RPS Conference 2023 Speakers

Dr Hend Abdelhakim is an Assistant Professor in Healthcare Commercilization and Marketing at the UCL Global Business School for Health.

She is a UK registered pharmacist with expertise in clinical trials and eight years’ experience as a practising community pharmacist. In 2016, Hend received a fully funded MRC and Pfizer iCASE scholarship to complete her PhD studies at the School of Pharmacy, UCL. During her studies, Hend continued practising as a pharmacist alongside her research.

She completed her PhD in 2021 which focused on using advanced manufacturing technologies for taste masking of medicines for paediatric drug development, aimed at improving clinical outcomes. At UCL she has continued her research in the taste-assessment of bitter drugs for improved formulations and to support increased patient adherence in special groups like children and the elderly.

Upon completion of her PhD she remained at UCL in the School of Pharmacy as an Associate Lecturer in Pharmaceutics and continued her teaching and research, which led to numerous publication in high-impact journals as well as numerous conference exhibitions.

She is the co-founder and director of Gustoceutics Limited, founded in 2022, where she is a pharmaceutical consultant and manages interactions with clients developing pharmaceutical products and medicines. This role is helping pharmaceutical companies understand the taste of their medicines which informs their formulation strategy.

Most recently in 2023 she was shortlisted for the Outstanding Pharmacist and Early-Career Researcher Award (OPERA) by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Professor John Amaechi OBE is a respected organisational psychologist, an award-winning, international (Sunday and New York Times) best-selling author, a sought-after public speaker, an executive coach and the Founder of APS Intelligence Ltd.

He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and Research Fellow at the University of East London; his research interests include effective, inclusive leadership, building high-performing teams and effective organisational design that maximises productivity and human thriving in readiness for the future world of work.

Dr Naoko Arakawa is Associate Professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, UK. She is also a registered pharmacist in Japan and worked in hospital and community pharmacy for 8 years before postgraduate education in UK. 

She holds MSc in Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy, and PhD from the UCL School of Pharmacy in UK. Dr Arakawa is an interim Education Secretary of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), and a Global Lead for Competency Development of the FIP Hub. 

Her research area is health systems and policy, and pharmacy practice, pharmacy education and workforce development, competency-based education and training, international education system and development.

Professor Diane Ashiru-Oredope is Lead Pharmacist for healthcare associated infections (HCAI) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at UK Health Security Agency and Deputy Chief Scientist at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. 

She is Honorary Chair and Professor of Pharmaceutical Public Health at University of Nottingham. 

An antimicrobial pharmacist by background, Diane has led several projects that have shaped national and international policy in tackling antimicrobial resistance, including creating the global Antibiotic Guardian campaign in 2014 and co-leading the development and implementation of Start Smart then Focus AMS toolkit for secondary care. 

Between 2020 and 2022, Diane led a UK wide evidence review on pharmaceutical public health commissioned by the four UK Chief Pharmaceutical Officers. From 2016 until March 2022, she was advisor and Global AMR lead for the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association. 

She was successfully credentialed as a consultant pharmacist in 2022, having previously been awarded Faculty Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (FFRPS) in 2016 and is a Fellow of the RPS (FRPharmS) and Commonwealth Pharmacists Association. 

She has been nominated and delivered TEDx talks at TEDxNHS and TEDxLondonBusinesSchool on antimicrobial resistance, awareness and stewardship.

Professor Tony Avery, OBE, is National Clinical Director for Prescribing. He has also a GP in Nottingham, and Professor of Primary Health Care at the University of Nottingham.

He is passionate about ensuring the safe, effective, and appropriate use of medicines and has worked in partnership with the pharmacy professions, other healthcare professionals and patients over 30 years to drive forward research and policy development in prescribing and patient safety.

He has led a number of major studies investigating the frequency, nature, and causes of prescribing safety problems in the NHS. He has also developed effective methods for tackling hazardous prescribing, most notably the pharmacist-led, IT-based intervention called PINCER, which has now been rolled out nationally to general practices in England.

Tony’s work recognises the vital role that medicines have in treating illness and helping people live with long-term conditions, while acknowledging that prescribing of a medicine is not always the best solution. He is committed to ensuring health care professionals and patients have the information and support they need for shared decision-making about whether a prescription is needed and, if so, how to balance the effectiveness and safety of medicines alongside the costs to the patient, the NHS, and the environment.

Sarah works part-time as Professional Governance and Development lead for Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust and part-time at the University of Birmingham as an assistant professor, leading on the prescribing in the MPharm undergraduate programme.

She is well versed in maintaining professional standards frameworks, in her previous roles as programme director at a HEA and implementing these at a local level formerly as PCN lead pharmacist and more recently as governance lead, Sarah encourages, implements, and champions high standards of clinical practice. 

Sarah has a special interest in, and substantive experience working in the area of diabetes and renal medicine and has led in this area for a period of 6 years in her previous role in secondary care. She is highly respected locally as an expert in diabetes, evident by her contribution to local and national networks as a member of the UKCPA diabetes and endocrine committee. 

