Grigor McClelland lecture: Anna Dixon, Chief Executive, Centre for Ageing Better

The opportunities of an ageing society: looking beyond the challenges.  

We are living much longer than our parents’ and grandparents’ generations. The prospect of a 100 year life should be seen as an opportunity. And yet the prevailing narrative is one dominated by concerns about rising pensions and health care costs and later life is depicted as a time of decline and misery.

In this lecture Anna Dixon will argue that we need to recognise the opportunities of longer lives and the contribution that people in later life can and do make as workers, consumers, carers and volunteers. She will discuss some of the changes that are needed in society to enable more people to enjoy later life.

Anna joined Ageing Better in September 2015 from the Department of Health where she was Director of Strategy and Chief Analyst.

She has more than 15 years’ experience of working at the interface of research, policy and practice focused on health and care including at The King’s Fund, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

Anna is a highly respected and well-known figure in health policy and has a successful track record of working at the highest levels of government to bring about positive change. Throughout her career she has been committed to ensuring the voice and needs of the citizen and patients are at the heart of her work.