Meet our LSFD Team
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 & Head of PSWU / 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.
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.
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 Ahmed
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.
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.
Kate Higton
Programme Support Administrator
Kate has recently joined the LSFD as the Programme Support Administrator. She gradauted from Newcastle University in 2024 with a degree in Physiological Sciences. Previously, she worked in a GP surgery carrying out administrative duties for chronic disease management. She also managed the covid vaccination programme for the region of Morecambe Bay.
Outside of work, Kate enjoys spending time with friends and baking sweet treats for her family.
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.
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.