She endeavours to continue to champion diabetes care and share her passion and expert practice with patients as an independent prescriber, students in her capacity as an academic, and colleagues in her Professional development role. Sarah has a vision to change the care of patients and tackle health inequalities at every level.

Jayne is an experienced Chief Pharmacist now heading up the Pharmacy team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. 

With a passion for Antimicrobial stewardship, she supported the development of commonwealth partnership work at Buckinghamshire Healthcare.

Christine Bond, University of Aberdeen (BPharm (Hons.), MEd, PhD, FRPharmS, FFRPS FFPH FRCPE, FRCGP): Emeritus Professor and past Head of Centre of Academic Primary Care.

She is Editor of the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice (IJPP), international Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, and immediate past Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Science and Research Board; she was previously an elected member of the Scottish Pharmacy Board.

She has been awarded well over 100 research grants and has over 300 research publications on the contribution of pharmacy to the delivery of health care and has a particular interest in the pharmacist’s role in the evidence based, safe and cost-effective use of medicines.

She has sat on many national and international funding bodies and was awarded the Pharma’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.

Lawrence is a GP at Poole Bay and Bournemouth PCN.

He is also a RCGP representative, as well as a developer and facilitator of AHSN National Polypharmacy Action Learning Sets.

Professor Liz Breen is a Professor in Health Service Operations at the University of Bradford School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences. She is also the current Director of the Digital Health Enterprise Zone, an innovation facility based at the University of Bradford. 

Liz is a Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research Fellow and an Affiliate Member of the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Research Centre. Liz’s research focuses on improvement and sustainability in service supply chains with a specific interest in health supply chains and food security. Her work aims to better understand the complexity of supply chain systems and learnings within and between supply chains such as pharmaceutical and food supply chains.  Projects focusing directly on the pharmaceutical supply chain explore areas such as medicines shortages, medicines waste management, supply chain risk and medicines deliveries during the pandemic. 

Liz has also undertaken extensive media engagement discussing the creation and deployment of Covid-19 vaccines within the UK and globally. This work has been cited in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America and Australia and in key media outlets such as The Guardian, Time Magazine and Forbes.

Professor Ged Byrne is a surgical oncologist and director of Global Health Partnerships at Health Education England. 

Professor Byrne is responsible for the enhancement of the NHS workforce through engagement with countries within and outside the EEA. 

He is a Professor of Medical Education at the UoM, an honorary Professor of Health Sciences at the University of Salford and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy. 

In his roles as director of Education and Quality for Health Education North West and director of Education and Quality for HHE North, he has led nationally for HEE on population health and prevention, patient safety and academic development. 

He has a long-standing interest in global healthcare capacity building and education, leading the development of the GuluMan healthcare link and is the founder director of the Uganda-UK Healthcare Alliance. He passionately believes that education must be globalised for all NHS staff if they are to offer a fit for purpose role in the future of healthcare in the UK. 

He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2019 for global and medical education.

Dr Sarah Carter is the Chief Executive Officer of the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA). 

Her background is in health psychology and she has a broad interest in health and wellbeing. 

She has worked in the area of pharmacy since 2001.

Jagjot is a Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Lead Pharmacist and an alumnus of Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Clinical Fellowship at NHS England.

She has extensive experience as a hospital pharmacist and currently leading on developing innovative prevention pathways across North-East London.

Jagjot has a particular interest in addressing health inequalities and integrating services across hospital, primary care and community pharmacy for improved patient access to healthcare.

She holds a master’s degree in Business and Organisational Strategy and is a certified independent prescriber.

Robyn is a Lived Experience Partner, Coach and Mentor with National Voices. 

She sustained a spinal cord injury in 2006 leaving her tetraplegic and has needed 24-hour care ever since. Initially provided through traditional care agency services, Robyn moved to a personal health budget in 2015 which enabled her to employ her own PAs, and transformed both her health, and quality of life. 

Robyn has used her lived experience to co-produce policy, strategy and service development with health systems and organisations for many years. As well as her work with National Voices, Robyn is a director of a Community Interest Company which provides information and peer support on personal health budgets, and consultancy on co-production. 

She is passionate about personalisation and development of health services, and people having choice and control in their health and the way health services are provided.

Helen graduated from Manchester University in 2004. From there she moved to London and started at The Royal Free Hospital. In 2012 she entered the realm of paediatrics, taking on the role of specialist paediatric liver pharmacist, progressing to the principal pharmacist for Women’s and Childrens’ in 2019.

In 2022 she moved to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, being appointed to lead on the South-East London Paediatric Specials Task and Formulary Interface. She liaises with a multitude of healthcare professionals across the ICS, providing support and advice to optimise and harmonise the prescribing of, not only unlicensed specials, but medicines in general to patients. Alongside this Helen is part of a small working group of paediatric pharmacists across the country who are seeking to implement standard liquid concentrations nationally.

Outside of work Helen is a keen runner, having completed the London Marathon most recently in 2hrs 57mins, something she is very proud of!

Keval joined the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) in 2021 and is a registered pharmacist, with experience of working in community pharmacy prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry where he worked in a company role supporting the NHS and as a medical science liaison. 

Keval also worked for the NHS part time which included writing guidelines, clinical trial standard operating procedures and audits for an NHS Trust. 

