Our Wound Care Today 2026 Speaker Gallery

Our speakers are made up of passionate wound care experts who guide the focus and themes of Wound Care Today.
They bring real-world experience, insight, and a shared commitment to improving patient care.

Alice Bilsborough

Agnes Collarte

Ashley Clydesdale

Beth Lillico

Bernadette McGlynn

Claire Parsons

Clare Carter

Georgia Hickman

Helen Shoker

Hannah Poulton

Hollie Robinson

Holly Edmundson

Ines Sadoc Pereira

Jack Short

James Saunders

Jane Mayes

Jane Parker

Jane Wigg

Jon Findlay

Julie Mullings

Katie White

Kelly Hutchinson

Lisa Turley

Lizzie Wardle

Lucy Goddard

Matthew Allen

Oliver Medill

Paul Vaughan

Rachel Sweeney

Rasha Okashesh

Richard Shorney

Richard Shorter

Sarah Robinson

Siobhan Mccoulough

We’re excited to introduce each speaker, with photos and bios, so you can get to know the people shaping WCT2026!

Alice Bilsborough

Brand Manager, Urgo Medical

Alice Bilsborough is the Brand Manager for the antimicrobial range at Urgo Medical, combining healthcare marketing with a passion for supporting wound care practice across the UK. Working closely with clinicians, she is committed to delivering evidence-based solutions that make a meaningful difference to patients. Through education, collaboration, and clinically focused marketing, Alice is dedicated to providing clinicians with the knowledge and tools they need to confidently manage wounds in everyday practice.

Agnes Collarte

Tissue Viability Specialist Nurse Lead, Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH)

Agnes Collarte is the tissue viability specialist nurse lead at Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH), that oversees wound care services across the tri-borough area of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Kensington & Chelsea. She manages a dedicated team of tissue viability nurses who provide expert care for patients with complex wounds, including pressure ulcers, leg ulcers, and postoperative wounds, through clinics, home visits, and collaborative work with district and practice nurses.

Born in the Philippines, she began her nursing career after completing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1997. She worked as a nurse supervisor before moving to the UK in 2002 to expand her professional experience. Since joining CLCH, she has progressed through roles from rehabilitation nurse to tissue viability nurse, and ultimately to lead nurse.

She holds a master’s degree in Advancing Practice, achieved while balancing full-time work and family life. Her clinical expertise is complemented by a strong commitment to research and innovation. She co-authored research on mechanical debridement techniques published in the Journal of Community Nursing and International Wound Journal for the impact of a new intervention for venous leg ulcers: a within-patient controlled trial.

Passionate about improving patient outcomes, she emphasises evidence-based practice and education. She leads initiatives to prevent and treat chronic wounds, supports multidisciplinary teams, and mentors colleagues. Her work reflects a deep dedication to easing patient suffering, promoting healing, and advancing community healthcare standards.

Ashley Clydesdale

Brand Manager for Essity’s Wound Care Portfolio, Registered Nurse

Ashley Clydesdale is the Brand Manager for Essity’s Wound Care portfolio and a registered nurse with over 30 years of healthcare experience. Her background spans vascular and critical care nursing, specialist continence education, and contract management within the NHS. In her current role, Ashley combines her clinical expertise with marketing to lead educational initiatives and support evidence generation that enhances wound care practice.

Beth Lillico

High Risk & Vascular Specialist Podiatrist

Beth obtained a BSc degree in Podiatry in 2006 and has over 18 years of NHS experience working mainly within community services. Beth currently works in a High-Risk Foot Team and has a special interest in collaborative care for complex lower limb conditions having recently completed a PGCert in Tissue Viability & Leg Ulcer Management. More recently, Beth has been working with the podiatry-led community lower limb vascular service in Manchester, providing early identification, diagnosis, and management of people with peripheral arterial disease.

