Dr Crystal Oldman CBE joined the QNI in November 2012 as Chief Executive. Crystal worked in the NHS for 18 years, the majority of which was in the field of community nursing, working with some of the most deprived communities in west London. She has a passion for learning, teaching and research to support best practice and in 1994 joined Buckinghamshire New University as a senior lecturer, to develop a variety of community nursing programmes. Crystal enjoyed an academic career for a further 18 years, completing her Higher Education career as Dean of Enterprise and Business Management in the Faculty of Society & Health, where her role included the development of partnerships with external agencies to promote research and assist in workforce development. Crystal’s interest in leadership and management inspired her doctoral studies into the knowledge, skills and attributes of middle managers and this research was completed in 2014. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 for services to community nursing and her leadership of the QNI.

Ruth enjoyed national appointments with NHS Improvement and Monitor, as well as regional and trust leadership roles, before becoming the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for England in January 2019.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ruth led the nursing, midwifery and care professions’ response in England and led collaborative work with UK CNO colleagues, the NMC and trade unions.

She is passionate about nurturing the next generation of NHS nursing and midwifery leaders and encouraging professional development opportunities. This includes advocating for improved mental health awareness, championing volunteer activity and she is a vocal supporter of increasing diversity across the NHS.

As an academic nurse, health visitor and fellow of the QNI Sally has spent many years conducting and supervising research in primary care and community health nursing. She has a particular interest in family and child health, currently leading the Health Behaviour of School Aged Children survey in collaboration with WHO as well as a number of NIHR funded studies around health visiting with colleagues from UCL. Her international research includes studies in Australia, Kenya and Ukraine. Sally is the co-Director of ICCHNR and also the academic development lead for the ARC in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. She is the co-editor for the journal Primary Health Care Research and Development.

Prof Gina Awoko Higginbottom MBE was appointed in 2015 as the Mary Seacole Professor of Ethnicity and Community Health at the University of Nottingham – the first nurse of BME origin to hold a professorial role in a Russell Group university in England. Formerly a Canada Research Chair in Ethnicity & Health (renewed) at the University Alberta, Canada. The first women of colour to hold a CRC awarded in 2007. She holds a substantial track record of publication, grant acquisition, and Sage research textbook. Her experience as a midwife and health visitor informs her studies of international migration and maternity. Recent research on the Apgar score see RHO site.

Rosamund has held posts in health visiting, midwifery, primary health care development, teaching and research in England and Wales. In 2000 she joined City, University of London. She was appointed as a Fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute for her work in practice development and is an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health. She is a founding trustee of the Institute of Health Visiting, trustee of Tavistock Relationships, honorary treasurer of ICCHNR, a founding editor of Primary Health Care Research and Development, and a consultant to WHO Europe on Moving Primary Care Nursing Forward in North Macedonia.

Ben co-founded and leads the QNI Community Nursing Research Forum. He also leads a programme of interdisciplinary research at the University of Cambridge focused on improving last-days-of-life symptom control for adults dying at home. Ben was recently announced as one of the 75 nurses and midwives whose work has had an especially significant impact on the NHS since its inception. Ben was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Award for Outstanding Service in 2022 and the European Association for Palliative Care Early Researcher Award 2023, for exceptional contributions to community nursing and palliative care research.

Professor Ruth Endacott was appointed inaugural Director of Nursing and Midwifery at the National Institute for Heath and Care Research (NIHR) in May 2021. In this newly created post, Ruth has responsibility for providing professional leadership for nurses and midwives who are supporting, delivering or leading research, promoting nursing and midwifery within the NIHR and beyond, and encouraging more professionals to become involved in research. Ruth is Emeritus Professor at Monash University, Melbourne and Trustee/Director at the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC).

Pretty Manyimo is a clinical academic nurse, with an adult nursing background. She is a Specialist Palliative Care Nurse with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, and currently a first year PhD part-time student with the Warwick University. Pretty's main area of interest is community end-of-life care and health inequities. Her PhD study focuses on how understanding people, needs and context as complex is creating inequities in practice, and impact on experiences of a good death.