His last role at a pharmaceutical company involved being a signatory, providing expert advice on the Code, staff training, as well as producing standard operating procedures.

James is the RPS' Director for England, and has worked as a pharmacist in research, community, and hospital practice.

He graduated from the University of Bath in pharmacy, undertook his pre-registration training at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and successfully joined the pharmaceutical register.

He was also president of the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association during this time.

James worked as a hospital pharmacist in Bristol NHS Trust, before joining UCL School of Pharmacy to pursue pharmacy research, being part of the national team that evaluated the New Medicines Service in community pharmacy. His PhD thesis focussed on the future role of community pharmacy, and how future business and professional models of community pharmacy practice are likely to be structured.

With a wide variety of interests, James' published work covers areas such as cardiovascular risk testing in pharmacies, the role of tele-pharmacy in delivering patient care, effects of automation and electronic transfer of prescriptions on safety of medicines, and student views on future pharmacy practice.

He was recently Chief Operating Officer for a health technology start-up, supporting the expansion and development of the company across Europe. Prior to this, he held a variety of policy roles for pharmacy organisations.

Following pharmacy undergraduate at the University of Sunderland, Ciara qualified as a pharmacist in 2012. Time as a clinical pharmacist in oncology/haematology encouraged exploration of NHS technical services whilst completing postgraduate diplomas in Advanced Clinical Practice from Queen's University Belfast and Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Assurance from The University of Manchester, gaining community pharmacy experience as a locum at this time. 

NHS Technical Service roles included production specialist in clinical trials before moving into a quality assurance role and subsequently trainee Qualified Person(QP), passing viva in 2020. 

Ciara joined Novartis in October 2021. As a QP her experience encompasses sterile and non-sterile manufacturing, quality control, and quality assurance for various product types, from traditional forms to radiopharmaceutical and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). She works across the Novartis innovative medicines portfolio from Investigative Medicinal Products (IMP) through to commercial products. 

Ciara is an English Pharmacy Board member, assembly member and recently appointed to the Financial Investment Committee at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. She is a regular host on the RPS Pharmascene podcast, exploring careers and topics at the intersections of healthcare, academia and industry. 

She is dedicated to nurturing collaboration between industry, government, and the broader healthcare systems with a passion for leveraging transferable skills within pharmacy to support and strengthen healthcare systems and their interfaces. 

Ciara’s mission is to simplify the path to innovation in industry and healthcare and improve patient outcomes though the wider application of quality principles.

Minna is the Chief Sustainability Officer's Clinical Fellow 2023/24 and the Vice Chair of Sustainability at Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists.

Andrew has been the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales since 2016. 

Prior to his appointment he was principal pharmacist in pharmaceutical public health at Public Health Wales NHS Trust and was previously a pharmaceutical adviser in the NHS in Wales and England, a postgraduate education tutor, GP practice and community pharmacist. 

He was made a fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 2018 and was awarded an OBE for services to the UK’s pandemic response in 2022. 

He is an honorary lecturer at Cardiff University and has particular research interests in how medicines and pharmacy services impact on population health.

Alex Fell is the Director of the PMCPA, the self-regulatory body of the UK Pharmaceutical Industry. 

Prior to joining the PMCPA in June 2022, Alex was the Vice-President, Head of Risk International at Amicus Therapeutics. 

Before joining Amicus Therapeutics in 2019, Alex spent over 13 years with GSK in ethics and compliance leadership roles in the UK, USA, and Singapore. His roles included Head of Ethics and Compliance for the Europe Pharmaceuticals Business and Director in Internal Audit.

Emma has been a hospital pharmacist for over 20 years, working in a variety of different hospitals from small district generals to large teaching hospitals – including a tiny mission hospital in Ghana! 

She specialised in oncology in 2001 taking on both technical and clinical roles, qualifying as an independent prescriber in 2010 and completing an MSc in clinical oncology at Birmingham University in 2011. 

She is a visiting lecturer at University of Brighton and has helped to develop a case-based lecture series around a breast cancer case. 

As Consultant Pharmacist, Emma works with a multidisciplinary team to innovate and implement chemotherapy service improvements as well as working with the pharmacy team to promote the role of pharmacists as advanced practitioners and develop a pharmacist- led research portfolio. 

She is currently Vice Chair of the British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) and a founder member of the UK and Ireland Global Cancer Research Network.

Claire is Lead Pre-operative Assessment Pharmacist at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. 

She has worked in pre-operative assessment clinics since 2009 and uses her prescribing qualification for pre-operative optimisation of anaemia and hypertension. 

She is a member of the UKCPA Surgical Committee and along with Sarah Tinsley is lead co-author of the UKCPA Handbook of Perioperative Medicines which was relaunched in November 2019.

Alexandra started her career as a community Pharmacist and always felt that Pharmacists had more to offer, however there were few opportunities back then. 

When she started working as the Pharmacy lead for the National 111 Programme she realised her ambition to see Pharmacists as a core part of the multidisciplinary team, providing urgent care direct to patients. She also works as part of that team in the Clinical Support Hub on weekends as she believes it gives her insight into what it feels like to work there and what is needed to further develop our clinical skills. 