Bernadette McGlynn

Clinical Lead for Tissue Viability, Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust

Claire Parsons

Clinical Nurse Advisor, Medicareplus

Claire Parsons has been nursing for nearly 30 years. Most of her career has been as a community nurse. She lived and worked in Australia as a wound specialist nurse and student facilitator for six years, and then came back to the UK in 2013 and went back to community nursing.

She now works as a clinical nurse advisor for Medicareplus, educating clinicians on moisture-associated skin damage (MASD) and the total barrier protection products that Medicareplus offers.

Clare Carter

Senior Clinical Marketing Manager, Hartmann

Clare was a tissue viability nurse specialist for 10 years, working in both acute and community settings. Clare has experience of managing patients with complex wounds, developing guidelines, pathways, and services. She has a passion for teaching and presenting and has presented at many national and international wound care events. Clare joined Hartmann in 2017 and enjoys her senior clinical marketing manager role which allows her to utilise her wound care experience.

Georgia Hickman

Wound Healing Sister, Community Wound Healing Team, University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire (community group)

Georgia’s current role is as a wound care sister working in the community wound healing service at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire (community group). The team provides specialist wound care, clinical expertise and skills to support wound healing for patients who are housebound and unable to attend a clinic environment.

She qualified as a nurse with a Bachelor of Science Adult nursing honours degree in 2023. Having started her career in George Elliot Hospital acute medical unit to now working as a wound care sister in the community, she has developed experience across both settings.

Georgia is committed to professional growth and leadership and completed a leadership course with the Florence Nightingale Foundation in April 2025. She has a passion for wound care and is driven to achieve better patient outcomes by educating patients as well as colleagues on the management of wounds, particularly in the lower limb.

Hannah Poulton

Women’s health physiotherapist and scar therapist, owner of HLP Therapy

Hannah Poulton is a women’s health physiotherapist with over 25 years’ experience in physiotherapy practice. She is the founder and owner of HLP Therapy clinics – delivering gold standard, evidence-based treatments and care for individuals. Hannah delivers professional scar therapy education across the UK and is currently undertaking a five-year PhD investigating caesarean section scarring. This research will focus on advancing evidence-based scar care and improving outcomes for women following birth. She is the founder and lead organiser of the UK Scar Symposiums and the creator of the Scar Therapy Network, supporting collaboration, education and research within scar therapy practice.

Helen Shoker

Associate Director of Nursing and Professional Practice, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust

Hollie Robinson

Tissue Viability Service Lead, South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

Hollie Robinson is an award-winning tissue viability specialist nurse and current tissue viability service lead for community services at South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust. With over a decade of progressive leadership across acute and community settings, Hollie is driving innovation in strategic wound care delivery through collaboration, data-driven insight, and technology.

Hollie is recognised nationally and internationally as a published author and dynamic speaker. In 2023 she received the Wounds UK Rising Star Award, reflecting her clinical and service transformation impact.

Holly Edmundson

Community Midwife, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a research midwife, Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford

Holly Edmundson is a community midwife at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a research midwife in the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. In 2024–2025, she undertook an NIHR pre-doctoral fellowship focused on birth-related wound infections. She has contributed to the National Wound Care Strategy Programme and trust-level QI on wound management and antimicrobial stewardship.

Ines Sadoc Pereira

Independent Nurse Consultant in Tissue Viability

Ines Sadoc Pereira has been a nurse for over 17 years, specialising in critical care and, since 2018, in tissue viability. She started her career in Portugal and has worked in England, UAE and is currently based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her two passions are working to improve patient outcomes and promoting staff development in critical care and wound care, and educating/mentoring pre- and post-registration nursing students, to empower them to provide the best possible care for patients.

To educate others, she continuously develops herself and has achieved her Master’s in Science — Skin Integrity and Wound Management at Hertfordshire University in 2024.

More recently, she has achieved certification as a scar therapy practitioner and completed a course in ‘an integrated approach to lymphoedema & chronic wounds’.

Ines aspires to continue further studies in oncology scar and lymphoedema management in the coming year; to inspire others to pursue their dreams; and engage with likeminded peers and patients to create a more sustainable future for wound and scar care.

