Collaborating globally

We work both nationally and internationally, connecting with organisations and key stakeholders from across the country and around the world. We are committed to the sharing of innovative research, practice, and learning between communities and across borders.

CVD in Black and minority ethnic groups caused 24 per cent of all deaths in England and Wales, in 2019. Reference

By 2025 more than 5 million people will have diabetes in the UK. Reference

Estimates of disability-free life expectancy are 10 years lower for Bangladeshi men living in England compared to their White British counterparts. Reference

Our approach and engagement

We will take a systemic approach to stakeholder engagement, ensuring that systemic primacy, diversity of experience, independence, transparency, and reliance on evidence are always at the centre of the work we do. Our community engagement work will focus on four key objectives designed to ensure that systematic community participation:

shapes the Observatory’s and NHS’ priorities for targeted ethnic health inequality work
is embedded in the analysis of the factors that lead to ethnic health inequalities and in the solutions that will reduce those inequalities
supports the NHS to implement recommendations, and to achieve its own health inequity reduction ambitions
is at the heart of evaluating the impact of the participation itself and in the work of the Observatory and the NHS within key priority areas

Ethnic health inequalities are persistent globally, and there are likely to be significant cross-cultural commonalities that show promise of reducing health inequalities for Black and minority ethnic people in white-majority societies, or in societies where ethnic populations may be in the majority but where health outcomes for those ethnic, non-dominant populations are far below the average of their societies. The Observatory brings together race, ethnicity and health expertise from across the globe, from Australasia to Africa, South and North America to Europe and Asia – to share common solutions to common challenges in the field of ethnic health inequalities.

International experts group

Professor David R Williams

(Co-Chair) Professor of Public Health, Harvard University (U.S.A)
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Professor David R Williams

(Co-Chair) Professor of Public Health, Harvard University (U.S.A)

Dr. David R. Williams is the Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health and Chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His prior faculty appointments were at Yale University and the University of Michigan. He holds an MPH from Loma Linda University and a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan.

The author of more than 500 scientific papers, his research has enhanced our understanding of the ways in which race, socioeconomic status, stress, racism, health behavior and religious involvement can affect physical and mental health. The Everyday Discrimination Scale that he developed is the most widely used measure of discrimination in health studies.

He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2001, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2019. He has received Distinguished Contribution Awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Psychological Association and the New York Academy of Medicine. He was ranked as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences in 2008. In 2014, Thomson Reuters ranked him as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.

He has played a visible, national leadership role in raising awareness levels of inequities in health and interventions to address them. He has served on multiple national advisory committees (including 10 Committees for the National Academy of Sciences), as the staff director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America and as a key scientific advisor to the award-winning PBS film series, Unnatural Causes: Is inequality Making Us Sick? His research has been featured in the national print and television media and in his TED Talk.

Yvonne Coghill CBE FRCN, (Hon) Fellow KCL, Hon DUni (Bucks)

Co-chair and Director, Excellence in Action
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Yvonne Coghill CBE FRCN, (Hon) Fellow KCL, Hon DUni (Bucks)

Co-chair and Director, Excellence in Action

Yvonne commenced nurse training at Central Middlesex Hospital in 1977, qualified as a general nurse in 1980 and then went on to qualify in mental health nursing and health visiting. In 1986 she secured her first NHS management job and has since held a number of operational and strategic leadership posts.

Yvonne has recently retired after 43 years in the NHS. The last role she held was as Director, workforce race equality, NHS London, prior to which she was the Director for the Workforce Race Equality Implementation Team in NHS England/Improvement. She is a member of faculty at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in the United States where she helped develop their inclusion strategy. Yvonne has delivered lectures on inclusion and diversity at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She continues to work closely with world expert on health and race Professor D. Williams, of Harvard University School of Public Health.

In 2012 Yvonne was appointed a Magistrate to the North London bench. Yvonne was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare in 2010 and was appointed to the position of Director for WRES implementation in June 2015. In 2018 Yvonne was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing, a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list, an honorary fellowship from Kings College University, honorary doctorates from The Middlesex and Buckinghamshire Universities, voted one of the top 70 most inspirational nurses in the NHS over the last 70 years . Summer 2020 Yvonne led on the development of a race equality strategy for London and was invited to be a senior fellow at the Institute of Health Improvement and again was voted one of the top 50 most influential black people in the NHS. Yvonne is currently working as a board member at the race and health at the new NHS Race and Health Observatory and the board of directors for the Institute of Health Improvement based in Boston Massachusetts. Yvonne commenced nurse training at Central Middlesex Hospital in 1977, qualified as a general nurse in 1980 and then went on to qualify in mental health nursing and health visiting. In 1986 she secured her first NHS management job and has since held a number of operational and strategic leadership posts.

Andy Burness

Founder and President, Burness Communications
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Andy Burness

Founder and President, Burness Communications

Andy Burness is founder and president of Burness, a mission-driven global communications firm supporting nonprofits and the people they serve. Andy and his colleagues have worked in 20 countries and served over 600 organizations, to showcase solutions to the problems that cause poverty, hunger, disease and environmental degradation, often taking little-known ideas that can benefit humanity and developing strategies and tactics for taking these ideas to scale.