Outside work Alexandra enjoys going to the gym and walking with her dogs. She always tries to challenge herself and do things outside her comfort zone. She in the process of helping to write a chapter of a new book on remote assessment and prescribing.

Roz Gittins is the President of the international College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP). She is also the Director of Care Standards and Practice Improvement for Via, a UK charity committed to reducing deprivation and exclusion and improving people’s well-being.

Roz is a member of various panels and committees including Drug Science and the MEP. She has acted as an expert advisor for various organisations and contributed to online resources, national publications, textbook chapters and primary research, with a particular interest in the misuse of over the counter and prescription medication.

She is also National Clinical Advisor for the UK Addiction Healthcare Mission's overdose detection, response and intervention feasibility competition.

Dr Guirguis is a pharmacist independent prescriber who gained her PhD in the in-field detection of New Psychoactive Substance (NPS). She has worked in community and hospital pharmacy, in drug and alcohol services, and also as an academic and researcher. 

She is currently the Director of both 4-Year MPharm and 5-Year MPharm with a Preparatory Year Programmes at Swansea University Medical School, an Associate Professor of Pharmacy, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Her research interests focus on substance misuse research aspects related to Pharmacovigilance and Medicines’ Diversion, Drug Abuse and Mental Health, Drug Detection in Prisons, point of care testing, and Analysis of Drugs on the web to improve preparedness to future threats.

Cathy Harrison is the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Northern Ireland, working at the Department of Health.

In this role Cathy is the head of the pharmacy profession in Northern Ireland and the most senior professional advisor to the Minister of Health on pharmaceutical and medicines issues.

Lucy is the senior procurement pharmacist at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, managing the Pharmacy Procurement and Homecare teams. 

She has a clinical background in HIV, infectious diseases and tropical medicine and is a member of the HIV Pharmacy Association Steering Committee, covering roles of Education Subcommittee Lead and Conference Lead.

Graeme is a Social Prescribing Link Worker based in Rochdale Canalside PCN. He is in his fourth year in the role, within an exciting and dynamic PCN which has fully embraced the holistic model of health. 

He is a big advocate of Green Prescribing, Greater Manchester Peer Champion and received a Highly Commend award at the NALW Awards.

Clare Howard FFRPS FRPharmS 

Building on a career in Community Pharmacy, Clare has held management roles in a range of NHS primary and community care settings. 

In her role as Strategic Health Authority Pharmaceutical Adviser, she led successful regional QIPP and medication safety programmes both of which gained national recognition, including a Gold NHS Innovation Challenge Prize in 2012, and led to Clare taking on the role of National Lead for the Medicines use and Procurement QIPP Programme for the Department of Health. 

As the first Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for NHS England, Clare led the Medicines Optimisation programme and delivered the first national medicines optimisation dashboard as well as chairing a number of national committees such as the Medicines Clinical Reference Group and the national Controlled Drugs forum. 

Clare’s current portfolio includes Clinical Lead for Medicines Optimisation at Wessex Academic Health Science Network where she led the publication of the first national set of polypharmacy prescribing comparators in England winner of the HSJ Patient safety award in 2019. She has led three national AHSN programmes - The first spread the medication safety programme PINCER. This resulted in over 13,000 fewer patients at risk from harm from clinically significant medication errors. The second was the Transfer of care around Medicines ( TCAM) programme which saw over 60 trusts make over 100,000 referrals to community pharmacies and was instrumental in the development of the national Discharge Medicines Service. 

Clare is currently the Clinical Lead for the AHSN Network Polypharmacy Programme. A career-long member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Clare was chair and lead author of the RPS Polypharmacy Guidance published in February 2019. In June 2023, Clare was appointed to Co-Chair the RCGP/ RPS development of the repeat prescribing toolkit as part of the National Overprescribing Review recommendations. 

Clare is a coach and mentor to those in, or aspiring to, leadership roles in healthcare. Special interests include polypharmacy, medicines-related data, measurement for improvement, women in leadership and patient safety. In 2014, Clare was recognised by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and designated an RPS Fellow. In the same year, Clare was successful in becoming a Faculty Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical society. 

Clare is Mum to two boys aged 18 and 14 and is a keen, but not particularly fast, runner.

Dr Yogini Jani is the Director of CMORE (Centre for Medicines Optimisation for Research & Education) and Clinical Safety Lead for Digital Healthcare at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

Building on her medication and patient safety experience, and the skills and knowledge  developed during an improvement science fellowship, her current research and role centre around the safe use of digital systems through the application of human factors, health informatics, and behavioural and improvement science approaches to improve patient care and reduce harm. 

Yogini is also appointed as Honorary Associate Professor at UCL School of Pharmacy.

Kim previously worked in the media industry until she lost her sight in 1997. 

She went on to become a visionally impaired chef and taught visually impaired cooking for those with sight loss. She’s also an author of four books. 

Throughout the last 25 years she has developed several major illnesses, which require a considerable amount of medication. 

She is now the Patient Director for Flag Me Vision and is looking to use her experience to help make the use of medication more accessible, safer and that allows a level of independence.

