Dr Rachel Barry is a Research Fellow in International Public Health Policy at the Centre for 21st Century Public Health. Her research explores how policymakers manage potentially competing priorities while protecting health, concentrating principally on issues related to coordination and coherence. She is particularly interested in the political, institutional, and ideational drivers of commercial sector influence and of governance approaches to regulating commercial actors. Her current research explores the barriers and enablers to achieving integration across health and other policy objectives, including crime, economic development, social equity, and environmental sustainability. She also examines how diverse stakeholders understand and address conflicts of interest in health and climate policymaking, including how principles from tobacco control could be applied to managing interactions with fossil fuels, alcohol, and cannabis companies.

Currently, Rachel leads C21PH’s Academy for ECRs and contributes to research coordination efforts across its diverse research projects. She also serves as the Department Rounds Coordinator and Research Staff Representative on the Department for Health's Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee. In 2026, she became President of International Confederation of Alcohol, Tobacco, and other Drugs Research Association (ICARA), an international research network focused on building capacity and addressing the dearth in evidence on the commercial determinants of health in low-and-middle-income countries.