His company long worked on issues at the intersection of race and health, partnering with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to translate academic research for public audiences, amplifying the voices of scholars with media and policymakers.

Burness has a robust global practice with a hub office in Nairobi, Kenya. This work focuses on global health, agriculture, environmental sustainability, and other issues of particular concern to the Global South. Andy and his colleagues work closely with experts native to these countries, sharing their knowledge both in-country and around the world.

Andy has been an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, teaching a course on strategic communications for policy change. He is also an associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and lectures regularly on practical strategies for influencing a better world. In 2014, he was selected as a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Resident Fellow, joining 15 other policymakers, nonprofit leaders, artists and public advocates from around the world.

Before starting his firm, he was liaison with the public and primary spokesperson for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Prior to that, he served as public information officer for the President’s Commission on Medical Ethics and was a legislative assistant for health and education policy in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Assistant Professor Ricci Harris

Public Health Physician and Associate Professor, Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington (New Zealand)
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Assistant Professor Ricci Harris

Public Health Physician and Associate Professor, Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington (New Zealand)

Ricci Harris (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Raukawa) is a Public Health Physician and Associate Professor at the Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre, Department of Public Health, University of Otago Wellington. Her research focuses on Māori (indigenous) health and the investigation and elimination of ethnic health inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand. Areas of research include ethnicity data quality, ethnic disparities in health status and receipt of health services, modelling health interventions for equity, and the impact of social determinants on Māori health and inequities. A major focus of research has been in the area of racism and health. This includes research on the health impacts of experiences of racism on the health and wellbeing of adults and children, the links between multiple experiences of discrimination and health, and racial/ethnic bias among health professionals.

Professor Stephani Hatch

Professor of Sociology and Epidemiology, King’s College London
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Professor Stephani Hatch

Professor of Sociology and Epidemiology, King’s College London

Stephani is a Professor of Sociology and Epidemiology leading the Health Inequalities Research Group at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. She has over 25 years of experience delivering interdisciplinary health inequalities research with an emphasis on race at the intersection of other social identities. She works across sectors, locally and nationally, and has published extensively on: inequalities in mental health and health services; discrimination and other forms of social adversity; community mental health; and multimorbidity. Professor Hatch brings a range of research and leadership experience. From 2008 to 2015, she was Co-Principal Investigator for the NIHR and ESRC-funded Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study, a psychiatric and physical morbidity study set in the London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth.

In 2017, she received a Wellcome Trust Investigator’s Award to lead the Tackling Inequalities and Discrimination Experiences in Health Services (TIDES) study, a mixed-methods programme of work that expanded in 2020 with ESRC funding to utilise a participatory framework to identify processes through which racial and ethnic inequalities in mental health and occupational outcomes are produced, maintained and resisted in the context of Covid-19. Professor Hatch also currently co-leads the Marginalised Communities and Mental Health programme within the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health focused on advancing research with communities that have often been ignored, to examine and disrupt structures maintaining social inequities in mental health, with an emphasis on race within an intersectionality framework. Professor Hatch integrates collaborative approaches to knowledge production and dissemination, action and outreach in training and research through the Health Inequalities Research Network (HERON), which she founded in 2010. She also leads equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives in higher education, and has national and international advisory roles in health and volunteer and community sectors

Dr Raymond Lovett

Program leader for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Research School of Population Health
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Dr Raymond Lovett

Program leader for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Research School of Population Health

Dr. Raymond Lovett is the Program leader for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Research School of Population Health. Ray is an Aboriginal (Wongaibon/Ngiyampaa) social epidemiologist with extensive experience in health services research, public health policy development and health program evaluation.

The emphasis of Dr Lovett’s research has involved the integration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture with improving health outcomes and health services. He has an additional focus on administrative and health services data to change policy and practice.

Dr Anthony Mbewu

Specialist in Internal Medicine and Cardiology
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Dr Anthony Mbewu

Specialist in Internal Medicine and Cardiology

Dr. Anthony Mbewu is a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology. He was Chief Executive Officer of the South African Government Printing Works from 2012 to 2017 spearheading the launch of South Africa’s electronic “smart ID card”. He also served as the President of the Medical Research Council of South Africa from 2005 to 2010; and Executive Director for Research there from 1996 to 2005. He studied medicine at the Universities of Oxford and London; and trained as a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology in Manchester before returning to South Africa in April 1994 after 27 years in exile. He has a management diploma from Harvard Business School. He was formerly an Honorary Professor in Cardiology and Internal Medicine at the University of Cape Town.