Stephen obtained his Master of Pharmacy degree from Queen’s University Belfast in 2011, graduating with First Class Honours. 

He joined the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland register in 2012 and practiced for several years as a pharmacist, both in hospital and community. He completed his BBSRC ICASE PhD in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in the lab of Professor Brendan Gilmore in 2018, in conjunction with Almac Sciences. 

Stephen subsequently undertook a Wellcome Trust-funded Research Fellow position, focusing on the effect of antibiotic administration route on the taxonomic profile and resistome of the gut microbiome. 

In late 2021, he was appointed to the position of Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Microbiomics in the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests centre on the analysis and exploitation of microbiomes for pharmaceutical and healthcare applications, in particular in infection prevention and the role of microbiomes in disease states.

Frances Kerr is the Project Lead for the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) a multidisciplinary group that works across health and care settings in Scotland to improve antibiotic use, optimise patient outcomes and minimise harm to individuals and the wider society. 

She has been a pharmacist for over 20 years, working in community pharmacy for around 10 years as pharmacy manager and locum pharmacist and then moving to hospital pharmacy where she worked as a hospital pharmacist and then as an antimicrobial pharmacist for over 10 years. 

As a Quality and Safety Fellow, she has an interest in quality improvement and worked as senior educator teaching quality improvement in NHS Education in Scotland for several years before moving to her current role in healthcare improvement Scotland. 

She is a Chief pharmaceutical officer global fellow and has been working to support colleagues in Ghana since 2019 to improve antimicrobial prescribing as part of Commonwealth Partnership for Antimicrobial stewardship (CwPAMS).

Charlotte is a Consultant Antimicrobial Pharmacist working for Betsi Cadwaladr university Health covering North Wales. 

She was part of the initial team for the CwPAMS Malawi/Wales partnership when the project was set-up.

Sumaia has held key roles at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE), where she has led national efforts to manage and mitigate medicine supply challenges and bolster supply chain resilience through longer-term assurance programmes. 

She notably led the development of ‘DaSH’, a digital system to streamline the reporting process of medicine supply issues from commercial companies to the DHSC. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sumaia played a pivotal role in developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to manage the UK’s unprecedented demand for specific medicines, providing advice to ministers and overseeing parliamentary initiatives in this critical area. 

Her work extends globally, as she has collaborated with health ministry’s globally to foster shared learning. Sumaia firmly believes in collaborating across sectors, actively engaging with industry partners, clinicians, patient advocacy groups and the research community to achieve the best possible outcomes. She is a trained hospital pharmacist, holds a master’s degree in health policy and serves as a visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire.

Jenny is the Engagement Manager at NHS South East London Integrated Care System and has worked in the NHS for a number of years. 

She is responsible for delivering specific engagement events and activities that involve providing advice and support as well as acting as a point of coordination for engagement feedback. Her role focuses on building and strengthening relationships with local people and communities with the overarching goal of improving outcomes in south east London health and care services. 

Whilst working in her first role as an Officer in the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), Jenny developed a passion and interest in engagement to make a difference in the lives of others. This is mainly through empowering people from diverse communities to have a voice in the delivery of their own care, as well as the wider development of local services available to them. 

This desire to engage with service users and the longstanding relationships that she forged during her time working in the NHS led to further opportunities and roles within Complaints, Freedom of Information, Clinical Commissioning and Engagement. 

Jenny has provided her expertise and utilised her vast networks in South East London to support the Overprescribing Project. She has embraced the opportunity to work collaboratively with the pharmacy team on how best to engage with people and communities, particularly those from seldom heard and marginalised groups and involving people with lived experience.

Peter is Medicines Net Zero Assistant Director for NHS England. 

The Medicines Net Zero team are working to reduce the environmental impact of the medicines used across the NHS in England. The team forms part of the Greener NHS programme, based within the Medicines Policy and Analysis Unit and combining environmental policy with medicines usage and supply. 

As a registered pharmacist and fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Peter previously worked in secondary care and primarily in aseptic services and clinical nutrition. He most recently led the aseptic service at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as associate chief pharmacist, where he also led the equality, diversity and inclusion and sustainability work for the department. 

Peter undertook the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer's Clinical Fellowship scheme in 2018/19, where he formed the syllabus for the community pharmacy consultation service course and acted as a subject matter expert for a level 4 Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response incident. Peter also cofounded pharmacy declares, a group of climate conscious pharmacy professionals based in the United Kingdom.

Nadia Naous is the lead pharmacist for HIV and GUM at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and the Chair of the UK HIV Pharmacy Association. 

She graduated from Nottingham School of Pharmacy in 2005, worked as a community pharmacist for two years before undertaking residency at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. 

In 2010 she moved to Imperial College NHS Trust to become a specialist, then Lead HIV Pharmacist before returning to Chelsea and Westminster in 2019. Here, she leads the HIV and GUM pharmacy service across seven clinics in inner and outer London, Hertfordshire and Essex. Nadia has been qualified and an independent non-medial prescriber since 2012. 

She has a special interest in the pharmacology of antiretrovirals and drug-drug interactions and has contributed to national guidance for both the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) and the British HIV Association (BHIVA) and works closely with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in the development of specialist curricula, credentialing of advanced consultant pharmacists.

