Ilona Johnson is Consultant in Public Health at Public Health Wales and is the chair of the UK British Society of Community Dentistry Consultants and specialists Group. She is lead for Adult Obesity and Nutrition for the National Public Health Improvement Team with responsibilities that include Whole Systems Approaches for healthy weight.
Ilona is a member of the Welsh Government Dental Leads Group and is the Chair of the Welsh Government Dental Decontamination Group.
Ilona completed her Bachelor of Dentistry in London and her career has involved working in general dental practice, hospitals, community dental service. She later completed her Master’s in Public Health (Distinction) before moving to Cardiff to where she completed her PhD and specialist training. Her PhD worked across the disciplines of dentistry, nursing and psychology looking at carers’ emotional experiences, including disgust and fear to understand the psychological barriers and enablers of personal oral hygiene care. Prior to her current position Ilona was a Reader at Cardiff University and her dental public health work included the development and implementation of dental pandemic response plans in Wales and the development and collation of the evidence base to support best practice. Her work has included work to develop the evidence base for NICE guidance and national programmes, older adult and special care dentistry research and educational innovation work streams.
She has been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship Award and a number of Association of Dental Education (ADEE) prizes for her research.