He sits on the Presidential Specialists’ Advisory Panel; and was an advisor on health research to former President Thabo Mbeki. He chaired the Ministerial National Task Team that prepared the ‘Operational Plan for the Comprehensive Prevention, Treatment and Care of HIV and AIDS in South Africa’ – a plan that has enrolled 5 million South Africans onto antiretroviral treatment since 2004. Prof Mbewu was Co-Chair of the Inter Academy Medical Panel (a body that represents 67 of the world’s Medical Academies); a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the Special Programme for Training and Research in Tropical Disease (TDR); and was Vice Chairperson of the Board of the Global TB Alliance. He has served as a Technical Advisor to WHO on numerous occasions. He was a member of one of the World Bank taskteams that prepared the plan for the $1.6 billion Advanced Market Commitments fund to purchase pneumococcal vaccine to prevent childhood pneumonia in low income countries; which is now preventing hundreds of thousands of childhood deaths every year. He was also a member of the adjudication panel that selected the Academic Health Science Centres of the UK. Prof Mbewu has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in mainly international journals; and presented over 40 papers and posters at national and international research meetings. He is a former Vice-President of the Academy of Science of South Africa; a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of the UK; and was elected as a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Medicine of the USA for “an outstanding contribution to health”.

Professor James Nazroo

Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester
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Professor James Nazroo

Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester

James is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, founding and Deputy Director of the ESRC Centre of Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), co-PI of the Synergi Collaborative Centre, which is investigating ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness, and founding and co-Director of the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA). Issues of inequality, social justice and underlying processes of stratification have been the primary focus of his research activities, which have centred on ethnicity/race, ageing, gender, and the interrelationships between these. Central to his work on ethnicity/race has been developing an understanding of the links between ethnicity, racism, class and inequality. This work has covered a variety of elements of social disadvantage, how these relate to racialised identities and processes of racism, and how these patterns have changed over time.

He has also explored the role of access to and quality of health services, including a critical examination of mental health services. His research on ageing has been concerned to understand the patterns and determinants of social and health inequalities in ageing populations. He has conducted studies on quality of life for older people among different ethnic groups in the UK, on inequalities in health at older ages, and on routes into retirement and the impact of retirement on health and wellbeing. He was PI of the fRaill programme, an interdisciplinary study of inequalities in later life, and is co-PI of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), which is a multi-disciplinary panel study of those aged 50 and older.

Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj

Spokeswomen for Indigenous communities in Central America. Journalist, activist and visiting professor, University of Oregon (Guatemala)
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Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj

Spokeswomen for Indigenous communities in Central America. Journalist, activist and visiting professor, University of Oregon (Guatemala)

Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, Maya-K’iche’ journalist, activist, and Stanford University visiting professor from Guatemala.  Dr. Velásquez Nimatuj is an international spokeswoman for Indigenous communities in Central America and was the first Maya-K’iche’ woman to earn a doctorate in social anthropology in Guatemala.  Dr. Velásquez Nimatuj was also instrumental in making racial discrimination illegal in Guatemala and is featured in 500 Years, a documentary about Indigenous resistance movements, for her role as an activist and expert witness in war crime trials. Dr. Nimatuj writes a weekly newspaper column for elPeriódico de Guatemala and has served on UN Women as a representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The fall 2019, she joined the Center for Latin American Studies,CLAS, at Stanford where she teaches courses about Central and Latin American history and resistance. She is part of a long line of struggle and resistance in her community since the Spanish invasion in 1524.  She is the author of the books:  La pequeña Burguesía Comercial de Guatemala: Desigualdades de clasa, raza y género (2003),  Pueblos indígenas, Estado y lucha por tierra en Guatemala: Estrategias de sobrevivencia y negociación ante la desigualdad globalizada (2008), Lunas y Calendarios, colección poesía guatemalteca (2018) and “La Justicia nunca estuvo de nuestro lado” Peritaje cultural sobre conflicto armado y violencia sexual en el caso Sepur Zarco, Guatemala (2019) and with Aileen Ford, Acceso de las Mujeres Indígenas a la tierra, el territorio y lo recursos naturales en América Latina y El Caribe (2018).  In 2020 she was awardee with LASA/Oxfam America Martin Diskin Memorial Lectureship.

Professor Naomi Priest

Group Leader of Social-Biological Research at the Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University
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Professor Naomi Priest

Group Leader of Social-Biological Research at the Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University

Professor Naomi Priest is a lifecourse and social epidemiologist. Naomi is Group Leader of Social-Biological Research at the Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University and an Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Community Child Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.

Her research program is focused on examining how social forces and social exposures become biologically embedded and embodied, and on understanding and addressing inequities in health and development throughout the life course. She is particularly interested in understanding and addressing racism as a fundamental cause of child and youth health and health inequities. Much of this work focuses on inequities in mental health and cardiovascular disease risk for Aboriginal and ethnic minoritised children and adolescents, with inflammation a key mechanism.

Naomi has extensive experience in qualitative, mixed methods, and large-scale quantitative analysis, as well as in the conduct of collaborative research and policy and practice implementation. She originally trained as an occupational therapist and worked in community child health in rural, remote and outer urban areas of South Australia.

Naomi has held a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship and has previously been a Visiting Scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University.

