Sharon Shenfine
Associate Dean / Director of Learner Support and Faculty Development / Emergency Medicine Consultant / CertMedEd
Sharon had worked as an Emergency Medicine consultant in the Northern Region for over ten years.
She has been actively involved in postgraduate education during this time both within her own Trust and on a regional basis, having been a Training Programme Director for the Acute Care Common Stem Programme.
Sharon is Director of Learner Support and Faculty Development in addition to developing and delivering training packages to both Postgraduate Doctors and trainers across HEE-NE in a Clinical Trainer role. She is an ILM level 5 qualified coach and provides coaching to our regions Postgraduate Doctors as part of the Educational Support Service.
Alyson Williamson
Senior Business Manager / CertMedEd (ESME) PGCert Clin Leadership
Alyson manages the regional Professional Support and Wellbeing Unit and takes the lead in designing and delivering the faculty development programme to supervisors and Postgraduate Doctors. She has previously held roles at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and the Royal College of Physicians of London (JCHMT). This has given her wide ranging experience of providing targeted support to Postgraduate Doctors both in Trusts and regionally, coaching all grades of medical staff and supporting trainers to tackle training concerns including undermining behaviours. She is a qualified Healthcare Leadership Model 360 feedback facilitator and MBTI Step 1 Facilitator. She has presented at national and international medical education events and published commissioned educational modules for BMJ e-learning.
Jenny O'Neil
Education Training Manager / Deputy Head of Professional Support & Wellbeing Unit
Jenny is a qualified educationalist with eight years’ experience in Higher Education designing and delivering programmes to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She offered coaching, advice and guidance to clients and showed innovation with her adaptions to curriculum design for a tailored, enjoyable experience for the client. Jenny has vast experience empowering individuals to identify their future goals and enable them to use necessary tools to achieve their objective through 1:1 guidance, coaching and in large group teaching sessions. She achieved Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and became an accredited assessor to help motivate and mentor others through the process.
At HEE NE Jenny is an experienced ILM 5 qualified coach within the PSWU, helping to co-manage the service. She organises, designs and facilitates educational events, whilst undertaking Deputy Business Manager responsibilities.
Jonathan Baxter
Education Training Manager
Jonathan has a passion for education, training, and support. He holds a postgraduate certificate in education and one of his previous roles was as a secondary school Science teacher. He has great experience of working with a variety of individuals to achieve their potential. For the last four years Jonathan has worked in Health Education England supporting undergraduate medical students and other healthcare professionals with their career transitions. He has worked locally and nationally with medical faculty to better understand the shifting career demands of medical trainees. In addition to this, he has run projects to support widening access into the medical profession. Jonathan holds a coaching qualification and has recently gained foundation chartered manager status.
When not working, Jonathan enjoys walking around the fantastic scenery that the North East has to offer, and catching up with the latest blockbusters and TV shows.
Fiona Cowan
Programme Support Coordinator
Fiona has a degree in Psychology, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education and a masters in Nutrition and Psychological Sciences. She has a devotion to facilitating learning and helping others to bridge the gaps as well as have the confidence to achieve their full potential. She has over ten years’ experience as a teacher, developing curriculums alongside coordinating and enhancing the sport and PE provision within the schools in which she worked.
Fiona currently supports the coordination of targeted learning, meeting the needs of postgraduate doctors and dentists in training as part of the Learner Support Faculty Development team.
Charlotte Bates
Clinical Trainer / Emergency Medicine Consultant
After completing her first year as a consultant in Perth West Australia in 2011 Charlotte is now an Emergency Medicine Consultant at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital. She has been a clinical and educational supervisor throughout her consultant career, supervised numerous SST students and over the last few years has been a Foundation Tutor. She has also been involved initially as a core trainer and more latterly as a joint lead for the Better Doctors Better Patients HEENE professionalism course delivered to Foundation year 1 doctors across the region. Her passion is training doctors to deliver holistic, patient centred care.
Having completed the years training course Charlotte is a qualified Sheffield Flow Coach and has an on-going interest in quality improvement. Other interests include geriatric emergency medicine, in particular silver and stealth trauma and realistic medicine.
Charlotte joins the faculty as a clinical trainer, contributing initially to our Core Skills Programme and our New to the NHS course.
Nikhil Premchand
Consultant Physician / Associate Dean / Chair - Faculty of Digital Health
Nikhil graduated from medical school at Newcastle University in 2000 and trained in infectious diseases in the Northern Deanery. He became a consultant in 2010 and worked at the RVI before moving to Northumbria Healthcare in 2012 to develop the Clinical Infection service. Nikhil works across the acute medical team and the clinical infection service in addition to being the trust clinical lead for IT (CCIO). His clinical interests include bone and joint infection, antimicrobial stewardship and the application of technology to healthcare with the aim of improving patient care and staff experience. Nikhil is the clinical lead for the North Cumbria viral hepatitis service and delivers intermittent clinics in Carlisle. Additionally, Nikhil is an Associate Dean for Health Education England North East and chairs the Faculty of Digital Health. He has been involved in medical education and training for over a decade and has previously been the training programme director for acute medicine and infectious diseases in addition to being the first Guardian of Safe Working at Northumbria.