Lydia Niemi is postdoctoral researcher in environmental science and One Health at the Environmental Research Institute – University of the Highlands and Islands. 

Her research focuses on pharmaceutical occurrence in surface water, and the environmental impact of healthcare practices. Her PhD investigated the introduction, distribution and impact of pharmaceutical compounds in rural wastewaters and surface waters in Scotland. 

Lydia has a keen interest in cross-sector knowledge exchange and stakeholder engagement to develop innovative solutions addressing current environmental issues. Following her PhD she has worked with the One Health Breakthrough Partnership to coordinate and deliver activity investigating pharmaceutical pollution and sustainable healthcare practices with stakeholders across the healthcare, water and environment sectors in Scotland.

Marina has worked in community pharmacy for 20 years and 4 years ago she decided to take a role change and took a new role as General Practice Clinical Pharmacist at NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

She has enjoyed developing her clinical knowledge, working close with other health professionals, and ultimately helping patients get the best care they deserve. 

Marina continues to work in community as a locum pharmacist, as she enjoys the patient facing role. 

Away from work she enjoys day trips with her family, meeting up with friends and she likes to swim and attend yoga classes for some 'me time'.

Lelly Oboh is currently on secondment to lead the implementation of the National Overprescribing Review report recommendations across South East London Integrated Care Systems. 

In her substantive post, she is a Consultant Pharmacist (Care of older people) at Guys & St Thomas NHS Trust and the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Services. She has over 24 years’ experience working in primary care, general practice and community-based multidisciplinary teams such as care homes, district nursing, intermediate care teams and virtual clinics.

Lelly has championed the development of innovative patient-centred care models that actively engage with older people (their carers) and multidisciplinary teams during medication reviews and improve care co-ordination at transition points. 

She has provided expertise through membership on strategic groups like the NHSE National Overprescribing and Structured Medication Review Direct Enhanced Service Working Groups, London Frailty Clinical Leadership Group, NICE Guidance Development Groups, and is Chair of the Primary Care Pharmacist Association (PCPA) Clinical Specialists Group. 

Lelly is well published and sought after to teach clinicians and share her expertise at national conferences. She has a keen interest in patient centred approaches to care that consider the complex relationship between frailty, multimorbidity and polypharmacy as well as deprescribing and non-adherence.

Gareth is a Digital Transformation Programme Manager at Swansea Bay University Health Board in Wales. 

Throughout his career, Gareth has worked in partnership with public, private and third sector organisations across health and care in Wales to lead digital transformation in chronic conditions, diagnostics, primary care, mental health and social care. 

Gareth is passionate about integrating digital capabilities and fostering business change that empowers people to use digital technology to their fullest potential. He studied Computer Science at Cardiff University and Health Informatics at Swansea University.

Daniel Okeowo is a Lecturer of Pharmacy Practice at Newcastle University and a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds.

His doctoral research focuses on "How can deprescribing be safely and routinely implemented within primary care?".

With a background as a practising pharmacist in primary care, Daniel brings valuable expertise to his research.

His research interests lie in polypharmacy and exploring the practical implementation of deprescribing strategies. Furthermore, Daniel has extensive experience teaching various disciplines, including pharmacy, nursing, medicine, and postgraduate prescriber courses.

Dr Raliat Onatade is Chief Pharmacist for North East London Integrated Care System, Group Chief Pharmacist for Barts Health NHS Trust and Chief Pharmacist for North Thames Genomic Medicines Service Alliance.

Ceri is a Consultant Antimicrobial Pharmacist in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in south-east Wales, leading a team of pharmacists across both primary and secondary care. 

She is an Honorary Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Cardiff University, a member of the RPS Antimicrobial Expert Advisory Group, a fellow of the RPS Faculty and sits on the Antimicrobial Resistance Delivery Board for Wales. She chaired the Welsh Antimicrobial Pharmacists Group from 2020-22, during which time the group partnered with the Pharmaceutical Society to form the Malawi Malawi-Wales Antimicrobial Pharmacy Partnership. 

She was one of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Global Health Fellows for 2021-22 and describes her involvement with the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship programme and the fellowship as career highlights.

Julie is an Advanced General Practice Pharmacy Technician at NHS Ayrshire and Arran. She has worked in community pharmacy for many years. 

She first trained to be a dispenser, then pharmacy technician and later on an accuracy checking technician. She enjoyed this work, working alongside pharmacists and other colleagues. 

Four years ago, Julie left to work for NHS where she works alongside fellow presenter Marina Niven, as well as GPS, Nurses, Physiotherapists and all others from MDT team to provide the best safer care for patients in practice. 

Outside work she has four grandchildren who she has regularly, taking them on outings and weekends away in her caravan. She also enjoys going to gym and shopping.

Chris Remmington is a senior critical care pharmacist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. 

He has over 10 years' experience in critical care and has a specialist interest in sedation and the use of steroids in severe respiratory failure. 

Chris is also an early career researcher, he has recently completed a NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship, and holds a Honorary Lecturer position at King's College London.