Dr Priscilla Reddy

Visiting Scholar, Centre for Research in Race & Identity, University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)
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Dr Priscilla Reddy

Visiting Scholar, Centre for Research in Race & Identity, University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)

Prof. Reddy is known nationally in South Africa and internationally as making significant contributions to behavioural science in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tobacco control, and adolescent health. Most recently, she served as the Strategic Lead within the Human and Social Capabilities division at the HSRC in South Africa and as the Director of the Health Promotion Research and Development Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (MRC). Prof Reddy has served as an Extraordinary Professor by the University of the Western Cape.

Prof. Reddy holds an MPH from the University of Massachusetts and a PhD from Maastricht University. She has held many prestigious professional appointments, including President Bush’s PEPFAR Advisory Committee, IOM’s Committee on Antiretroviral Drug Use in Resource-Constrained Settings 2003/2004, and the World Health Organization Health Promotion Glossary Reference Group 2003. She has been the PI for many research projects in South Africa. She was also the local Co-PI in South Africa of an NIH-funded supplement on HIV prevention/intervention targeting prison populations, and a CIFAR grant targeting HIV negative women (SISTA SA). She was appointed to South Africa’s National Health Research Committee by the Minister of Health. Prof. Reddy was a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), and a member of its governing Council. She has given talks and lectures at many prestigious institutions such as the Academie des Sciences in Paris, the Institute of Medicine, and universities such as Harvard, Emory, Georgetown, and Massachusetts.

Dr Janet Smylie

Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
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Dr Janet Smylie

Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Dr. Smylie is the Director of the Well Living House Action Research Centre for Indigenous Infant, Child, and Family Health and Wellbeing, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Advancing Generative Health Services for Indigenous Populations in Canada, and Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Dr. Smylie’s research focuses on addressing Indigenous health inequities in partnership with Indigenous communities. She is particularly focused on ensuring all First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples are counted into health policy and planning wherever they live in ways that make sense to them; addressing anti-Indigenous racism in health services; and advancing community-rooted innovations in health services for Indigenous populations. She maintains a part-time clinical practice at Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto and has practiced and taught family medicine in a variety of Indigenous communities both urban and rural. A Métis woman, Dr. Smylie acknowledges her family, traditional teachers, and ceremonial lodge.

Dr Laurie Zephyrin MD, MPH, MBA

Senior Vice President, Advancing Health Equity, The Commonwealth Fund
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Dr Laurie Zephyrin MD, MPH, MBA

Senior Vice President, Advancing Health Equity, The Commonwealth Fund

Laurie Zephyrin MD, MPH, MBA (she/her) is Senior Vice President, Advancing Health Equity, The Commonwealth Fund

launching The Commonwealth Fund’s innovative Advancing Health Equity portfolio. She previously served as Vice President of Health Care Delivery System Reform at The Commonwealth Fund leading the Fund’s work promoting payment and policy reform in primary health care and maternal health care through Medicaid and delivery system transformation.

Laurie is driven by a commitment and passion to transform health care delivery systems and advance health equity. She combines her experience as a clinician, policy leader, and health systems innovator to her role at The Commonwealth Fund to drive delivery system change. Laurie has extensive experience leading the vision, design, and delivery of innovative health care models across national health systems. She was the first National Director of the Reproductive Health Program at the Department of Veterans Affairs spearheading the strategic vision and leading systems change and policy to improve the health of women veterans nationwide; she served as Acting Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Community Care, and later, as Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Community Care.

While directing the VA’s Community Care multibillion-dollar program, Dr. Zephyrin spearheaded efforts to implement legislation, develop internal governance structures, and address patient outcomes through system-wide transformation of care delivery. As part of the senior leadership team, she also represented VA before Congress and other internal and external stakeholders. Her perspective and experience as a systems thinker and a leader provides refreshing insight on health care delivery and advancing health equity. She has written numerous articles and has been quoted in the LA Times, National Geographic, the NY Times, STAT and more. Laurie was named a White House Fellow, Young Global Leader, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Aspen Health Innovator Fellow. She earned her M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine, M.B.A. and M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University, and B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from the City College of New York. She is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and completed her residency training at Harvard’s Integrated Residency Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Stakeholder Engagement Group

The stakeholder engagement group is made up of people from within the NHS and wider community. The purpose of the group is to support the NHS Race and Health Observatory to focus on issues that really matter and make a positive difference to the lives of staff in the NHS and in the wider community. The overall aim being to reduce health inequalities between white people and people from ethnic minority groups. The group will meet approximately four times a year and will work with each other and other members of the Observatory to support the delivery of the RHOs overall aims and objectives.

Emma Bray

Outreach and Campaigns Officer. Friends, Families & Travellers (FFT)
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Emma Bray

Outreach and Campaigns Officer. Friends, Families & Travellers (FFT)

Emma Bray is an Outreach Worker and Campaigns Officer at Friends, Families and Travelers (FFT) which is a national charity that works on behalf of Gypsy, Roma and Traveler communities.

Emma has been an outreach worker for ten years. Her main roles are health improvement and campaigns work. Emma is passionate about her job and community, coming from a Traveler background herself and now living on a permanent site with her family.