Professor John Unsworth is the Interim Deputy Faculty Pro Vice Chancellor at Northumbria University. He has a background in community nursing practice, education, management and research. Prior to his current post John has worked as the Head of Learning and Teaching, University of Sunderland, Head of Academic Development at the Higher Education Academy and as Director of Nursing Programmes at Northumbria University. He is an experienced NHS manager having been a Nurse Director in a rural Care Trust in Northern England prior to taking up posts in Higher Education. He has experience of workforce redesign in relation to developing the community nurses’ role around admission avoidance. John is also an International Council of Nurses (ICN) Global Nursing Leadership Scholar 2020. John has extensive experience of developing nursing, medical and higher education internationally having worked to develop teachers and practice in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Ghana, Bahrain, Hungary, Ukraine and Grenada (West Indies). John trained as a nurse in Sunderland and worked in a variety of acute ward settings before moving into district nursing. He completed his specialist practitioner qualification in district nursing in 1997 and he has worked in a variety of roles including district nursing, as a specialist nurse and nurse consultant. He has a PhD from Robert Gordon University which specifically examined the influence of health care organisations on innovation and development. John is an alumni of the QNI Innovation and Creative Practice Awards and is a Queen’s Nurse. John was awarded an OBE for services to community nursing and community nurse education in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022. 

Professor Brian Webster-Henderson is the Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Cumbria where he holds a strategic portfolio that covers health, science, education, arts, wellbeing, equality, diversity and inclusivity as well as research and knowledge exchange. Prior to joining the University of Cumbria in 2018, Brian held a number of senior academic leadership positions in the UK including Edinburgh Napier University, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen and University of Southampton and has been a Professor since 2009. 

Brian is both a mental health nurse and an adult nurse and has been a registered nurse for 38 years.  He has worked in substance misuses community services as well as inpatient care, specialising in supporting those with alcohol dependency, as well as leading services in gastroenterology, hepatology and emergency medicine. 

Brian has been leading on the creation of the Cumbria School of Medicine, a partnership with Imperial College London, which will open in 2025 as a joint venture. 

Brian has an extensive national and international profile and previously held the post of Chair of the Council of Deans of Health UK (www.councilofdeans.org.uk) for 6 years.  He has provided evidence to the Health Select Committee and a number of other national and strategic organisations in relation to workforce issues, education and innovative solutions. 

Brian was recognised as a Fellow of the Queens Nursing Institute in 2022 and is a Governor at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and a Trustee of the Fells Education Trust in Cumbria.

Dr Crystal Oldman CBE joined the QNI in November 2012 as Chief Executive. Crystal worked in the NHS for 18 years, the majority of which was in the field of community nursing, working with some of the most deprived communities in west London. She has a passion for learning, teaching and research to support best practice and in 1994 joined Buckinghamshire New University as a senior lecturer, to develop a variety of community nursing programmes. Crystal enjoyed an academic career for a further 18 years, completing her Higher Education career as Dean of Enterprise and Business Management in the Faculty of Society & Health, where her role included the development of partnerships with external agencies to promote research and assist in workforce development. Crystal’s interest in leadership and management inspired her doctoral studies into the knowledge, skills and attributes of middle managers and this research was completed in 2014. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 for services to community nursing and her leadership of the QNI.

Professor Alison Leary PhD RN FRCN is the Chair of Healthcare & Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University. She undertakes projects around the modelling of complex systems in healthcare. Her interests are in the complexity of healthcare, mathematical models and data science. She is a registered nurse and is particularly interested in specialist and advanced practice. Alison is the Director of The International Community Nursing Observatory (ICNO) which was launched by the QNI in 2019 to analyse data and trends in the community nursing workforce data in greater depth, to aid understanding of the challenges faced by services.

Louise (Lou) is Strategic Advisor to the NHS Confederation, a role that supports working with senior NHS leaders, Ministers and NHS England to influence health & care policy. Lou qualified as a district nurse and has always maintained her nursing registration, keeping a strong patientcentred focus throughout her leadership career. She set up the NHS Confederation ICS Network and held the national CEO role at NHS Commissioners. She was previously Chief Executive of NHS Buckinghamshire and NHS Oxfordshire CCGs, becoming one of the first eight integrated care system leaders. She is a QNI Fellow.

Alison Kitson is the inaugural Vice President and Executive Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University South Australia. Prior to this appointment she was Dean and Head of School at Adelaide Nursing School at the University of Adelaide. Before moving to Australia in 2009, Alison worked at the Royal College of Nursing in executive leadership, education and research roles. She has published over 300 peer reviewed articles and in 2014 was acknowledged in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Thomas Reuters) list of high cite world researchers for her work on knowledge translation.

