Our people 

Professor Judith Smith, University of Birmingham.

Judith Smith is a widely published health services researcher and policy analyst, with a particular interest in how to bridge the worlds of research, management and practice. Judith’s research focuses on the organisation and management of primary and integrated care, evaluation of new models of care, and organisational governance. Judith was previously Director of the Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) and has been a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Birmingham since June 2015, prior to which she spent six years as Director of Policy at the Nuffield Trust, an independent charitable research foundation in London.  Judith is also a Non-Executive Director of the Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a member of the board of Health Services Research UK.

Professor Robin Miller, Co-director of the Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership, University of Birmingham

Robin Miller is an applied health and social care academic with a particular interest in the development and leadership of new models of integrated primary care. He co-ordinates and teaches on numerous leadership and management programmes for professionals, managers and commissioners. He has co-ordinated international summer schools on integrated care and regularly speaks at European and International conferences and professional development events.

His research work explores transformational change in health and social care. Current / recent projects include - the longer term evaluation of the integrated care and support pioneer programme (DH funded), the critical appraisal of the Pacesetter primary care innovation programme in Wales (Public Health Wales funded), the national evaluation of the Building the Right Support Programme (NHS England funded); organisational partnering in the English NHS (health Foundation funded); and change management in social care (School for Social Care Research funded).

Robin is the current Joint Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Integrated Care, an advisory group member of the European Primary Care Network, and a Senior Fellow of the School for Social Care Research. Prior to his academic career he was a practicing social worker, manager and commissioner, and has served as a non-executive director and chair of trustees within housing and charitable sectors. He has published numerous journal publications and written three books relating to implementing person centred and integrated care. 

Professor Una Martin, Co-director of the Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership, University of Birmingham

Una Martin is Dean of the Medical School and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Birmingham. She has had a number of leadership roles in the University including Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Equalities.  She is an honorary consultant at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and leads the Hypertension Service. Una is also President-Elect of the British and Irish Hypertension Society. 

Dr Alistair Hewison, Clinical Leadership Theme Lead, Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership, University of Birmingham

Alistair Hewison is a Reader in the Organisation and Management of Care based in the School of Nursing and co-lead for Clinical Leadership at the Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership.  He worked for many years as a staff nurse, charge nurse and manager in the NHS.

 His current research and teaching activities are centred on the leadership, management and organisation of care.  Recent projects have included the investigation of large scale service re-design in acute hospitals, the organisation of End-of-Life Care services, and supporting staff to deliver compassionate care.   He has an Honorary Contract with Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice where he is responsible for research development.  He leads the End-of-Life Care Research Programme and is Head of Postgraduate Research in the School of Nursing.  He has written widely on health care management and policy issues in papers published in scholarly journals, and chapters in edited collections.

Iain Snelling, Clinical Leadership Theme Lead, Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership, University of Birmingham

Iain Snelling is a Senior Lecturer at the HSMC and co-lead for Clinical Leadership at the Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership. His professional background is in NHS acute hospital management – he has wide experience in operational management and in corporate roles in the NHS where he worked for 14 years until 2002.  He is an experienced teacher at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and has developed a number of bespoke educational programmes for the NHS. He was Director of Learning and Teaching at HSMC from 2012-2015, and has been a tutor on the NHS Leadership Academy’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Programme since 2013. He has a particular interest in Medical Leadership.

For many years he was co-Director of the Medical Leadership in Practice programme, a leadership programme for hospital-based specialist trainees based in the North-West, delivered by HSMC and Manchester Business School. He recently led a leadership programme for surgical trainees, commissioned by Health Education West Midlands, and was a member of the design group for guidance on maximising leadership learning in pre-registration healthcare curricula. Recent research and evaluation projects include Medical leadership arrangements in English healthcare organisations for the NIHR HS&DR programme (2013), and two evaluations of Chief Registrar programmes for The Royal College of Physicians (2017)and Health Education England Wessex (2018). 

Sarah Turner, Head of Quality and Development, College of Medical and Dental Science, University of Birmingham

Sarah Turner, Head of Quality and Development, College of Medical and Dental Science, University of Birmingham

Sarah Turner is Head of Quality and Development in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences (MDS) at the University of Birmingham and is the leading professional services staff member for MDS in the development of the Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership. Before joining Birmingham in 2008, she worked at London Business School, the University of Sussex and the University of London.

