Janet Atherton was elected as President of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) from May 2012 for a term of three years. She has been actively involved in the work of the ADPH since 2006, and was Treasurer from 2007 to 2010.
Janet has been a local Director of Public Health since 1998, first in Wirral and then Sefton in Merseyside. She has also been Acting Chief Executive for NHS Sefton for nine months prior to the establishment of the NHS Merseyside Cluster when she returned to her public health role. Janet trained in medicine and public health in the North East before making the move to the North West in 1994.

Her commitment to tackling Health Inequalities was recognised in a NHS North West Leadership Academy Award in 2008. She has a long standing special interest in tobacco control and was responsible for setting up the successful Smokefree North West programme (now Tobacco Free Futures).