Professor Jamie M. Lachman

I have dedicated my career to developing, implementing, and scaling social interventions that improve the lives of vulnerable children and families. With over 20 years of experience, my work lies at the intersection of research, innovation, and impact, empowering parents with the tools and skills needed to foster healthy child development and prevent family violence.

I am a Professor of Child and Family Global Health at the University of Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention. My research cuts across the fields of public health, psychology, and social work, involving methodologies such as human centred design, cultural adaptation, factorial experiments, effectiveness trials, implementation science, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

I am the lead principal investigator of the Global Parenting Initiative, which is a 5-year $22 million project aimed at expanding the evidence and impact of in-person, remote, digital, and hybrid playful parenting interventions in the Global South. I am also a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on research projects in Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, and Uganda.  

I am also the CEO and co-founder of Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH), a charitable social enterprise working closely with World Health Organisation and UNICEF to support the scale-up of parenting programmes in the Global South. 

I co-led an international, multi-agency response that has provided open-source and freely available evidence-based parenting resources to over 210 million people in more than 196 countries and territories to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on violence against children and poor child wellbeing. 

Previously, I founded and served as Executive Director of Clowns Without Borders South Africa, a humanitarian arts-based organisation that provides psychosocial support to vulnerable children and families through humour and play.

I hold a DPhil in Social Intervention at the University of Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention. I also hold degrees from the University of Oxford (MSc with distinction), Yale University (BA with distinction), and the Dell’Arte International School for Physical Theatre.  

In addition to my academic and professional pursuits, I am a storyteller, banjo player, singer-songwriter, clown, director, and facilitator, committed to blending creativity with compassion in all aspects of my work.