With over 15 years' experience working in the Higher Education sector, and over 10 years working alongside the NHS in her current role, Sarah is a specialist in the quality management of healthcare education. She also has a project and growing governance portfolio within in her current remit.

Mark Cheetham, Consultant Surgeon, Care Group Medical Director for Scheduled Care, The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

Mark is a consultant surgeon is Shropshire. He has held formal leadership positions in medical education, quality improvement and medical management. He is currently Care Group Medical Director for Scheduled Care at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust. Mark has been involved in the local reconfiguration of hospital services in Shropshire for 10 years. He was fortunate to be awarded a Generation Q Fellowship by the Health Foundation in 2015. He has been awarded a Masters in Leadership and Quality Improvement in Healthcare from Ashridge Business School. Mark is interested in the application of lean to healthcare, leading across organisational boundaries and developing leadership capability in individuals and organisations.

Professor Jamie Coleman, Professor in Clinical Pharmacology and Medical Education, University of Birmingham

Jamie is a clinical academic in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, with a key research interest in healthcare systems research, and Director of Physician Associate Studies.

He was theme lead for the NIHR CLAHRC, working with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to improve patient safety using Information Technology. Jamie co-led an NIHR programme grant for Applied Health Research investigating the adoption of electronic prescribing in English Hospitals and is currently co-PI on a further NIHR Programme Grant investigating the Antimicrobial Stewardship capabilities of electronic health records systems.

He is currently an associate Medical Director at UHBFT responsible for Medicines Management over the four hospital sites and providing systems leadership in medication safety, cost-effective therapies, and non-medical prescribing.

Brian Cox, Senior Lecturer, Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham 

Brian is a senior lecturer in the Health Services Management Centre where he teaches on the NHS Leadership Academy Programmes.

His background is largely in social care. Originally a community worker, social worker and practice teacher he has worked as a lecturer in social work, assistant director in Nottingham and regional director for the NHSU. In more recent times he was the head of leadership at the National Skills Academy for Social Care and has worked as consultant to the Putting People First Programme and whole system reviews of care and health. His research and teaching interests lie in systems leadership, governance and service integration. 

Professor Mark Exworthy, Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Birmingham 

Mark is a professor at the Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) and is currently Chair of the Society for Studies in Organising Health Care. He has previously held posts at Southampton University, London School of Economics, University College London, Oxford Brookes and Royal Holloway University of London. He was also a Harkness Fellow in health care policy, based at University of California-San Francisco (funded by the Commonwealth Fund of New York) and is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of California-San Francisco.

Mina Gupta, GP principal at Smethwick Medical Centre, Group Clinical Chair

Mina trained at St Thomas’ Hospital, London and after qualifying in 1988, she worked in many locations across the country as a salaried GP, taking up her partnership in 2003.  Smethwick Medical Centre joined Modality Partnership in 2014 and Mina has worked at executive level to create this renowned, national super-partnership.  She has a broad experience of all aspects of primary care and led service redesign programs, innovation, research, workforce development and clinical governance.  To improve patient access she has helped win bids with the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund and system transformation with the Vanguard programme. Her work on behavioural motivational support for self-care won an HSJ award.  Her current role is to build a clinical governance model for the many diverse practices across the organisation, and to embed governance into the many innovations that Modality Partnership are developing.

Simon Haworth, Social Work Lecturer, University of Birmingham 

Simon recently joined the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer within the Department of Social Work and Social Care. He is involved in teaching on undergraduate, postgraduate and post qualifying programmes and currently undertaking a variety of projects for the West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership.

Prior to this appointment, Simon worked within the field of child protection and specialised in court-based social work. This culminated in working as an Advanced Practitioner and Principal Social Worker within the statutory children and families social work field.

Parbir Jagpal, MRPharmS, IPresc, FHEA, MSc, BPharm, Director of Postgraduate Studies and Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy and Prescribing, University of Birmingham

Parbir is the Director of Postgraduate studies and a member of the School of Pharmacy executive team.  She is on the University REF EDAP (research excellence framework, equality & diversity advisory panel) for REF 2021. A qualified pharmacist for 27 years, she has worked in the NHS across community pharmacy and primary care, continuing to work in general practice as a pharmacist prescriber.