Her contribution to nursing and health service research continue to be recognised internationally. Honours include, Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science (2015); Honorary Doctorate from Malmo University (2013); Fellowship of the American Nurses Association (2011). Earlier awards include the Florence Nightingale Leadership Award in 2004; Distinguished Graduate of the Year from the University of Ulster in 2002, a Florence Nightingale Travel Award in 1999 (The Edith Cavell Travel Fellowship) and a Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in 1991. She is a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University and QUT. She is also an Associate Research Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. In 2017 she was appointed to the Board of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

After a long career of thirty years in the NHS - with nine years as a Chief Nursing Officer, I was delighted to join the NMC in March 2023. My role includes leading the Education Standards team, including the quality assurance function - with exciting work currently underway to consider the regulatory options for Advanced Practice, and also scoping our review of the Future programme standards . My team also includes the National Employer link outreach team who are a critical interface with employers to support colleagues with advice and guidance with NMC matters, in addition to leading several key workstreams focused on improving equality.

Professor Alison Machin is Dean of the School of Health and Social Care at Edinburgh Napier University, where she is also Professor of Nursing and Interprofessional Education. In August 2023 Alison was appointed as Chair of the Council of Deans of Health, having previously been a member of the Council Executive as UK Workforce lead, a Trustee and Council Convenor in Scotland.

Alison was appointed Dean in 2020, from Northumbria University where she previously held a range of academic leadership roles in the Faculty of Health Sciences, including Deputy Faculty Pro Vice-Chancellor and previously Head of the Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Health.

She started her academic career at Northumbria University in 1999 as a Senior Lecturer in adult nursing. In 2003 she was appointed as Director of Interprofessional Education, with Principal Lecturer responsibility for the strategic development of interprofessional education across health and social care pre-registration programmes. Alison also played a lead role in a national Department of Health funded initiative to embed service improvement learning into pre-registration health curricula. She has led Post Graduate taught programmes in public health, enhancing the learning experience of both UK and international students. She has also been the strategic lead for a high profile, international nurse education collaborative venture in Malta.

Prior to her university appointment, Alison worked for 11 years as a Registered Nurse and as a Health Visitor, supporting the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities. She is a strong advocate for the nursing profession and is passionate about preparing the future nursing workforce to deliver outstanding, fit for purpose, quality care as part of an interprofessional health and social care team.

For six years Alison was also a Trustee of CAIPE, the Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education, and Co-editor of a CAIPE book series on Collaborative Practice in Health and Social Care. Alison is an active researcher, an experienced PhD supervisor and Doctoral examiner. Her research interests include: interprofessional education; nursing and healthcare collaborative workforce development; professional identity; health visiting; public health; and using qualitative methodologies including grounded theory.

Professor Brian Webster-Henderson is the Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Cumbria where he holds a strategic portfolio that covers health, science, education, arts, wellbeing, equality, diversity and inclusivity as well as research and knowledge exchange. Prior to joining the University of Cumbria in 2018, Brian held a number of senior academic leadership positions in the UK including Edinburgh Napier University, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen and University of Southampton and has been a Professor since 2009. 

Brian is both a mental health nurse and an adult nurse and has been a registered nurse for 38 years.  He has worked in substance misuses community services as well as inpatient care, specialising in supporting those with alcohol dependency, as well as leading services in gastroenterology, hepatology and emergency medicine. 

Brian has been leading on the creation of the Cumbria School of Medicine, a partnership with Imperial College London, which will open in 2025 as a joint venture. 

Brian has an extensive national and international profile and previously held the post of Chair of the Council of Deans of Health UK (www.councilofdeans.org.uk) for 6 years.  He has provided evidence to the Health Select Committee and a number of other national and strategic organisations in relation to workforce issues, education and innovative solutions. 

Brian was recognised as a Fellow of the Queens Nursing Institute in 2022 and is a Governor at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and a Trustee of the Fells Education Trust in Cumbria.

Professor John Unsworth is the Interim Deputy Faculty Pro Vice Chancellor at Northumbria University. He has a background in community nursing practice, education, management and research. Prior to his current post John has worked as the Head of Learning and Teaching, University of Sunderland, Head of Academic Development at the Higher Education Academy and as Director of Nursing Programmes at Northumbria University. He is an experienced NHS manager having been a Nurse Director in a rural Care Trust in Northern England prior to taking up posts in Higher Education. He has experience of workforce redesign in relation to developing the community nurses’ role around admission avoidance. John is also an International Council of Nurses (ICN) Global Nursing Leadership Scholar 2020. John has extensive experience of developing nursing, medical and higher education internationally having worked to develop teachers and practice in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Ghana, Bahrain, Hungary, Ukraine and Grenada (West Indies). John trained as a nurse in Sunderland and worked in a variety of acute ward settings before moving into district nursing. He completed his specialist practitioner qualification in district nursing in 1997 and he has worked in a variety of roles including district nursing, as a specialist nurse and nurse consultant. He has a PhD from Robert Gordon University which specifically examined the influence of health care organisations on innovation and development. John is an alumni of the QNI Innovation and Creative Practice Awards and is a Queen’s Nurse. John was awarded an OBE for services to community nursing and community nurse education in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022. 

