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.

Adam Mence

Alice Bilsborough

Agnes Collarte

Amar Dhillon

Ashley Clydesdale

Beth Lillico

Bernadette McGlynn

Cath Cavanagh

Claire Parsons

Clare Carter

Charlotte Austen

Diane Hayes

Georgia Hickman

Helen Shoker

Hannah Poulton

Hollie Robinson

Holly Edmundson

Ines Sadoc Pereira

Jackie Dark

Jack Short

James Saunders

Jane Mayes

Jane Parker

Jane Wigg

Jennifer Hughes

Jon Findlay

Julie Mullings

Katie White

Kelly Hutchinson

Kerry Nyland

Lisa Turley

Lizzie Wardle

Lucy Goddard

Matthew Allen

Natalie Howard

Nicola Fitzpatrick

Niomi Mathewson

Oliver Medill

Paul Vaughan

Rachael Renton

Rachel Sweeney

Rasha Okashesh

Richard Shorney

Richard Shorter

Sarah Robinson

Scarlet Milo

Sharon Gardner

Siobhan Mccoulough

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

Adam Mence

Senior Brand Manager (Compression)

Adam Mence is Senior Brand Manager for the Compression Portfolio at L&R, leading a portfolio of trusted heritage brands in wound care, including Actico®, Activa®, ActiLymph® hosiery, and ReadyWrap®. Passionate about collaboration and pathway-driven care, Adam is a strong advocate of L&R’s total compression solutions approach, supporting clinicians to deliver the right product for the right patient at the right time.

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.

Amar Dhillon

Account Manager

Amar is an Account Manager with many years’ experience in the wound care space. He has extensive expertise in partnering with customers to support service-level transformation and improve patient outcomes. Passionate about driving best practice and championing best-in-class products, Amar is known for his collaborative approach and commitment to care across the NHS and industry landscape.

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

Watch Cath

Cath Cavanagh

Practice Nurse, Wound and Lower Limb Lead, York Medical Group

Cath Cavanagh is an experienced General Practice Nurse with nearly 40 years of service in the NHS. Her career began in critical care, providing a strong clinical foundation that later supported her transition into the diverse field of practice nursing. Cath now specialises in wound and lower limb services and is a passionate advocate for the essential role of practice nurses in this area within primary care. She currently works in a large, multi-site GP surgery in York, where she leads a dedicated team delivering comprehensive wound and lower limb care. Through both her clinical leadership and day-to-day practice, Cath continues to champion high-quality, patient-centred care and the ongoing development of nursing roles in general practice.

Watch Claire

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.

Watch Clare

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.

Charlotte Austen

Account Manager

Charlotte is a Regional Clinical Advisor and registered nurse with a strong clinical background rooted in the NHS. Supporting the South East region, she works closely with healthcare teams to improve clinical and patient outcomes through innovative, collaborative practice. Since joining L&R, Nicola has remained passionate about applying best practice to enable service-level transformation, enhance clinical outcomes, and deliver sustainable commercial savings for the NHS.

Diane Hayes

TVN, Birmingham Community

Diane has worked as a tissue viability nurse for Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust for 20 years, providing comprehensive assessments and support for patients and staff in community settings, including own homes, nursing homes and embedded units.

Before working as a tissue viability nurse, she was a district nurse, obtaining her degree in community health nursing in 1999.

Diane is an independent prescriber, and is passionate about preventing and treating wounds and achieving positive outcomes for patients. She is also a wound hygiene ambassador.

Jackie Dark

Lead tissue viability nurse specialist, Swindon Community health services, HCRG Caregroup

Jackie is an experienced tissue viability nurse specialist, leading a team in Swindon community.

She has worked at a senior level within the field of dermatology and tissue viability for the last 30 plus years and feels passionately about promoting skin health for all. This has been driven by managing her own dermatological inflammatory condition since childhood, while remaining clinically active.

She gained her MSc at University of Hertfordshire, and maintains her thirst for knowledge by actively seeking opportunities to develop her learning and facilitate learning for others

She is an executive board member of the Leg Ulcer Forum and an affiliated member of the Legs Matter Coalition.