Rajen Gupta
Clinical Trainer / Head of School for ophthalmology / B Med Sci., BMBS. MRCP. F.R.C.Ophth
Rajen completed his undergraduate training at Nottingham University and following his qualification in 1994, has had a broad exposure in general medicine, casualty, neurosurgery and worked in Durban South Africa. He completed ophthalmic training in Nottingham and Birmingham and subsequently did a Fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. In 2008, Rajen joined the Newcastle Eye Centre located at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Rajen has interests in diabetic retinopathy, vascular disorders as well as age-related macular degeneration but his main passion is an interest in andragogy and its application in teaching. He has lectured internationally and nationally on how to teach cataract surgery and has written and published a textbook on the subject as well as teaching PACES candidates and supporting doctors who have previously failed their post graduate exams. He is currently the Head of School overseeing ophthalmic training in the Northern deanery as well as acting as a HEE appointed Clinical Trainer for the region.
Jeff Doran
Clinical Trainer / Consultant Anaesthetist / MBChB FRCA DipIMC
Jeff is a consultant anaesthetist working at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. He currently is working in full time hospital practice after 10 years working in a combined hospital / prehospital role with South Tees Hospitals and The Great North Air Ambulance. It was during his time with the Great North Air Ambulance that his interest and experience in developing and delivering teaching and training really established itself and he has held the roles of educational / clinical supervisor, course director, faculty lead and is the exiting Training Programme Director for Pre Hospital Medicine.
His Current clinical interests include both paediatric and regional anaesthesia and more recently Jeff has been able to persue his research interests in Human Performance. Working alongside the department of Psychobiology at Northumbria University his current work tries to understand the psychological and physiological impact of frontline healthcare work. He has recently qualified as an ILM Level 5 Coach and joins the LSFD team as a Clinical Trainer.
Robyn Kewley
Clinical Trainer / Training Programme Director - Northumbria GP Training Programme / MBBS and BSc Hons in Anatomy and Cell Biology
Robyn studied her biology degree at the University of Liverpool and then medicine at the University of Newcastle. Now she is a GP. Her interests are patient education, diabetes and breastfeeding. She works in the learner support team as a Clinical Trainer. She also works within the hospital directorate of the Northumbria GP training programme as a Training Programme Director.
Gregory Stamp
Associate Leadership and Management Fellow / Trauma & Orthopaedics / ST6 / MBBS PgC (Med Ed) MRCSEd
Greg is an orthopaedic surgery trainee in the North East and is aiming for a career in Trauma Surgery. He graduated from Brighton in 2012 and did his foundation years in Cornwall. He is a Captain in the Army Reserves at 201 Field Hospital in Newcastle. His academic interests include medical education, quality improvement and developing technology in healthcare, with robotics and simulation
Greg loves the outdoors and having access to the Lake District and North Pennines is a major attraction of the region for him. He runs with Jesmond Joggers and has run most distances from 200m up to a 250km ultramarathon across Iceland. On a weekend he can usually be found in Northumberland on a bike ride!
He is excited for the opportunity this year at HEE NE to understand how strategic leadership works and effective management is delivered. Undertaking an MBA alongside this fellowship will enable Greg to take the best of the business world and use that experience to drive transformational leadership in NHS.
Rory Houston
Leadership & Management Fellow / ENT ST6 / MBChB BSc MRCS ENT
Rory is an ENT registrar in the North East. He studied at Bristol University and completed an intercalated degree in Sports and Exercise Science at University of Wales Institute Cardiff. He undertook his foundation training in Thames Valley, following this he worked in New Zealand as a surgical registrar before moving to the North East for core and speciality training.
He enjoys outdoor activities and spending time on the coast and in the hills with his family.
He has a passion for mentorship and the opportunities and experience it provides both to the mentor and the mentee. He is also keen to support and engage those new to the NHS and is working within the Learner Support and Faculty Development directorate to improve the learning experience of doctors and dentists in training across the North East and North Cumbria.
Iain McPherson
Leadership and Management Fellow / Cardiothoracic Surgery / BMedSci (Hons) MBChB (Hons) PGCert (Med Ed) MRCSEd
Iain is a cardiothoracic surgery specialty trainee in the North East and is a new northern leadership and management fellow starting in 2022. Having graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2017 with an MBChB and BMedSci in medical research, Iain moved to complete foundation medical training in Glasgow whilst developing an interest in cardiac and cardiothoracic transplantation surgery.
Iain moved to the North East to start his ST1 training in cardiothoracic surgery in 2019, further expanding his interest through clinical practice and research of transplantation and mechanical circulatory support whilst undertaking a postgraduate certificate in medical education at Newcastle University in 2021.
Cardiothoracic transplantation continues to rapidly develop on a national level in the UK, with leadership and management of this resource a key aspect of practice. The northern clinical leadership and management fellowship will provide the ideal opportunity to not only understand how organisational structure and strategy can be used to effect change, but also to support the development of new skills in areas such as surgical mentorship and equality, diversity and inclusion. This will be reinforced with study on the Northumbria University Senior Leaders programme, providing the business knowledge required to work in this exciting area of medicine.
