Following the AGM in November 2011 two new members joined the AOHNP Board.  We are pleased to welcome Gayle Wilson and Andy Phillips.

President -Christina Butterworth
RGN OHND PG Dip Health Ed/Health Promo

Christina Butterworth has worked in the Occupational Health field of practice for 18 years within various International, National and local organisations. Her present role is that of Head of Health for BG Group, with responsibility for; developing and implementing health standards, providing strategic occupational health advice and auditing both medical facilities and BG businesses around the world. Prior to this appointment Christina has gained in depth experience and developed her skills in; health surveillance, absence management, health risk assessment, office ergonomics, stress management and travel health.  

She has presented at various national and international conferences on topics such as travel risk assessment, behaviour change and the RCN OH competencies. Christina is the former Chair of the RCN OH Managers Forum and has helped to develop 2 RCN publications: 'Clinical supervision in the workplace - Guidance for Occupational Health Nurses' and 'Competencies: An integrated career and competency framework for Occupational Health'.

Christina joined the Board in November 2008 as Director for the South West region, was appointed Vice President in November 2009 and became President in November 2010.

Vice President - Teresa Harrison
RGN NEBOSH

Teresa Harrison rejoined the Board in October 2008 as a Regional Director and became Vice President in November 2010.  She started her Occupational Health career in 1994 in the NHS after meeting Gail Cotton (past President of the Association) two years previously on a training course and, as for most of us who have met Gail, there was no looking back!  Teresa had the OH bug.  From there on her interest in occupational health began.

While in the NHS at Leicester Royal Infirmary she completed a BSc (Hons) in Community Health (Occupational Health) attaining Specialist Practitioner (OH) at the University of Wolverhampton in 1999.

After 5 years of working with the NHS Teresa ventured out into the private sector and  worked for PowerGen, looking after three sites in the East Midlands.  She now works for Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service (Forge Health) as the Occupational Health Nursing Manager.  

Regional Directors – in alphabetical order

Louise Boston - London
RGN, BSc Occ Health Nursing (inc. Specialist Practitioner Status)
Louise joined the Board as Regional Director for the North East region (R2) in November 2010.

Louise is Occupational Health Manager for E.ON, one of the UK’s leading integrated power and gas companies. She has worked within her present role for over 5 years, with a responsibility for developing health standards, providing strategic health and wellbeing advice and managing a national team of multi disciplinary practitioners. Louise has previously managed OH services within the media, retail, travel, distribution and leisure industries. 

She completed a degree in OH Nursing at the Royal College of Nursing and has worked as a Specialist Practitioner in the field of Occupational Health for over 15 years. Louise is Chairperson of the Energy Networks Association Occupational Health Committee and speaks regularly at conferences across the UK on a variety of topics including Occupational Health case management and workplace wellbeing.

Sian Edwards - Wiltshire
RNA Dip OH NEBOSH Cert

Sian worked for several years in various medical settings from acute admissions to long term care, then discovered the wonderful world of Occupational Health and has never looked back.  

Her first introduction to OH was as a screening nurse in a food factory. Since then she has worked in a variety of settings as well as completing my Diploma in Occupational Health at Warwick in 2008. Siân is currently studying for an MSc in Workplace Health at the University of Nottingham. 

Aside from work Sian loves reading and learning. She has two spaniels who are my babies (and a very patient husband who enables me to do everything else that I do). She also enjoys a physical challenge; recent events have included my first triathlon and cycling from London to Paris. In 2011 she is aiming to try her first Duathlon (run, bike, run). 

Sian joined the Board as Regional Director for the South West region (R7) in November 2010.

Suzanne Elliott - Cheshire
RGN OHND AIOSH

Suzanne was born in Sheffield but spent most of her earlier years travelling around the world with her parents. She trained at the Royal Hospital Sheffield and went on to work in various places within the health service taking breaks to gain a husband, two children and to gain some "life experience".

Suzanne has been in Occupational Health for a number of years. Her grounding was with ICI and Zeneca who supported her through her OH diploma training. Previous to entering OH she worked in the health service mainly in the operating theatre.

Suzanne has set up and continues to run a successful business, Everwell Occupational Health Ltd. This service offers OH support and advice to a range of companies from office-based to manufacturing and production. The company employs or contracts to independent practitioners. It is this side of the business that made Suzanne realise that associations such as the AOHNP offer a vital link for the independent OHA.

Working as an independent practitioner can be a lonely, isolated existence. The independent OHA needs the sort of interaction and support that the association is able to provide. It is Suzanne’s hope that the association can grow and become a leading centre of excellence for all OHA’s.

When looking at the web site she felt that the North West region appeared to be lacking representation at the moment. The NW has a large number of OHAs and some very active local associations. Suzanne would like to see these properly represented within the association.

Susanna Everton - London
OHN CSP CMIOSH MSc OH&SM

Susanna Everton joined the Board in January 2010. She was born and has lived in the SE of England for most of her life.  She trained as a state registered nurse at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and after a few years as a Sister in general medicine at Queen Mary’s in Roehampton, she moved into the field of Occupational Health.  She joined the BBC in 1985, as the OH Nurse specialist, and was based at Broadcasting House, Central London supporting Radio, engineering and transmission function, and the London based Orchestras. Here, she developed a particular interest in hearing health surveillance.

In 2002, she was awarded a Master of Science degree from Brunel University in Occupational Health and Safety Management, completing research and a dissertation on the hearing of a group of orchestral musicians.  She is a Chartered Safety Practitioner with IOSH.

She then moved into the field of occupational health and safety management and managed a multi-disciplinary team supporting the Radio & Music, Sport and Worldwide Divisions at the BBC, and extended her interest and expertise in hearing health and noise.