Emma believes that lived experience as well as professional can offer a unique insight and understanding into health inequalities and barriers. Emma’s roles include Health Champion, Stop Smoking Advisor, Royal Society of Public Health Trainer and

Emma also has a wealth of experience in delivering inclusive services training to statutory and third sector organisations. Emma is passionate about tackling maternal health inequalities and mental health inequalities in Gypsy and Traveller communities.

Mark R D Johnson

Emeritus Professor of Diversity in Health and Social Care
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Mark R D Johnson

Emeritus Professor of Diversity in Health and Social Care

Mark R D Johnson is Emeritus Professor of Diversity in Health and Social Care at De Montfort University Leicester UK.

He founded the Mary Seacole Research Centre and UK Centre for Evidence in Ethnicity, Diversity and Health, the first evidence-based database of research into minority ethnic health issue in Europe.

Mark was the first Professor of Diversity in Europe, and continues to provide expert advice and input to evaluations, peer reviews, and professional training programmes.

He has researched ‘diversity’ in relation to most major conditions including cancer, arthritis, heart disease and diabetes, and ‘migrant health care’ across Europe.

He works closely with community members in developing research and policy around issues including end of life and dementia, sight loss, musculo-skeletal conditions, learning disability, and health promotion and is passionate about inclusion of people from minority groups in research and development, and communities having access to research evidence.

As one of the Expert Academic Advisors to the NHS Race & Health Observatory, he will continue to fight for that link between research and practice improvement.

Patrick Vernon

Associate Director for Connected Communities
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Patrick Vernon

Associate Director for Connected Communities

Patrick Vernon OBE, social commentator, cultural historian and EDI Adviser is Associate Director for Connected Communities for the Centre for Ageing Better. He is also a Clore and Winston Churchill Fellow, Fellow of Goodenough College, Fellow at the Imperial War Museum, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and former associate fellow for the department of history of medicine at Warwick University.

Patrick is also an independent adviser on equality and diversity for Lambeth and Harrow Council. He was the first director of Black Thrive a mental-health, multi-agency tackling mental health in Lambeth, a former non-executive director of Camden and Islington Mental Health Foundation Trust, Health Partnership Coordinator for National Housing Federation, former Director of Afiya Trust, Chair of Westminster Race Equality Partnership, Committee member of Healthwatch England, NHS England Equality Diversity Council, Director of Brent Health Action Zone and Regional director for MIND.

Patrick is a former Councillor in Hackney from 2006-2014. Patrick is currently chair of Citizenship Partnership for HSIB and Non-Executive Director for Hertfordshire NHS Trust. Patrick was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work on tackling health inequalities and working with ethnic minority communities.

In 2018 he received an honorary PhD from Wolverhampton University and was selected as one of The Progressive 1000: Londoner influencer list by the Evening Standard. In 2019 he was awarded a lifetime achievement award for campaigning and advocacy work by the SMK Foundation. In 2020 Patrick was selected by British Vogue as one of Britain’s top 20 campaigners and was included in the 2020 Power list of 100 influential Black People in Britain.

Melissa Berry

Diversity Consultant
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Melissa Berry

Diversity Consultant

Melissa started her career with Centrica PLC where she worked for 10 years before moving to the public sector. She now works as a diversity consultant providing advice and designing and delivering projects across both blue-chip private sector and public sector organisations.

Melissa has delivered a broad range of strategic projects using her extensive knowledge of cultural diversity, specifically as it relates to establishing an inclusive positive workplace culture.

Melissa advises brands on how to achieve greater diversity internally within their organisations as well as with publicity, marketing and advertising campaigns.

Melissa has particular expertise in developing diversity programmes in response to peoples’ experiences in the workplace and supporting boards to drive change. She regularly provides advice to clients and develops bespoke strategies across all diversity strands along with training sessions for boards, leadership teams and the wider organisation. Recently, she has been working within the NHS and regularly speaks at conferences delivering talks on race.

Jenni Caguioa

CNO BAME Nurse Advisor
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Jenni Caguioa

CNO BAME Nurse Advisor

Jenni qualified as a nurse in the Philippines in 1994 and was among the first Filipino nurses who came to work in the UK in 1999. She started in Haematology at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and has worked in the NHS for the last 21 years within oncology, research and practice development.

Since 2009 as Lead IV Practitioner, she started a vascular access service at King’s College Hospital NHSFT, published peer reviewed articles and was awarded the British Journal of Nursing ‘IV Therapy Nurse of the Year’ in 2016 for implementing Project HANDS. She presents at various national and international conferences and sits on various advisory boards.

Passionate about leadership and staff support, she completed an MSc in Healthcare Leadership in 2016. As BAME Network Engagement Lead, she believes in equality and the strength of diversity so that teams can deliver the best care for our patients. She initiated Project KINs (King’s International Nurses) How are we doing? to improve the support of newly arrived overseas nurses.

Felicia Kwaku

Associate Director of Nursing NHS
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Felicia Kwaku

Associate Director of Nursing NHS

Felicia has over 31 years nursing experience, specialising in general Intensive Care/Cardiac Nursing. Trained at University College London Hospitals, she is an Associate Director of Nursing at Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Currently interim Chair of the Chief Nursing Officer for England BME Strategic Advisory Group Felicia holds an MSc in Human physiology and has always been interested in Education & Development. She has held various roles such as Research Nurse, Practice Educator/ Practice Development Lead Nurse. During her tenure she held a part time Lecturer Practitioner post at London South Bank University.