Jack Short

National Association of Primary Care, Faculty Member

Jack has more than 25 years’ development experience in health and social care. He is a senior transformation and change expert, specialising in delivering value through effective leadership, management and engagement. Jack has worked in both development and operational roles across all aspects of healthcare in both the NHS and private sector, such as senior roles delivering complex integration projects including mergers, acquisitions, business process outsourcing, greenfield projects and award-winning population health improvement approaches.

Jack is passionate about the effective use of healthcare resources and recent work has included being parachuted into an ICB clinical policy role to shape integrated neighbourhood working as well as delivering support to the Dorset General Practice Alliance on the GP sustainability programme. Jack is currently a national coach within the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP) and supporting several other systems to implement neighbourhood health across England and Wales.

James Saunders

Med Dev Services, Principal Consultant and Founder

James Saunders is a well-known figure across the UK wound care and wider medical device markets, bringing more than three decades of UK and international commercial experience working with many established and emerging brands. As Founder and Principal Consultant at Med Dev Services, James supports medical device manufacturers, IP holders and distributors with market access, product commercialisation, regulatory strategy and evidence generation, helping organisations translate clinical innovation into sustainable commercial success across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.

Jane Mayes

Honorary Tissue Viability Nurse, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust; Global Clinical Education Manager, Essity

Jane has been a nurse for 30 years and feels privileged to have worked in a variety of clinical areas, including the hospice, district nursing, telephone triage and as a community tissue viability nurse within Leeds.

She currently has an honorary tissue viability nurse contract at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. Jane also works as the global clinical education manager at Essity.

Jane Parker

PCN Tissue Viability Specialist Nurse Lead, West Norfolk Primary Care

Jane Parker is a clinical nurse specialist in tissue viability with 25 years of experience across the NHS, private healthcare, and medtech sectors. She currently works in West Norfolk within the Primary Care Networks, providing expert leadership in wound and leg ulcer management, education, and service development.

Jane has held senior clinical roles at Cambridge University Hospitals and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn (QEHKL), where she led multidisciplinary teams, implemented evidence-based protocols and advanced patient care standards in complex wound management. Her experience in industry further strengthened her expertise in clinical education, stakeholder engagement, and product evaluation.

In addition to her clinical work, Jane acts as an expert witness in tissue viability and offers independent consultancy on formulary development and staff training. She has presented at national events and has contributed to NHS England wound care initiatives. She holds postgraduate qualifications in wound care, leadership in healthcare and medical and healthcare education.

Jane Wigg

Director/Clinical Nurse Consultant, Lymphoedema Training Academy/LymphVision

Jane Wigg is a global name in the field of lymphology, practising for more than 33 years.

She is a multi-award-winning nurse consultant responsible for the first ICG imaging and mapping clinics to clinical practice and the UK development of FG-MLD (Fill & Flush).

Apart from clinical work, she is a writer, publisher and editor of many international lymphoedema-related journals, but loves it most in front of an audience inspiring and teaching others, in her role as Director of Lymphoedema Training academy. Her desire for better outcomes for those living with lymphoedema and lipoedema is what fuels her passion

Jon Findlay

National Harm Reduction Lead, Waythrough

Julie Mullings

Lead Nurse Community Services, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust; Queen’s Nurse

Julie has dedicated over two decades to advancing tissue viability nursing, with a career spanning 26 years in community healthcare. Throughout her career, she has gained profound insight into the challenges faced by patients and healthcare professionals in managing complex wounds, particularly leg ulcers. Her passion for improving leg ulcer management led her to develop, in collaboration with industry partners, a community leg ulcer pathway. This initiative, which earned her a Health Service Journal (HSJ) award, was a forerunner to the National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NWCSP) and has since been adopted across the North-West of England.

Committed to evidence-based practice, Julie actively participates in local and national projects. She co-led the education and clinical workstream during the first implementation phase of the NWCSP and led the ‘diagnose more’ workstream within the Manchester Amputation Reduction Strategy.

