Alison Baum is the CEO and Founder of Best Beginnings, which she set up in 2006 as a catalyst for change to reduce child health inequalities in the UK. Prior to setting up the charity, Alison worked in the BBC Science department for almost ten years. She produced and directed science and health documentaries including Horizon and played a key role in a BBC internal change programme.
Alison has an MA from Oxford University in Pure and Applied Biology and a Distinction in her MSc from UCL in Neuroscience. Using her leadership and executive production experience, Alison is passionate about working collaboratively, from the evidence and innovatively. She has pioneered the development of Best Beginnings innovative resources including DVDs, a magazine and the multi-award-winning Baby Buddy, to support the emotional and physical transition to parenthood.
In 2008 Alison won the Sheila McKechnie Award for Campaigner of the Year in the category of Health and Social Care and in 20014 she was awarded the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association “Advocate of the Year”. More recently, in 2015 Alison won the Federation of Women Graduates “Woman of Democracy and 2017 she was awarded an OBE for her services to reducing inequalities in child health.
Alison was on the National Maternity Review and now sits on the Maternity Transformation Programme Stakeholder Group and a number of other national boards and groups.
Alison is married to a professor of paediatrics. Together they have two children aged 15 and 17.