Jackie believes that the specialities of tissue viability and dermatology overlap significantly as both relate to skin integrity and would benefit from even more collaboration and partnership working.

She believes as nurses we are all change agents and should always advocate for patients and their families however challenging this may be within the emotional and political climate.

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

Nurse Consultant Tissue Viability, NHS Grampian

Ines started her career as an intensive care nurse in 2008 in Portugal, working in a neurosurgery and trauma critical care unit.

Moving forward 18 years, Ines has worked in England, Abu Dhabi and now in Scotland.
She moved from intensive care to wound care in 2018 and is currently the nurse consultant for tissue viability in NHS Grampian, Aberdeen.

Throughout this journey, Ines has been a lecturer in adult nursing, and has accomplished a Master's in Science at Hertfordshire University.

She is currently involved in projects both related to wound care and scar therapy, as she is now a certified scar therapist.

Watch Jack

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

Jennifer Hughes

TVN, The Wirral

Jennifer has been a registered nurse for 20 years after graduating from the University of Chester in 2006. She developed her passion for wound care as a newly qualified community nurse. After two years of being a proactive tissue viability link nurse, Jennifer secured a secondment in a neighbouring community tissue viability service and went on to become the lead specialist nurse in 2019. Jennifer continues to research, evaluate and develop education and clinical pathways to support healthcare professionals who are inexperienced with wound care, to become confident and competent in advanced wound care. She is driven to ensure all patients receive quality wound care support in their preferred care setting.

Jon Findlay

National Harm Reduction Lead, Waythrough

Jon Findlay is the national harm reduction lead for Waythrough. He has worked in and around services for people who use drugs for 24 years.

He started out in the prison service at HMP Manchester in the late ‘90s. He went on to manage one of the first versions of criminal justice drug treatment offers that were the precursor to the Drug Treatment and Testing Orders and subsequent Drug Requirement Orders.

Within Waythrough, Jon is now responsible for overseeing the national charity’s harm reduction services. These include needle syringe provision, clinical alerts, naloxone, safe inhalation, chemsex, emerging drug trends, and image performance enhancing drugs hormone clinics.

‘For me harm reduction is an unconditional act of kindness and love not based on any requirement of compliant behaviour. It’s about making today better.’

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.

Watch Katie

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.

Watch Kelly

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.

Kerry Nyland

Global Clinical Product Manager- Vascular & Patient Monitoring, Huntleigh Healthcare

Kerry Nyland is a Podiatrist and Clinical Product Manager at Huntleigh Healthcare, with a passion for helping clinicians build confidence in vascular assessment. She has contributed extensively to the development of practical education and training resources, including the newly launched Huntleigh Academy. A proud Doppler enthusiast (self‑declared nerd!), Kerry enjoys collaborating with teams dedicated to improving PAD detection and enhancing lower‑limb vascular outcomes.

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.

Watch Lizzie

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.

Natalie Howard

Clinical Manager, medi UK

Natalie Howard, RGN, is a Clinical Manager at medi, providing clinical support and education to healthcare professionals and patients across the UK. She also holds an honorary Community Tissue Viability Nurse role in North East England. With over 21 years’ nursing experience, she developed a keen interest in wound care early in her career. She has a passion for lower limb care and compression therapy, alongside a special interest in patient education and health literacy. Her background in community nursing services, including her role as a Tissue Viability Nurse Specialist, has enabled her to develop strong practical and theoretical expertise that she shares with patients and clinicians in her current role.

Nicola Fitzpatric

Regional Clinical Advisor

Nicola is a Regional Clinical Advisor and registered nurse with a strong clinical background rooted in the NHS. Supporting the South West region, she works closely with healthcare teams to improve clinical and patient outcomes through innovative, collaborative practice. Since joining L&R, Nicola has remained passionate about applying best practice to enable service-level transformation, enhance clinical outcomes, and deliver sustainable commercial savings for the NHS.