Gerard Carlin
Leadership and Management Fellow / General Practice / ST2 / MBBS
Gerard is GP trainee in the North East. Originally from Northern Ireland, he studied at Newcastle Medical School and completed his foundation training programme in Newcastle. Subsequently he worked as a trust grade doctor in paediatrics and completed 2 years of paediatric specialty training in the North East before switching to GP training.
Gerard hopes to utilise the fellowship to make a positive impact on the training experience of postgraduate doctors and dentists in the North East and North Cumbria. Gerard is undertaking a Senior Leader Higher Apprenticeship with Northumbria University to further develop his knowledge and skills in leadership and management.
Outside of work, Gerard enjoys spending time with his family and taking his black lab, Jasper, for long walks in the North East’s beautiful coasts and countryside.
Emily Flintoft
Leadership and Management Fellow / ST5 Trauma and Orthopaedics / MBBS MRes (Hon) MRCS
Emily is an Orthopaedic Registrar training in the North East. She graduated from Newcastle University (MBBS) in 2015, and also completed an intercalated research Masters degree in Cancer studies (2013-14). Emily completed both her Foundation and Core Training rotations in the North East, before obtaining a National Training Number in her chosen specialty here in 2019.
Emily is passionate about trainee engagement and wellbeing. She is particularly interested in the management of sleep deprivation in both doctors in training and the wider workforce, and Supported Return to Training, having used the SuppoRTT service herself following a period of parental leave. During the Fellowship, Emily will also be undertaking the Northumbria University Senior Leaders Higher Apprenticeship, which will provide her with knowledge and tools to be a more effective leader and manager in her future roles when she returns to clinical practice.
Outside of work, Emily can usually be found on outdoor pursuits with her family, or at soft play. She often travels “home” to East Yorkshire to spend time with her extended family.
Toby James
Leadership and Management Fellow / ENT ST5 / BSc MBBCH MRCSEd ENT
Toby is an ENT registrar in the North East. He graduated from Cardiff University in 2015 having intercalated in Neuroscience along the way. As well as the North East, he has worked in South Wales and Birmingham. He has spent two years working as a surgical registrar in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Toby is fascinated by the business of healthcare and is keen to improve the working lives of doctors in training. The fellowship will provide dedicated time and training to help develop the skills necessary to drive change in the NHS. He is studying on the Northumbria University Senior Leaders High Apprenticeship, on his way to undertaking an MBA – this will help him better appreciate how experience from business can translate to improving healthcare.
Toby loves playing squash, enjoys running and cycling in the hills but hates sitcoms.
Breon Samuel
Leadership and Management Fellow / General Practice ST1 / BSc. PGDip (MedEd). MD. FHEA
Bréon is a GP Registrar in the Northeast. Originally from the southern Caribbean Island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She completed clinical rotations and electives in both the USA and UK before graduating as an MD from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies in 2014.
Bréon migrated to the UK permanently in 2017 as a Clinical Instructor on the Doctor of Medicine Programme at Northumbria University-SGU partnership. There she performed the roles of Discipline Manager of Physiology, Module Leader for the 6-week Cardiovascular-Pulmonary-Renal block and Director of Taylor College.
She has extensive experience in lecture planning and delivery, management of courses/curriculum/examination/simulation; student support packages for examination strategy and pastoral care activities related to personal wellbeing. Bréon has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Education at Newcastle University and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy through AdvanceHE. In her spare time, she enjoys puzzles and playing digital games. She joined the NHS as a Foundation Doctor in 2021.
During this Fellowship Bréon is progressing a Master’s in Medical Education with Newcastle University. She is enthusiastic about wellbeing, particularly the mental aspects, and is keen to raise awareness of how to encourage psychological safety within our NHS teams.
Laura Taqvi
GP/ TPD GP Directorate Northumbria GP Training Program/ SuppoRTT TPD for GP training / Clinical Lead for SuppoRTT North East and North Cumbria
Laura studied Medicine at University of Newcastle. Then enjoyed working in New Zealand and across the North East in her training. She now works in GP and Medical Education. She works in the learner support team as Clinical Lead for SRTT and is the GP School Lead for SRTT. She also works within the GP directorate of the Northumbria GP training programme as a Training Programme Director. When not at work she loves spending time with her family and being outside on muddy dog walks.
Saeed Ahmen
Clinical Lead for IMG North East and North Cumbria
Dr Ahmed works as a consultant nephrologist and general internal medicine physician at South Tyneside Sunderland Foundation Trust. He is also a clinical director in medical specialities.
Dr Ahmed set up the International Medical Graduate office in South Tyneside Sunderland Hospital and has been involved in International Medical Graduate induction as well as the launch of the welcoming Valuing International medical graduates which is a national standards document for recruitment of IMG's to the NHS.
He is also an Educational Supervisor and is involved in national and international training in Interventional Nephrology for the UK Kidney Association and the International Society of Nephrology. His other interests include Health inequalities.