Concurrently, Felicia secured the post of Modern Matron/Divisional Senior Nurse at The Heart Hospital (THH) for six years where she established the THH as a beacon of best practice & innovation within the Trust. Felicia took up the post of Head of Nursing for Surgery & Critical Care at Ealing Hospital, followed by Director of Nursing positions at BMI Clementine Churchill Hospital and Whipps Cross hospital, London.

Felicia has always had a passion for clinical practice ensuring that patients as well as staff are at the centre of our care. She believes that if the workforce is not highly valued then this is reflected in poor care delivery.

As a Director of Nursing, Felicia performs clinical duties, being highly visible both in and out of uniform. She is committed to supporting, coaching and mentoring individuals internally and externally. She considers mentoring as a fundamental responsibility as it allows individuals to examine self, grow and develop a global vision.

Varadarajan Kalidasan

Consultant Paediatric Surgeon and Urologist
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Varadarajan Kalidasan

Consultant Paediatric Surgeon and Urologist

Currently a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon and Urologist at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton. Kali trained in some of the largest and highly rated institutions in world. These include the Madras Medical College; The General Hospital in Madras as well as the Institute of Child health in Chennai, India; The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne; and the Crumlin Hospital in Dublin.

Since April 2012 he has been in the role of Director of Medical Education at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in the Directorate of Education and Knowledge.

The purpose of the role was to integrate the education model that Health Education England are keen on promoting. Successfully integrating education across various groups in the Trust, in this role, he works with the Clinical Directors, Executive team, Medical Director, and Health Education England.

As the main teaching institution in the south-east of England (outside London), there are 600 post-graduate trainees, hundreds of medical students and over 1000 other trainees in various professional groups. Kali works closely with Brighton and Sussex Medical school which has given him unique and excellent insight into the various areas of the hospital and the close links that various teams have to make an acute university hospital work.

He is also chair of the local academic board and the education and knowledge board and a member of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) Kali is also a member of the Trusts Ethnic Minorities Network and works closely with the equality and diversity team

Rev Charles Kwaku-Odoi

Chief Officer Caribbean & African Health Network (CAHN)
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Rev Charles Kwaku-Odoi

Chief Officer Caribbean & African Health Network (CAHN)

Charles is Chief Officer of the Caribbean & African Health Network (CAHN).

He sits on local and national governance boards including Greater Manchester Voluntary Community & Social Enterprise (VCSE) Leadership Group, Coalition of Race Equality Organisations, and Governor at Manchester Foundation Trust.

Charles works to bring equity and fairness across a range of important health and wellbeing issues for people of the Caribbean and African Diaspora.

He is involved in work that influences the research, policy and practice agenda at local, regional and national levels.

Some of his specialist work is focused on Democratic Participation, Female Genital Mutilation, HIV, Domestic Violence, Modern Slavery, Hate Crime, and Forced Marriage.

Charles is a member of the NHS England Clinical Reference Group for HIV and also a member of the HIV Prevention England Steering Group.

He is also a Pentecostal Minister who is passionate about engaging faith leaders especially African pastors and organising health events such as HIV testing and organ donor recruitment in churches on Sundays.

Jacqueline Dyer

Independent Health and Social Care Consultant
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Jacqueline Dyer

Independent Health and Social Care Consultant

Jacqui is an independent health and social care consultant, with lived experience, and a background in adult mental health commissioning as well as community and family social work.

She was vice-chair of England’s Mental Health Taskforce, which collaboratively developed the 5 Year Forward View for Mental Health (NHSE) and its transformation of mental health service policy and provision. Its focus on reducing mental health inequalities was further strengthened in the NHS Long Term Plan for Mental Health. She is also President of the Mental Health Foundation UK.

Jacqui has co-led the Mayoral ‘Thrive London’ since its inception. Jacqui is an elected Councillor where she is cabinet member for jobs, skills and community safety having previously jointly held the health and adult social care cabinet portfolio.

She is co-founder and chair of Lambeth’s Black Thrive Partnership attending to the health of local black Caribbean and African citizens. Jacqui is a director of Black Thrive Global, which has evolved from the partnership to take forward its legacy. Jacqui was an advisory panel member of the 2018 Independent Mental Health Act Review (MHAR) and co-chair of its African & Caribbean Working Group (MHARAC).

Jacqui is currently the Mental Health Equalities Advisor for NHSE, and Health Education England (HEE), leading on the Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy and the development of the Patient & Carer Race Equality Framework as recommended in the MHARAC and subsequently agreed by the government.

In 2019 Jacqui was appointed the Mental Health Equalities Champion for England to support the implementation of the MHAR recommendations.

Simeon Essuman

NHS Service user
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Simeon Essuman

NHS Service user

Simeon is a 22-year-old black man who lives in West London where he was born and raised.