She has been honoured with an Outstanding Service award from the Queen’s Nursing Institute as well as a Lifetime Service award from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, reflecting her enduring commitment to nursing excellence.

Katie White

Tissue Viability Nurse, Stoke

Katie has been nursing for over 20 years, with her career and education focused around tissue viability.

She is a mum of two boys. Unexpectedly, when her second son was born, it was immediately apparent to her that he had epidermolysis bullosa (EB), having attended some educational sessions about EB at work.

Following biopsies, it was discovered that he had an autosomal dominant spontaneous genetic mutation – EB simplex generalised severe. Katie managed deep wounds and widespread blisters covering 70–80% of his body.

The condition is exceptionally hard and complex to manage, along with all the associated factors which come with having severe EB. In her presentation, Katie wishes to give an insight into the condition and how to manage extreme skin fragility.

Her son is now nine and they are both ambassadors for DEBRA UK, a charity which works for those living with EB. They hope to raise awareness and funding towards finding any potential treatment or even, one day, a cure for EB.

Kelly Hutchinson

Clinical Science Liaison Manager, Flen Health

Kelly is the Clinical Science Liaison Manager (UK&I) at Flen Health, where she draws on extensive clinical experience to support healthcare professionals in advancing wound care and tissue viability practice. Her nursing background spans a range of specialist roles, including Tissue Viability Nurse, Leg Ulcer Clinic Manager, and District Nurse, giving her a comprehensive understanding of the complexities and realities of wound management in diverse care settings.

Kelly continues to maintain active clinical insight through an honorary contract, enabling her to stay closely connected to frontline practice and emerging developments in healthcare. This ongoing clinical engagement strengthens her ability to translate evidence, support clinical decision‑making, and deliver meaningful education and insights to multidisciplinary teams.

Lisa Turley

Clinical Partnership Manager – Team Lead, Hartmann

Lisa has worked as a tissue viability nurse for 20 years, leading services across hospital and community settings for 10 years. The role involved managing patients with complex wounds and provision of education and guidance in line with national strategies. She then worked for four years with wound care industry, supporting wound efficiency, quality and improvement programmes, through education, audit and evidence generation. Lisa joined Hartmann in 2023 and enjoys her clinical partnership manager (team leader) role which allows her to utilise her wound care experience.

Lizzie Wardle

Clinical Nurse Advisor, Medicareplus

Lizzie worked as a domiciliary carer for two years before starting a nursing degree. After qualifying as an adult nurse, she worked on a renal ward before moving into wound care. She now works as a clinical nurse advisor at Medicare Plus, providing clinical insight into product use and delivering educational sessions to clinicians on moisture-associated skin damage (MASD).

Lucy Goddard

Midwife and Postdoctoral Researcher in maternity and women’s health within the hypertension team, Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford

Lucy Goddard is a midwife and postdoctoral researcher in maternity and women’s health within the Hypertension Team in the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. Lucy completed her PhD in March 2024. In her doctoral research, she co-developed and tested a lifestyle support app for women managing high blood pressure in pregnancy. Lucy is particularly interested in improving equity and inclusivity in research.

Matthew Allen

Consultant Lead Podiatrist, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust

Matthew has been consultant podiatrist at the Northern Care Alliance based in Salford Royal Hospital focusing on management of the high-risk limb for four years. He was previously the musculoskeletal lead within the same team. He leads a group of highly skilled clinicians all working towards delivering the best care within podiatry and a multidisciplinary team.

His interests focus on pushing the scope of practice within podiatry and understanding and delivering system changes to benefit patient care and clinician experience.

Oliver Medill

Oliver Medill is a highly experienced public speaker, coach and author. Oliver works with organisations and individuals, providing solutions ranging from training in presentations, public speaking and pitching, to mindset and leadership. Oliver specialises in helping clients maximise their potential and overcome self-doubt.

