working with the Cabinet Office and Number 10.  At the PMSU she was a member of the Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People project, which led to the expansion of individual budgets in health and social care and establishment of the Office for Disability Issues in the Department for Work and Pensions.  In local government, at Camden Council she helped lead the five-year community strategy and the Council’s citizen engagement work.

Halima holds a first-class BA from Oxford University and a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2015, Halima was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Health Sciences from Anglia Ruskin University for her work in health innovation. She holds non-executive positions at the Mayday Trust and Royal Society of Public Health, as well as being a member of the Public Policy Committee at the British Academy, and a previous Trustee of Diabetes UK.