Dr Crystal Oldman CBE joined the QNI in November 2012 as Chief Executive. Crystal worked in the NHS for 18 years, the majority of which was in the field of community nursing, working with some of the most deprived communities in west London. She has a passion for learning, teaching and research to support best practice and in 1994 joined Buckinghamshire New University as a senior lecturer, to develop a variety of community nursing programmes. Crystal enjoyed an academic career for a further 18 years, completing her Higher Education career as Dean of Enterprise and Business Management in the Faculty of Society & Health, where her role included the development of partnerships with external agencies to promote research and assist in workforce development. Crystal’s interest in leadership and management inspired her doctoral studies into the knowledge, skills and attributes of middle managers and this research was completed in 2014. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 for services to community nursing and her leadership of the QNI.

Fatima is known nationally for leading complex change and transformation programmes across systems and geographies. An advocate for Public and Carer Involvement, Compassionate Leadership and Diversity and Inclusion and recently named in the 2021 HSJ top 50 most influential Health leaders from an Ethnic Minority. Fatima leads several agendas in West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership leading to changes in legislation and government policy.

Rob is Chief Executive of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. He is also Lead Chief Executive for the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, an integrated care system that he has led since 2016. In 2022, the HSJ awarded the Partnership the award for ICS of the Year for the second year running. Rob is defined by a values-based approach to leadership. He has a history of effective partnership working and a strong commitment to system leadership. He has worked in healthcare since 1990 in various national roles and has been a successful Chief Executive in the NHS since 2007. Rob is an active member of the NHS Assembly.

Sir Muir has worked for the National Health Service in England since 1972, occupying a variety of senior positions during that time, including serving as the Director of Research and Development for Anglia and Oxford Regional Health Authority, and first establishing and  then being the  Director of the UK National Screening Committee. He founded the National Library for Health, and was the Director of Clinical Knowledge, Process, and Safety for the NHS (England) National Programme for IT, serving as the Director of the National Knowledge Service.  He was the first person to hold the post of Chief Knowledge Officer of the NHS (England), also serving as the co-Director of the Department of Health’s Quality Innovation Productivity and Prevention  (QIPP) Right Care Programme.  Together with Sir Iain Chalmers, Muir was instrumental in establishing the Cochrane Collaboration.

Rachel has a Human Sciences degree (Oxford) and a Master’s degree in demography and epidemiology from the London School of Economics. She worked in public health initiatives in the UK, Georgia and Kazakhstan before helping to develop The Cochrane Library during the first decade of its life.

Siobhan leads a national project to integrate sustainability into quality improvement healthcare education. She is a registered nurse with a background in emergency nursing, primary care, clinical research delivery, management and teaching. Siobhan graduated from the NIHR Advanced Leadership Programme in 2019. She is the founder of the grass-roots movement Parents for Future in Norwich and also co-founded Eco Action Families.

Professor John Unsworth is the Interim Deputy Faculty Pro Vice Chancellor at Northumbria University. He has a background in community nursing practice, education, management and research. Prior to his current post John has worked as the Head of Learning and Teaching, University of Sunderland, Head of Academic Development at the Higher Education Academy and as Director of Nursing Programmes at Northumbria University. He is an experienced NHS manager having been a Nurse Director in a rural Care Trust in Northern England prior to taking up posts in Higher Education. He has experience of workforce redesign in relation to developing the community nurses’ role around admission avoidance. John is also an International Council of Nurses (ICN) Global Nursing Leadership Scholar 2020. John has extensive experience of developing nursing, medical and higher education internationally having worked to develop teachers and practice in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Ghana, Bahrain, Hungary, Ukraine and Grenada (West Indies). John trained as a nurse in Sunderland and worked in a variety of acute ward settings before moving into district nursing. He completed his specialist practitioner qualification in district nursing in 1997 and he has worked in a variety of roles including district nursing, as a specialist nurse and nurse consultant. He has a PhD from Robert Gordon University which specifically examined the influence of health care organisations on innovation and development. John is an alumni of the QNI Innovation and Creative Practice Awards and is a Queen’s Nurse. John was awarded an OBE for services to community nursing and community nurse education in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022. 

