Professor Annie Topping is a nurse, health service researcher and educator. Annie has had a long and varied career clinically in surgical and cancer nursing, in higher education (Universities of Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield and South Bank), and overseas in the State of Qatar.  She currently holds a joint appointment with the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and leads on nurse research capacity and capability building. Her own research is concerned with improving patient experience, outcomes and care delivery.

Professor Bridie Kent was appointed as Professor in Leadership in Nursing at the University of Plymouth in 2013. She has a background in both clinical and academic appointments, resulting in extensive experience in leadership, quality improvement, practice change, health services education and implementation research.  For the last 20 years she has held clinical academic positions in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, with senior academic appointments, including Head of School of Nursing and Midwifery and Executive Dean at the University of Plymouth. She has been a Non-Executive Director of the Board at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust since 2021. Currently, she is leading a NIHR Global Health and Policy Systems grant in which the team are co-designing rehabilitation services for those living in rural communities in the Philippines following stroke.  Her research has resulted in practice and policy changes, making a difference to the quality of care received by patients.

Professor Daniel Kelly has held the Royal College of Nursing Chair of Nursing Research at Cardiff University since 2011. His career-long interest has been in cancer care research and education. Current research interests include cancer prevention, especially the potential of greater awareness of HPV vaccination and screening to protect people from cancer. Formerly President of the European Oncology Nursing Society, he has co-chaired the European Cancer Organisation’s HPV Action Network since 2019, and is also a former Board member of European Cancer Organisation.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom and was awarded the OBE from Queen Elizabeth in the 2021 new year honour’s list for his national and international contribution to research and education in cancer care. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Edinburgh University, University College London & Oxford Brookes University. He is also a Trustee at St Christopher’s Hospice London and a Public Governor at Kings College London NHS Foundation Trust.

Professor Arlene Wellman MBE is the first Group Chief Nursing Officer for St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Healthcare Group since the group was formed in February 2022.  Arlene qualified as a general registered nurse in Trinidad and migrated to the UK with the intention of training as a midwife, however she fell in love with elderly care nursing and has more than 20 years’ experience in this specialty. She continues to contribute to this field as the SRO for the Capital Nurse Older Person’s Qualification in Specialism development program.

Arlene is the one of most senior internationally trained nurses in the UK and was awarded an MBE in recognition of her contribution to nursing as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2021. She has a first-class BSc Hons degree in Health and Social Care for Older People, a MSc in Clinical Healthcare Practice, a Florence Nightingale Leadership Fellow and is a visiting Professor with Kingston University

As Executive Director for Nursing, Arlene had responsibility for the nursing, midwifery, healthcare support and allied healthcare professional workforce; is Executive Maternity Safety Champion and Baby Friendly Guardian and the Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DiPC) across the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Healthcare Group. Arlene is also a WRES expert and Executive sponsor for the Racial Equality and Cultural Heritage staff network at ESTH.

Flo Panel- Coates was Executive Chief Nurse at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), providing acute and specialist services in six hospitals in central London. She held the role between April 2015 to April 2023, stepping down to recover from Long Covid. In her role as Emergency Planning Executive, Flo led the Trust’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and also held the roles of Director of Organisational Development (February 2021 to April 2023) and Interim Deputy Chief Executive (March 2021 to September 2021) at UCLH.

Before this, Flo was Chief Nurse at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University NHS Trust from October 2012 to March 2015. Prior to that she was Director of Nursing and Quality at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust from August 2008 until September 2012.

Flo is a clinical nurse by background, having spent much of her earlier nursing career working in emergency and urgent care settings. She has been a Non-Executive Director of NHS Innovations South-East since 2012 and in Autumn 2024 joined the General Nursing Council Trust for England and Wales as the NMC nominated trustee.

Julie is an experienced, innovative and creative nurse academic. In August 2024, Julie was appointed Head of School for the School of Health Sciences, Bangor University.  

Julie qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1990, following completion of a first degree in education. A successful clinical career culminated in a move to academia in 2003. Over the ensuing years, Julie achieved excellence in learning and teaching and the leadership of students and colleagues and completed her mixed methods PhD. Julie also designed and led the specialist practice post-registration programme for District Nurse education; a programme recognised regionally and nationally as being innovative and inspirational.

Julie was awarded her personal Chair and became the first Professor of District Nursing in the United Kingdom in January 2020. In April 2021, Julie was appointed to the role of Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Keele University. Here, Julie led a dynamic team and facilitated the return of the school to near ‘normal’ educational delivery following the pandemic. In July 2024, Julie was appointed as Head of the School of Health Sciences at Bangor University.

Alongside her academic career, Julie has had 20 plus years involvement with the RCN and QNI. Julie is honoured to be a Fellow of both organisations and is committed to contributing to a range of workstreams. Julie has been elected to sit on the RCN Wales Board and will take up this role on 1^st January 2025.