He believes that he will be able to provide useful and practical insights to aid the group in its discussions. He believes he will be able to shine a light on the experiences for young black people in our health care services by using his own recent experiences as a benchmark.

Simeon recently severely snapped his achilles tendon playing football, therefore has been in and out of Hillingdon Hospital since October.

He has also had a major operation at the start of the year at the London University College Hospital (Head and Neck Cancer department). He feels just these two experiences will enable him to give insight into the experiences of someone of an African-Caribbean descent interacting with the NHS.

Simeon is confident that his personal experiences will be of benefit to the RHO, whether this be from his experiences in a primary and secondary school in Ruislip (a mainly White British area) or working in Real Estate for two years covering predominantly White British communities (Windsor, Bracknell and Gerrards Cross) but also mixed background communities (West Drayton and Slough).

Heather Nelson

CEO Black Health Initiative
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Heather Nelson

CEO Black Health Initiative

Heather is the Chief Executive of a regional charity that has a national and developing international reach. She has an extensive background and working knowledge of Equality and Diversity and inclusion within the Education, Health and Social Care 3rd Sector.

Black Health Initiative (BHI) is a community engagement organisation, which works with and for disadvantaged and marginalised communities addressing equity of access, education, health and social care locally, regionally and nationally. They work in partnership with local regional and national charities, schools and community organisation.

Additionally, through culturally appropriate outreach the charity engages with communities to develop positive lifestyle choices, address cultural myths and taboos, and provide factual health and wellbeing information which embraces diversity. In 2017 Heather created the Legacy Awards, which celebrates excellence by those seldom recognised for their achievements.

This annual ceremony takes place in Leeds, and awards go to people that go above and beyond to reach their goals and provide a positive impact on the community and city. Heather also holds the position of the National Director of BME Cancer Voice, the only UK wide cancer programme with a membership of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities who have lived experience of cancer.

Jacynth Ivey

Non-Executive Director
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Jacynth Ivey

Non-Executive Director

Jacynth is the Managing Director of Inspiring Hope (IH) specialising in the area of equality and diversity.

She has over 40 years of experience of working in and with the NHS as a clinician, manager and Executive Director of Nursing. She is a former Associate Non-Executive Director on the Board of HEE and Non-Executive Director (NED) of West Midlands Ambulance NHS FT.

She currently serves as a NED in Birmingham Community Health NHS Trust where she chairs the workforce and organisational development committee.

Inspiring Hope were commissioned to design and deliver a bespoke solution to developing WRES Experts across the system.

Jacynth has extensive experience of design and delivery of positive action programmes in order to build capacity and capability amongst diverse workforces.

She uses personal and professional development to deliver better quality outcomes for the workforce, service users, patients, clients, carers and end users. IH values embody the way Jacynth approaches each assignment, transforming mindsets and changing behaviour to achieve fairer outcomes.

Pav Akhtar

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead
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Pav Akhtar

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead

Pav is an equality and employment law specialist whose professional career has spanned the public, private and voluntary sectors. He is currently head of equality at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust and a public governor at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

He joined the NHS after working as a political advisor to a shadow minister in the Home Affairs team in Parliament.

Prior to this, Pav spent a decade overseas. As a director of UNI Global Union in Switzerland, Pav negotiated global agreements with private sector multinational companies; helped negotiate a UN convention to prevent violence against women and men at work and helped draft a UN global compact on safe and orderly migration.

A central tenet of Pav’s career has been the defence of human rights and workers’ rights.

Pav was head of equality in the UK’s Department of Education; public appointments ambassador in the Government Equalities Office; and an employment tribunals’ member in the Ministry of Justice.

Pav is a long serving Director of UK Black Pride which tackles intersections of race, faith, and sexual orientation, and is a campaigner for disability rights.

Pav continues to serve his community as a Preston City Councillor. He holds a BA (Hons) and MA from the University of Cambridge, and an MA in labour economics from L’Università Degli Studi di Torino in Italy.

John Walsh

Organisational Development Lead and Freedom to Speak Up Guardian
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John Walsh

Organisational Development Lead and Freedom to Speak Up Guardian

John Walsh has worked in the NHS for 25 years. He worked with the homeless and people in the asylum system in Leeds for 22 years. This work was mainly on the streets with homeless people. He managed the homeless service for several years. A service that was rated outstanding by the CQC. John presently works as the ODI (Organisational Development and Improvement) Lead at Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust. This work involves culture change, leadership and systems work.

John is the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian for the Trust and the Leeds GP Confederation. He co-leads the System Leadership development work in Leeds and work with the West Yorkshire & Harrogate Partnership on health inequalities and personalised care. He sits on the Yorkshire RCGP Faculty. John has received a number of awards which include Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust Clinician of the Year (2013); The Yorkshire and Humberside Leadership Academy Community Leader of the Year (2013 ); Yorkshire Evening Post Community Health award (2015); Yorkshire Evening Post Overall Judges Winner award (2015); and the Ads the Poet award for Compassion in Health (2015). In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Leeds Beckett University for city partnership work and work with homeless people. He also received a special award from practice nurses across England for supporting the work of Practice Nursing in 2015.

