Officers of the APPG on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases

Labour - Gravesham

Joined: 6 November 2024, Co-Chair since 2024

Dr Lauren Sullivan has been the Member of Parliament for Gravesham since July 2024.

Lauren is a scientist who has worked on malaria and neglected tropical diseases, is a published author on the subject, and is also a qualified secondary school chemistry teacher.

Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament, Lauren was the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure at Gravesham Borough Council and has also served as the Chair of the Planning Committee and the Cabinet Member for Strategic Environment. At Kent County Council Lauren was the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Group at Kent County Council and sat on Children's, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee, Personnel Committee and Scrutiny Committee.

Lauren also worked part-time as a Visiting Scientist/Post-Doctoral Fellow at The Francis Crick Institute working to better understanding of the immune response to malaria.

Crossbench - Life Peer

Joined: 29 August 2018, Co-Chair since 16 May 2023

Professor the Lord Trees graduated in 1969 from the Royal School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh. Following a research expedition to Kenya and a year in mixed general practice, Lord Trees completed a PhD on bovine babesiosis and then worked at Elanco (Rome) as veterinary advisor for their Middle-East/North African operations.

In 1980, he was appointed Lecturer in Veterinary Parasitology at the University of Liverpool, based in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He was a Council member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, a founding Diplomate of the European Veterinary Parasitology College, and an Executive Board member of the World Association for Veterinary Parasitology. From 2021 to 2024, Lord Trees was the Chair of the Steering Committee of the United Against Rabies Forum, established by the tripartite organisations, WHO, FAO and OIE. He is currently the Chair of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s 125th Anniversary Campaign.

Labour - Slough

Joined: 20 May 2020, Vice-Chair since March 2021

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi has served as the Member of Parliament for Slough since 2017, the first ever turbaned Sikh in any European Parliament.

Born in Berkshire, having spent his formative years in Slough, Tan received most of his primary education in the Punjab, India, before returning to the UK when he was nine years old. He studied Mathematics with Management at University College London, MSc Applied Statistics at Oxford University, before an MPhil at Cambridge in South Asian history and its connections with Great Britain.

After his studies, Tan worked in construction and even ran his own small company in Scotland.  In 2007, he was elected as a councillor in Gravesham, where he subsequently became Mayor in 2011. During this time he became a Cabinet Member, Constituency Party Chairman and had many voluntary roles including as a School Governor, as a trustee of an Alzheimer’s and Dementia charity Trustee, as a Mencap Society advisor, and as an Independent Police Advisory Group member.

In Parliament, Tan has been the Shadow Minister for Exports, Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, and Shadow Minister for Railways. In September 2024, Tan was elected by the other MPs in the House of Commons to be the Chair of the Defence Select Committee. He is also the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group campaigning for a Western Rail Link to Heathrow and he has spearheaded the campaign for National Sikh War Memorial. He also chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for the South East.

Conservative - Peer

Joined: 6 November 2024, Vice-Chair since November 2024

Baroness Hodgson has been a Conservative Member of the House of Lords since 2013, and is a strong advocate for women’s issues and international women’s rights with a strong interest in international development. 

In Parliament, she is the Co-Chair of the Women, Peace and Security Group and has previously sat on Lords’ Select Committees on sexual violence in conflict, the rural economy, the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, and artificial intelligence in weapons systems.

She is the Hon. Colonel of the Outreach Group, 11th SPAB, a Trustee of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust, a Member of the Steering Board of the Initiative to Prevent Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post Conflict Countries, Chair of the Governance Board of ISCAS (Independent Sector Complaints and Adjudication Service), and a Founding Member of Afghan Women’s Support Forum.