Niomi Mathewson

Tissue viability specialist, Swindon Community Services Tissue Viability Team, HCRG Care Services Limited

Niomi has 10 years of tissue viability experience, working within a community tissue viability team in Swindon, Wiltshire. Niomi is passionate about community services and has worked within the community division since qualification as a registered nurse.

Niomi completed her skin integrity and wound management Master’s degree at Hertfordshire University in 2024.

She runs clinics for patients with complex wounds and/or complex comorbidities.

Niomi is enthusiastic about education and frequently hosts pre- and post-registration students for knowledge and skills development within the clinic setting and provides education for medical students (4th year) on vascular assessment and skin integrity issues.

Niomi’s passions include raising awareness of skin tears, lower limb ulceration and associated dermatological issues.

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.

Watch Paul

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.

Rachael Renton

Clinical Trainer, medi UK

Rachael Renton recently joined medi as a Clinical Trainer, bringing over 20 years’ nursing experience from the NHS. Having spent the last seven years in roles as a Community Tissue Viability Nurse Specialist and Service Lead, she developed a strong interest in chronic wound management and lower limb care. Rachael advocates a holistic approach to patient wellbeing, focusing on treating the individual as well as the wound. Through clinical education, she champions early intervention and encourages clinicians to engage with evidence-based pathways in daily practice to improve patients’ quality of life.

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.

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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, Health Partnerships and Insights, Health Innovation East

Sarah oversees the delivery of our real-world evaluation and applied research portfolio and a range of contracted activity from health and care partners. Sarah is the national lead for Transforming Wound Care for the network of 15 Health Innovation Networks which has now implemented lower limb pathway recommendations across a significant number of systems in England.

She is also appointed to the implementation lead role for the NIHR East of England Applied Research Collaborations (ARC) and works with partners in both the ARC and the Health Innovation Network to support the implementation of promising applied health and care research. Additionally, Sarah has formal advisory roles to a number of charity and SME organisations.

Sarah has held numerous strategic NHS roles since qualifying as a clinical psychologist. She was the regional lead for the national dementia strategy before taking up a patient safety and safeguarding leadership role at NHS England. Her diverse portfolio at Health Innovation East represents her enjoyment of working in complex programme delivery across multiple systems to benefit workforce and patient populations.

Scarlet Milo

Medical Scientific Liaison, Convatec

Dr Scarlet Milo is a Medical Scientific Liaison at Convatec, where she provides national scientific education and engagement initiatives focused on next-generation antimicrobial technologies, including nitric oxide-based solutions for chronic wound care. With a PhD in Biophysical Chemistry and experience spanning R&D, clinical education, her current work supports the clinical adoption of Convatec’s nitric oxide platform through evidence generation, KOL collaboration, and strategic scientific communication.

Watch Sharon

Sharon Gardner

National Sales Manager, Mediq UK’s Wound Care and Clinical team

Sharon is the National Sales Manager for Mediq UK’s Wound Care and Clinical team. She brings extensive clinical experience to the role, having previously worked as a Tissue Viability Specialist Nurse within a large oncology trust. Alongside her position at Mediq UK, she continues to practise clinically as a Nurse Practitioner in an urgent care walk in centre. Sharon is an independent nurse prescriber, and a Queens Nurse.

During the COVID 19 pandemic, Sharon undertook an honorary contract as a Tissue Viability Nurse for a local trust—an appointment she continues to hold.

In her role at Mediq UK, Sharon provides expert clinical insight across the organisation’s portfolio. This includes delivering bespoke training and education to a wide range of healthcare professionals, contributing to clinical marketing activity, and supporting NHS trusts with evidence based clinical decision making.

Throughout her NHS career, Sharon has been passionate about developing and empowering healthcare staff, particularly in the areas of oncology and skin integrity. She continues this commitment within her current role, ensuring colleagues and customers receive the highest standards of clinical support.

Sharon leads a team of experienced sales and clinical specialists, working collaboratively to meet the needs of both customers and the patients they serve

Watch Siobhan

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.