Lisa was a health service researcher at The University of Manchester who joined the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre in 2018, working in the medication safety theme. 

As a researcher she was interested in how people with sight impairments experience medications. Her work brought together community pharmacists and people with a range of sight impairments at two online co-design workshops. Discussions about medication errors experienced highlighted pharmacists were without a mechanism to identify this group of patients. 

Seeking entrepreneurial funding she was able to develop this work, producing a software microservice to identify people (using existing diagnostic coding searches for around 80 known sight impairment) and to use this to create a prompt on pharmacy patient records. 

FLAG-Me Vision uses The Partially Sighted Societies shaded eye logo. It alerts pharmacy staff to who is at additional risk of errors and enables the pharmacist to offer additional support in a 1:1 consultation, supported by resources collated within our website.

Dr Anna Robinson-Barella is a pharmacist, lecturer and researcher of medicines inequity at the School of Pharmacy, Newcastle University. 

Anna draws on her wide-ranging clinical expertise and experience working with people from marginalised communities to the forefront of her research, to inform and change clinical practice. 

In this talk, Anna will share her experience of conducting co-design research involving patients from underrepresented and vulnerable communities.

Victoria is the CEO of the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association and was appointed as the first Executive Director in 2016. 

Her dedication has significantly increased the charity’s footprint and work streams, supporting better access to and use of medicines in lower resource settings, including pioneering the highly commended Commonwealth Partnerships in Antimicrobial Stewardship programme. 

She has led advocacy for the profession in numerous high-level policy forums, including as the civil society representative on the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Health. 

Prior to this Victoria led both clinical services and workforce development through international collaborations in flagship hospitals in London and Singapore, developing an extensive global practice portfolio.

As the British Generic Manufacturers Association’s CEO, Mark represents the companies supplying four out of five NHS medicines. 

Earlier in his career, he was the founding Managing Director of the government’s Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure – whose purview included DHSC’s £0.6 billion/year investment in NHS R&D centres. 

Mark served on the Chief Medical Officer for England’s board for clinical research with a £1.1bn/year budget, including contributing to the Prime Minister’s life sciences strategy. Mark also co-founded Medicines Discovery Catapult after securing £55m of investment, and he was previously an executive at Roche. 

Mark is a graduate of QMUL and Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He has undertaken a Policy Fellowship at Cambridge University and the Leading Economic Growth programme at Harvard.

Catriona has worked in community pharmacy for over 30 years. 

She qualified as an independent prescriber 8 years ago and is now a designated prescribing practitioner. 

She owns a community pharmacy in Strathpeffer located in the Scottish Highlands.

In her role as a Community Pharmacy Scotland board member, she has been involved in the development of the Scottish Pharmacy contract. 

She is also currently the vice chair of the RPS Scotland board.

Hannah is a specialist endocrinology pharmacist working with both hospital in-patients and out-patients. She primarily focuses on adrenal and thyroid conditions.

Vice President The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) 

Chair the FIP Congress Programme Development Group 

Co-chair The FIP Technology Advisory Group Executive Advisor, Apoteket (Sweden)

Anja St. Clair Jones is a Consultant Pharmacist in Gastroenterology at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, a fellow of the RPS and the recipient of the prestigious UKCPA Outstanding Achievement Award 2021. 

National and international publications showcase pharmaceutical care in the gastroenterology field and encourage and inspire young pharmacists to strive for excellence in pharmacy practice. 

She set up the Brighton Lusaka Health Link Pharmacy Partnership in 2014 with Dr Aubrey Kalungia and has been working with colleagues in both countries to develop the AMS hub and spoke model in 12 Zambian hospitals funded by CwPAMS 1 and 1.5 and a Pfizer Global Health grant as well as establishing WHO handrub manufacturing facilities in 5 Zambian hospitals.

Alison Strath is the Chef Pharmaceutical Officer for Scotland. 

As the senior advisor on pharmacy and medicines issues, she provides professional and strategic leadership to the pharmacy profession in Scotland. This includes pharmacy and medicines related policy and legislation, involving issues such as community pharmacy service negotiations, access to newly licensed medicines via the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) and the UK Voluntary Pricing and Access Scheme (VPAS). 

Alison was Principal Pharmaceutical Officer in the Scottish Government from 2002 to 2020 and was Professor of Community Pharmacy Practice at Robert Gordon University’s School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences in Aberdeen from 2008 to 2018. 

She was made a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 2010 and in 2018 Alison was appointed Emeritus Professor at the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences at Robert Gordon University. 

Alison was a Director at McPherson Pharmacy Ltd, with her husband Ken McPherson, from 1996 until 2018. 

She  was awarded a Scottish Women’s Awards in 2022 for achievements in medicine.

Graham has practiced in Primary Care for more than two decades, developing an interest in deploying pharmacy teams with full skill mix from trainees to advanced practitioners across general practice, PCN, care homes and community.

Training and research are at the heart of Graham's work, and he has held a portfolio of roles as a Practice Partner, PCN Clinical Director, Chief Pharmacist and GP Federation Lead.

Although he practices as a generalist, Graham is best known for innovative work with older people in various care settings, particularly those with dementia or at end of life.