Fatima Khan-Shah

NHS Programme Director
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Fatima Khan-Shah

NHS Programme Director

Fatima is known regionally and nationally for actively championing patient involvement, the recognition of carer support and challenging inequalities in Health and Care.

Fatima currently works as a system leader within the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership and is the director of the Personalised Care and Unpaid Carer Programmes. The latter of which has recently won a national award.

She has recently been appointed as a Non-Executive Director at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Fatima also works nationally with NHS England and is a member of the NHS Assembly and Kings Fund General Council.

Fatima has been nationally recognised for her work in the voluntary and community sector developing the community interest company Investors in Carers which was shortlisted for a Heath Services Journal Award and as Chair of Healthwatch Kirklees which was nationally recognised by Healthwatch England for its work.

Her experience also includes working within the NHS as a Lay Member for Patient and Public Involvement and within the Local Authority as a Scrutiny Co-optee with responsibility for scrutinising the decisions and policies that are being made by the Council and key partners including local health service providers and commissioners.

Bren McInerney

Community volunteer
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Bren McInerney

Community volunteer

Bren spent some time in the Royal Navy, he has a Batchelor of Science and master’s degree and has been a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Public Health Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) eQuality Voices group. He is presently the Public Member of the CQC’s Experts by Experience Programme Board, working with the NHS Leadership Academy/Health Education England on community and neighbourhood voice, and presently leads a national pilot on how national bodies across health and social care better engage with the local community around what matters to them. Born and residing in Gloucestershire, Bren has spent the last 24 years volunteering and supporting a number of local health and well-being activities at community level. During this time, he was the carer for his mother with chronic illness. He continues to volunteer as an informal advocate with and for people and communities and leads a number of local and national connectivity initiatives (and vice versa) across health and social care.

He is a member of his local GP Patient Participation Group, supporting an ethnic minority community led mentoring programme with the NHS. Bren’s area of focus has always been on hearing, involving, and taking action on the voices of people who may otherwise not feel they are heard or understood. In doing so he has resourced a number of local community initiatives and supported many diverse community organisations. Persistent and constructively challenging of himself and others, in June 2019 Bren was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours with a British Empire Medal for his services to volunteering, public services and the community.

Clenton Farquharson MBE

Director of Community Navigator Services CIC & Skills for Care Ambassador
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Clenton Farquharson MBE

Director of Community Navigator Services CIC & Skills for Care Ambassador

Clenton is a disabled person with lived experience of health and social care, he employ’s his own personal assistant, and looks after his mum’s personal budget which his mum uses for her own personal assistances. Using his knowledge, experience and energy he helps people that need support to have a good life.

Clenton’s focus is on social justice and social change in society and the means by which people act and react to the environment through their many different identities .

Clenton currently has many roles, Chair of the Think Local Act Personal Partnership Board, member of the Coalition for Personalised Care and member of the Social Care Sector COVID-19 Stakeholder Group.

Clenton is also a member of the NHS Assembly, set up to oversee the NHS Ten Year Plan; the current chair of Quality Matters; a trustee of the Race Equality Foundation; and ambassador for Disability Rights UK. He is a director of Community Navigator Services CIC; and a Skills for Care Ambassador. He works as a consultant, auditor, trainer, and coach on inclusion, equality, disability and social justice and was named in Disability News Services’ list of influential disabled people. In his spare time, he supports Birmingham City Football Club.

Stafford Scott

Director of Tottenham Rights CIC, Associate Consultant at the Kings Fund
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Stafford Scott

Director of Tottenham Rights CIC, Associate Consultant at the Kings Fund

In his 40+ years of activism, Stafford has been in the front line of the ‘front lines’ in the battle against Institutional racism. From his time spent working on the Broadwater Farm Estate in the 1980s to his current post, Stafford has always been an ardent advocate for racial equality and social justice.

Stafford has worked as the Director of the Bernie Grant Trust’s Community Leadership Programme where he designed and delivered Community Leadership Training programmes to members of black communities in Manchester, Liverpool and in several different locations across London.

He then went on to work as a Community Engagement Advisor in the Equalities Unit at the Department of Health where he wrote the guide: ‘A Dialogue of Equals’ to support the NHS to improve its track record in engaging with communities who were perceived to be ‘hard to reach’ by NHS planners.

He has also worked with the National Social Inclusion Programme as a community engagement advisor. Stafford was also a Thinking Partner on the NHS Race for Health Equalities Programme; a programme geared to improving the ability of Primary Care Trusts to deliver improved and culturally sensitive services to local BME communities. In this role he worked with PCT’s in Birmingham, Luton and Haringey.

Stafford has also been a member of the Department for Communities & Local Government’s Community Forum where he advised department leads on the impact of Government policies on marginalised communities. He is currently the Director of Tottenham Rights CIC and an Associate Consultant at the Kings Fund. Stafford occasionally writes articles for the Guardian Newspaper on matters relating to the black community, injustice and inequality.