9 January 2025

What is your role with King’s Health Partners?

I have had several roles at King’s Health Partners over nearly eight years. I am Director of Partnerships and Operations, which means I am responsible for supporting people, teams and partners to work together across professional, disciplinary, organisation, and system boundaries to realise the benefits and potential of being part of an Academic Health Sciences Centre.

I often think about my job as about bringing together people who don’t know one another (yet) who should.

Over the last few years, this has included our international partnerships and especially the European University Hospital Alliance.

What inspired you to take on this role and what are your priorities for KHP?

I have had the privilege to work with many passionate, dedicated, and brilliant health professionals, patients, community organisers, academics and students - all committed to improving the outcomes that matter most to people.

I hope that through my experience, commitment, and approach - I have supported and enabled people to continually make progress to improving health and equity. My priority – personally and professionally – is to realise this impact and benefit for as many people as possible.

What benefits of partnership have you seen through your work?

I worked closely with Prof John Moxham when developing the concept of the Vital 5 - working with a wide range of people across the whole health system locally, including influencing national policy, and planning (especially in relation to supporting stopping smoking and safe drinking). I think the partnership facilitated bringing people together with different experience and expertise to develop, deliver, and scale an approach to practically improving population health outcomes - such as through the Vital 5 Check. 

What have been your career highlights?

I worked closely with Prof Louise Rose and Dr Joel Meyer to support them in rapidly scaling the Life Lines virtual family visiting in intensive care units to over 150 hospitals across the UK within four weeks, leading to more than 150,00 virtual family visits and over a million call minutes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I remember helping a hospital IT team in Scotland get their Android devices connected on a Sunday evening, and seeing someone the next day share their wedding picture on Twitter saying they had seen and spoken with their husband for the first time in four weeks. This human impact was only possible because of the combination of people, organisations and partnerships that came together to translate an idea into practice.

What would be your one career top tip?

Assume the best in people. You never know what else someone has going on in their lives, and the impact your words can have – positively or negatively – outside of work. I know it’s very basic (as it is something my toddler is starting to grasp), but it’s also fundamentally important (and something we sometimes forget once we are no longer toddlers).