In-depth knowledge of mindset, leadership and change solutions allows him to work with clients from the individual, team and cultural perspectives. Knowledge, process and skills-based consulting is enhanced with key mindset strategies, such as resilience and an awareness and promotion of Emotional Intelligence.An experienced executive coach and NLP Practitioner, Oliver also delivers executive mentoring to Board level.

A former career in acting ensures Oliver’s facilitation skills and his ability to command an audience, add a special flavour to his coaching around presenting with impact, personal brand, managing nerves and confidence issues. This experience has particular relevance with individuals needing refreshers in giving exceptional presentations or preparing for a speech in a public setting.
Oliver has spent the last 20 years working with organisations in the banking, insurance, leisure, consulting and pharmaceutical industries. This experience has given him a thorough working knowledge of organisational culture, individual and team motivation, influence and communication.

Paul Vaughan

RN, MSc, National Deputy Director for Community Nursing, primary care nursing and women’s health, NHS England

Paul Vaughan, RN, MSc is the national deputy director for community nursing, primary care nursing and women’s health at NHS England. In this role, he provides national leadership across nursing and women’s health, driving transformational programmes that strengthen care delivery, workforce capability, and patient experience across England.

Paul currently leads the delivery of the Women’s Health Strategy for England, working closely with the national clinical director for women’s health, Dr Sue Mann, to ensure the strategy delivers tangible and sustained impact for women across the life course. His portfolio includes commissioning the development of a multiprofessional core capability framework for women’s health, commissioning group consultation models to support high-volume, low-complexity women’s health pathways, and co-chairing the Women’s Health Network of Champions alongside Dame Lesley Regan, the women’s health ambassador, to support system leadership, shared learning, and implementation at scale.

Alongside his women’s health leadership, Paul leads major national programmes including the Community Nursing Safer Staffing Tool, the application of CARE Programme principles to improve outcomes for people with lower limb wounds, and the development and implementation of the General Practice Nursing Core Career and Capability Framework, supporting sustainable workforce growth and quality improvement across community and primary care settings.

Previously, Paul served as director of nursing (Transformation) at NHS England, where he led the GPN Ten Point Plan, co-developed the NextGen Nurse programme, and establish the national Nursing Sponsorship Programme, supporting very senior leaders to build confidence in anti-racist leadership and actively sponsor global majority nurse and midwife leaders.

Prior to joining NHS England, Paul was regional director for the West Midlands at the Royal College of Nursing, where he founded the RCN Cultural Ambassador Programme, a nationally recognised initiative promoting inclusion, belonging, and cultural competence within healthcare organisations.

Paul holds a Master’s degree in Management from the University of Liverpool, with a dissertation focused on the factors that enable nursing staff to raise concerns safely. He has also served as an elected member of RCN Council and chair of RCN Council, contributing to the strategic leadership of the profession nationally. He remains deeply committed to advancing nursing leadership, improving equity, and ensuring women’s health is embedded as a core priority across the NHS.

Rachel Sweeney

Skin Integrity Team Service Lead, Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust

Rachel Sweeney is a tissue viabity specialist nurse, currently working in the role of skin integrity team service lead with Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust. She provides clinical, strategic and educational leadership for the community skin integrity team, consisting of specialist tissue viability, dermatology and lymphoedema nursing teams.

Since qualifying as a registered nurse in 2000 from the University of East Anglia, Rachel has held several nursing posts across surgical specialities, quality improvement, research, tissue viability and education within community, primary and secondary care settings.

Rachel’s tissue viability nursing career began in 2011 working within a large acute teaching trust, and while in this post she achieved a MSc in Skin Integrity and Tissue Repair. On leaving this post, Rachel successfully applied for a role in the community developing a newly commissioned tissue viability specialist nursing service.

Rachel is enthusiastic about learning and always keen to further develop her own skills and knowledge, as well as supporting development of colleagues within her team, organisation, and wider system, and is an honorary lecturer at the University of East Anglia.

Rachel also holds postgraduate qualifications in medical and healthcare education and infection control.