Graham is a Fellow of RPS and honorary member of APTUK.

William Swain is a registered Pharmacist (since 2005) and an independent prescriber (since 2012) with experience in community pharmacy, secondary care and integrated care. 

Since 2017, he has been a Lecturer (Teaching) on the UCL Clinically Enhanced Independent Prescribing program and is the clinical simulation lead for the School of Pharmacy. 

In 2019, William pivoted to workforce development, and he now spends part of his working week as a Project Manager for the NHSE-funded Prescribing Integration Project in South East London. The project will involve developing a training package to upskill DPPs as well as testing models for DPP supervision across the South East London Integrated Care System.

Sarah is current the lead pharmacist for the surgical pharmacy team at the University Hospitals of North Midlands and has worked within the surgical speciality for over 17 years. 

She has a passion for the area of perioperative medicine and ensuring that healthcare professionals have access to an evidence-based and easily used resource to ensure patients receive the best possible care with their medicines perioperatively.

Jen qualified as a pharmacy technician in 2001 and began her research career in 2008. She joined her local NIHR Clinical Research Network in 2013 and since then has worked to support Trusts and pharmacy colleagues in the West Midlands to deliver research and build a community of pharmacy professionals that work together to collaborate and share expertise. 

More recently Jen’s role has focused on developing an agile pharmacy workforce to support the delivery of clinical trials across multiple research settings. Jen is also a GCP subject matter expert and is a content creator for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) on-line training.

Until he retired earlier this year Bruce was the Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at NHS England, where he had particular responsibility for intermediate and primary care. 

Bruce chaired the Medicines Shortage Response group and the Independent Prescribing Pathfinder Steering Group as well as the Pharmacy Integration Fund Clinical Reference Group. 

Prior to that post Bruce was Deputy Director of Patient Safety and has worked in most pharmacy sectors including primary and secondary care as well as academia.

David Webb is the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England. He is Head of the Pharmacy Professions in England and the principal advisor on pharmacy and medicines use in the NHS, which includes supporting the Department of Health and Social Care.

David started this role in February 2022, having previously been Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Director for Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London.

He registered as a pharmacist in 1986 and has been the regional chief pharmacist for London, director of regional specialist pharmacy services for London, East and Southeast England, and also led the review of specialist pharmacy services for England in 2014.

David has held a number of academic appointments at University College London’s School of Pharmacy, including that of visiting professor, and is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Andy graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2002, and apart from a brief spell working for Boots during his pre-registration year, has worked at Nottingham University Hospitals ever since. 

Following residency, Andy moved into his first paediatric pharmacist role in 2005 and has worked in most paediatric specialties over the subsequent years. He is currently an Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner in PICU, a role he combines with that of the Lead Pharmacist for Family Health. 

His particular clinical interests include IV fluids and sedation, and Andy has collaborated on several research projects in these areas. 

Andy is also the Position Statements Lead for the Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacist Group (NPPG), aiming to support colleagues nationally through the provision of clear, concise guidance in relation to paediatric and neonatal medicines use, as well as striving to achieve national standardisation wherever possible.

Joe is a Specialist Cancer Pharmacist and Lead Homecare Pharmacist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and has previously been a member of the Cancer teams at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and University College London Hospitals with a specialist interest in colorectal cancers, paediatrics, and antimicrobial stewardship. He is an independent prescriber within the colorectal cancer speciality.

Joe is also an Honorary Clinical Lecturer in the Division of Pharmacy & Optometry at the University of Manchester.

His patient facing role within the MDT, has allowed him to initiate and progress applied health research projects in his area of practice to benefit patient care.

Joe is Chair of BOPA and is also a member of the BOPA Digital, EDI and Research Sub-committees. He has previously been Secretary and Vice Chair of BOPA.

Laura Wilson is RPS Director for Scotland. She went to Strathclyde University and did her pre-reg in community pharmacy.

Starting work at Crosshouse Hospital in Ayrshire, she then spent 14 years as a pharmacy manager for Morrisons in Kilmarnock. 

Laura was one of the first pharmacists to qualify as a prescriber, within her clinical area of psychiatry. After setting up prescribing clinics in mental health within an addiction service, she ran a clinic from the pharmacy consultation room.

She also became an RPS spokesperson, promoting the role of pharmacy in the media and at political conferences.

After moving to Addiction services within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, she led a project to change how pharmacies are paid for treating patients receiving opiate substitution therapy, leading to a more person-centred model. She was also seconded to Strathclyde University as a teacher practitioner for two years.

Laura is interested in drug misuse and addiction, mental health and education, and training. After taking the role of Policy and Practice Lead at RPS, one of the first policies she wrote was Improving care, reducing harm and preventing death in People Who Use Drugs: Pharmacy’s role. 

Mr Paul Wright is currently Lead Cardiovascular Pharmacist at Bart’s Heart Centre and co-chair of cardiology committee of UKCPA. He also is a programme guardian for several cardiology topics with CPPE. 

Mr Paul Wright's research interests focuses on cardiology, heart failure, arrhythmias and anticoagulation. 

Education: University of Manchester – Mpharm (2001) University of Brighton – MSc (2009) University of Reading – Ipresc (2015)