She is involved in development of national guidance and peer review of NIHR grant applications for independent prescribing.  Parbir is a member of expert and stakeholder groups for NIHR funded programmes researching inappropriate polypharmacy, e-Prescribing and anti-microbial stewardship.

Professor Mark Kilby, Emeritus Professor of Fetal Medicine and Consultant Fetal Medicine at Birmingham Women's & Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

Professor Kilby is a senior Consultant providing regional and supra-regional care in Maternal and Fetal Medicine to pregnant women. He is an invited Member of the International Fetoscopic Working Group (elected 2005) and an elected Member of the North American Perinatal Research Society (elected 2004).

 He chaired the NICE Working Party on Multiple Pregnancy from 2008 to 2011 (and is the senior topic advisor to NICE for the update of the Guideline to be published in 2019) and was also a co-author on the RCOG Green Top Guideline on the Management of Monochorionic Twins (version one 2008 and subsequently the revision published in November 2016).

Mark is presently Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the RCOG and was recently appointed the Fetal Medicine Representative for West Midlands, Oxford and Wessex GEL for Prenatal genomics Medicine.

Professor Jeremy Kirk, Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist, Clinical Director, NIHR Clinical Research Network (West Midlands), Research and Innovation Director, Birmingham Children's Hospital

Jeremy trained initially in general medicine, and subsequently paediatrics in London before moving to Birmingham Children’s Hospital in 1994 as a single handed consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist. Jeremy was Head of Department from 1994 until 2003, Secretary of the British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes (BSPED) from 2002-2008, and on Council of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) from 2007-12. He is an Honorary Professor both at the University of Birmingham and also the University of Wolverhampton.

Since 2014 Jeremy has been Clinical Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) for the West Midlands; the largest and most complex of the 15 English networks (population 5.7 million). In addition since 2017 he has also been Research and Innovation Director at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Colonel Jo Palmer, MB BS MSc Dip IMC L/RAMC, Commanding Officer for the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine

Colonel Jo Palmer joined the Army as a Medical Cadet in 1989 and graduated as a doctor from King’s College School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1992.  After successfully completing the Army Junior Staff Course (2002) and commanding a medical squadron in Iraq (2003/4), Jo completed an MSc in Population Health and the Advanced Command and Staff Course. Since then, she has undertaken jobs in medical planning and operations (UK and NATO), primary and secondary healthcare service delivery, healthcare capacity building, policy, and training and education.

Jo currently commands the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, responsible for ensuring that UK Defence Medical Services’ secondary healthcare personnel are militarily and clinically fully prepared for deployment on military operations and other tasks, as well as supporting University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust in their delivery of care to military personnel evacuated to the UK from overseas.

Dr Vish Ratnasuriya MBE, GP at Lordswood Medical Group and Chair, Our Health Partnership

Vish practices as a GP with a personal list for patient continuity 4-5 sessions a week. Re-elected Our Health Partnership (OHP)’s Chair, a (decentralised) partnership of 200 GP partners, who serve 400,000 patients, he positioned OHP to now form 11 PCNs in Birmingham (BSol) and Shropshire.

OHP integrates between practices, health and social care, and communities, and is peer to trusts in BSol STP.  Leading beyond OHP, Vish formed a BSol GP provider alliance creating a single GP voice and brought them into the STP. Appointed Bsol STP system clinical lead, he’s stimulated leading beyond organisations, sectors, and professions. Closely involved in the creation of BSol STP strategy and plan which has been mirrored by NHS Long Term Plan’s life course and enabler structure, he’s member BSol’s STP Board and GP Transformation committee amongst others. He represents Bsol at national STP/ICS system/clinical lead events

Tim Swanwick, Director of Clinical Leadership Development, NHS Leadership Academy

Tim has a broad and extensive background in health education, training and workforce development and is currently working with the NHS Leadership Academy where he leads on a number of strategic priorities including primary care and clinical leadership.  Tim has a wide range of other academic interests including work-based learning, professional support and faculty development and in addition to his role at the Academy, he is an Affiliate of the Centre for Health and Social Care Leadership of the University of Birmingham, Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College and Queen Mary University of London, Director of Undergraduate Education for Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management and Associate Editor for the journal, BMJ Leader.  A GP by clinical background, Tim has researched and published both in his specialty and more widely.  His publications include the books Understanding Medical Education (3e, 2018), Clinical Teaching Made Easy (2010) and the ABC of Clinical Leadership (2e, 2017).