Dr Crystal Oldman CBE joined the QNI in November 2012 as Chief Executive. Crystal worked in the NHS for 18 years, the majority of which was in the field of community nursing, working with some of the most deprived communities in west London. She has a passion for learning, teaching and research to support best practice and in 1994 joined Buckinghamshire New University as a senior lecturer, to develop a variety of community nursing programmes. Crystal enjoyed an academic career for a further 18 years, completing her Higher Education career as Dean of Enterprise and Business Management in the Faculty of Society & Health, where her role included the development of partnerships with external agencies to promote research and assist in workforce development. Crystal’s interest in leadership and management inspired her doctoral studies into the knowledge, skills and attributes of middle managers and this research was completed in 2014. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 for services to community nursing and her leadership of the QNI.

George has been the Chief Executive of the National Garden Scheme since 2010. The NGS gives visitors unique access to over 3,500 exceptional private gardens in England and Wales and raises impressive amounts of money for nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and plants. Annual donations are in excess of £3 million. Previous career as a gardens author and journalist started in 1980. The first of 14 garden books, Royal Gardens, was published in 1981. The most recent, The English Country House Garden, was published in 2014 and won the GMG's 'Inspirational Book of the Year'award.

Louise (Lou) is Strategic Advisor to the NHS Confederation, a role that supports working with senior NHS leaders, Ministers and NHS England to influence health & care policy. Lou qualified as a district nurse and has always maintained her nursing registration, keeping a strong patientcentred focus throughout her leadership career. She set up the NHS Confederation ICS Network and held the national CEO role at NHS Commissioners. She was previously Chief Executive of NHS Buckinghamshire and NHS Oxfordshire CCGs, becoming one of the first eight integrated care system leaders. She is a QNI Fellow.

Karen holds a diploma, a BSc (Hons) in Nursing and an MSc in advanced practice leadership from Kings College University. She is a graduate of the NHS Leadership Academy Senior Leaders & Nye Bevan programme & the Leadership College for Government Deputy CEO programme. She was highly commended by the Nursing Times in 2019 for her work in diversity and inclusion and recognised by the Health Service Journal 2021 and 2022 as one of of the 50 most influential BAME people in health. Nursing Times recognised Karen as one of the 75 nurses who have positively the NHS over the past 75 years.

Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu is an Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London. In 1979 she set up the first ever UK sickle cell/thalassaemia nurse counselling service, based in Brent. She then became a senior lecturer in Community Genetic Counselling at the University College London’s Institute of Child Health. Prior to retirement in 2007, she was Dean of the School of Adult Nursing Studies & Professor of Nursing at University of West London (UWL), before establishing the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice, also at UWL. Elizabeth was Vice-Chairperson of the successful Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal and is now a Life Patron of the Mary Seacole Trust. In 2016 she published her memoirs Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union. Elizabeth became a Dame in 2017 in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours and was awarded a Fellowship of the Queen’s Nursing Institute (FQNI) in October 2017 and became a Vice-President of the QNI in 2021.

Nigel was Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust until 8th September this year. He has a long standing interest in both health policy and healthcare delivery and he now works as an independent consultant for WHO Europe, the National Association of Primary Care, PPL Ltd and a number of other organisations on healthcare policy and planning. Prior to the Nuffield Trust where he led a team of researchers and policy experts he worked for KPMG, the King's Fund and the NHS Confederation where he was Policy Director for 11 years. He is an honorary visiting professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Stephen McGann is a British actor, best known for portraying Dr Patrick Turner in the BBC One medical period drama series Call the Midwife. He is also an author of several books including, 'Flesh and Blood: A History of My Family in Seven Sicknesses’.

Heidi Thomas OBE is an English screenwriter and playwright. In 2011 she wrote and co-produced an adaptation of the Call the Midwife trilogy of books by Jennifer Worth. She is an honorary associate of the London Film School, and has honorary doctorates from the University of Liverpool and Edge Hill University. In January 2019, she was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain for her body of professional work. Thomas was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

Dr Crystal Oldman CBE joined the QNI in November 2012 as Chief Executive. Crystal worked in the NHS for 18 years, the majority of which was in the field of community nursing, working with some of the most deprived communities in west London. She has a passion for learning, teaching and research to support best practice and in 1994 joined Buckinghamshire New University as a senior lecturer, to develop a variety of community nursing programmes. Crystal enjoyed an academic career for a further 18 years, completing her Higher Education career as Dean of Enterprise and Business Management in the Faculty of Society & Health, where her role included the development of partnerships with external agencies to promote research and assist in workforce development. Crystal’s interest in leadership and management inspired her doctoral studies into the knowledge, skills and attributes of middle managers and this research was completed in 2014. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 for services to community nursing and her leadership of the QNI.