Rasha Okashesh

Academic Lead, Salford Standardization of Vascular Assessments Project

Rasha is a physiotherapist, physiotherapy and health services researcher. She is interested in how to make rehabilitation and physical activity programmes work better in real life, not just in theory. Her PhD focused on measuring outcomes in pulmonary rehabilitation, and since then she has become increasingly curious about how context and systems shape what happens when interventions are implemented and how we conceptualise and measure impact of complex interventions.

During an NIHR pre-application support fund, Rasha developed skills and knowledge to use implementation science and realist evaluation, which now sit at the heart of her work. She currently works within the MARS team developing a protocol for a realist synthesis exploring how digital and non-digital physical activity support can be sustained across whole systems, and a framework for the evaluation of complex interventions targeted at a whole system change.

Rasha envisions a dynamic knowledge mobilisation model that connects evidence generation with real implementation in community and clinical settings. Her main intellectual interest is understanding why and how things work (or don’t) when trying to embed health behavior support in everyday practice.

She believes that knowledge mobilisation in a healthcare context starts with developing an adaptive and dynamic mind set of future and current healthcare professionals.She is passionate about teaching and mentoring, and enjoys exploring ways to make research more meaningful and accessible to students, practitioners and the public.

Richard Shorney

Company Founder and Director, Real Healthcare Solutions Ltd

Richard Shorney has a unique and diverse background in healthcare and business. His skill set has been developed in both clinical practice and having worked in the medical device and life sciences sectors.

He is founder of Real Healthcare Solutions Ltd, which is principally set up for the benefit of healthcare organisations, MedTech, and the clinician – with the ultimate focus on improving patients’ outcomes.

Richard speaks passionately about leadership and global healthcare issues and has been fortunate to facilitate national healthcare leadership programmes, global advisory groups and Department of Health and Social Care steering groups.

Richard Shorter

Head of Awkward Conversations

Richard helps performance-focused environments navigate the conversations most people avoid. Through talks, coaching, and continuing professional development (CPD), he equips leaders, coaches, teachers and parents to:

Tackle tension with calm and clarity
Listen in a way that motivates, not manipulates
Handle awkward feedback without conflict or shutdown
Build cultures where truth and trust go hand in hand.

Examples of some of those whose conversations he has impacted include England Rugby, Manchester United, Manchester City, Motorsport UK, the England Cricket Board, Millfield School, Wellington College, Linklaters and over 40 independent schools.

Sarah Robinson

Director of Health Partnerships and Insights, Health Innovation East, Implementation Lead, NIHR ARC East of England

Siobhan Mccoulough

Tissue Viability Nurse Consultant and Nurse Director, Pioneer Wound and Lymphoedema Centres

Siobhan is a tissue viability nurse consultant with 25 years’ experience across primary care, community services, acute settings, and clinical commissioning in London and the Southwest. In 2023, she joined Pioneer Wound and Lymphoedema Centres as tissue viability nurse consultant and nurse director.

With a strong track record in quality improvement, innovation, systems thinking, and adaptive leadership, working collaboratively across professional and organisational boundaries, her career includes secondments to the Imperial Academic Health Science Network, where she led a joint commissioning initiative to develop and deliver pressure ulcer prevention training for carers across local authorities and health boards. This work has received quality improvement recognition awards from both European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel and the Chief Nurse at NHS England.

In 2022, Siobhan was seconded to the National Wound Care Strategy Programme, supporting test sites in developing case studies that explored the barriers and enablers to implementing the lower limb recommendations.

Passionate about strengthening nursing leadership, Siobhan champions clinicians as ‘experts by experience’ to influence organisational strategy in tissue viability and patient safety. She has a particular interest in amplifying diverse and underrepresented voices in healthcare improvement. Having recently completed an MBA and a Diploma in Senior Leadership and Management in Healthcare at the University of Exeter, Siobhan is eager to share insights on building and sustaining high-quality wound care services during a period of significant change across the UK's health systems.