She left the BBC in 2006 and after a ‘gap year’ took up the post of Head of Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare at the City of London Police.

She has presented at various national and international conferences, has written articles for Occupational Health and SHP magazines and was on the HSE working party producing industry guidance for the Control of Noise at Work Regulations and ‘Sound Advice ‘ website.

Anna Harrington - Northamptonshire
RGN SpOH MIOSH SpCP PH
Anna completed a degree in Occupational Health and Safety Management in 2000, after being supported onto the course by Leicestershire NHS Occupational Health Service. From there she went to work as a project manager for Sandwell’s Workwell. This was an innovative public health programme, which aimed to improve the health of the working population. She developed teams to work on project ideas, implementation, evaluation and disseminate results. The teams would be a mix of representatives from public, private and third sector organisations, this allowed her to refine soft project management skills such as creating and agreeing vision and objectives, bringing people together from different organisations and project team development. It was during this work period that she became self-employed. Her last piece of work for Sandwell was to conduct a feasibility study into the support services that would be part of the case management model for the Fit to Work pilot that is happening in West Birmingham. 

Anna currently remains self-employed, doing ad-hoc sickness absence management and working closely with NEBOSH. She has worked with NEBOSH from the inception of their new Certificate qualification in Health, Work and Wellbeing. To this day she remains as an advisor, scrutineer, examiner and question writer. She is also hoping to become accredited to deliver this course.

Anna is passionate about Occupational Health being clear about its message and purpose. She believes that in these changing times, we have to have clarity about how we achieve business and public health needs. She also believes that we need to declare our skills of being able to work across traditional professional boundaries, that often take us beyond the medical and health fields.  

She also has 2 children, lives in a beautiful Northamptonshire village and enjoys singing and cycling. 

Anna joined the Board and was appointed Regional Director for the Midlands region (R4) in November 2010.

Sarah O'Hara - Norfolk
RGN, BSc(Hons), MSc, CMIOSH

Sarah worked in the family business and obtained a Business Management qualification before starting her nursing career in 1985. She has been working in OH since 1996 and obtained her MSc from the Robens Institute at the University of Surrey. She has previously served as SE Regional Director and Deputy Director for the AOHNP.
 
Sarah has worked in a wide variety of OH settings in public and private sectors and manufacturing and service industries. She finally 'took the plunge' and formed Chantry Health Services Ltd in April 2007.

Sarah also maintains her interest as a Director in the family run marina on the Norfolk Broads. Its facilities with on site workshops involve just about every Health & Safety topic you could mention! She is also a published author of a non fiction book 'Moonraker & JCL Ltd - Colin Chapman's Boat Industry'.

Sarah is passionate about providing quality and relevant OH services for today's employment and business market.

Andy Phillips - Wales
Andy Phillips is a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (Occupational Health).  

Andy started his Acute Nursing career as a Cardiothoracic/ Cardiac Nurse Specialist at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex. Andy gained further motivation to move into occupational health nursing to enable him to gain a further understanding of those public Health risk factors that could contribute to Acute Coronary syndromes.

After becoming an in-house Occupational Health Advisor at Hounslow Council, University College Hospitals NHS foundation trust and as acting OH Site manager at Birds Eye foods, Lowestoft, Andy then worked at the Financial Services Authority at Canary Wharf as their independent Occupational Health Nurse. 

After crossing the Severn Estuary and a period of working as an independent occupational Health advisor within a variety of industries, Andy was worked as Head of Occupational Health for Holistic Services Ltd in January 2009 where he worked until becoming Director of Eminence Occupational Health Ltd: an occupational health provider providing diverse occupational health services within small and Medium Enterprises to multinational companies. 

Academically, Andy became a sessional paid lecturer in 2006 on the BSc (Hons) Occupational Health Degree at London South Bank University and since his move to Wales in early 2008 he continued to undertake lectures on a sessional basis on the BSc.(Hons) Community Public Health Degree (OH), Diploma of Occupational Health and Occupational Health Technicians courses at the University of Glamorgan. He was made an Hourly paid lecturer and acting award leader in October 2010 until this year.

Professionally, Andy has developed an interest in the provision of Occupational Health within Small and Medium Enterprises and has published work within his field of interest. He is an active co-opted member of the Occupational Health forum Wales, where his technical skills have been mobilised to produce the website: www.occupationalhealthwales.org

Gayle Wilson - Scotland
RGN BA OH Practice

Gayle was appointed Regional Director for Scotland & Northern Ireland in November 2011.

Gayle has been in Occupational Health for 14 years having worked in both the public & private sectors, mainly in industry.

She found 2011 to be an interesting year. She set up her own OH business in March after losing her job in the Further Education sector and has recently completed her OH Degree. She sat on the committee for the Scottish Occupational Health Practitioners Group for a year until it was disbanded in May and currently sits on the Scottish POOSH (Professional Organisations in Occupational Safety & Health) group for the AOHNP (UK).  

Gayle is passionate about OH and passionate about OHN's having a strong voice. She thinks it is vital for all OHN/OHA's to work together across the sectors to raise our voice and profile in these challenging and exciting times. 

During her term of office Gayle aims to help support OHN's in the region by providing information and guidance from the AOHNP; represent members’ views and opinions at board meetings; arrange a selection of peer group meetings and events and to increase membership in the region.

If this can be achieved, Gayle thinks it puts us in a good position to support each other & increase the influence of OHN's nationwide.

Kate Kyne - NHS Director
RGN OHN Dip NEBOSH Cert MBA

Kate joined the Board in November 2009 as the Region 7 Director and “NHS board member”.  In November 2010 she agreed to become our “NHS Director”.  

She was born in Derby, but moved to Norfolk at an early age with her family.  She started her Nurse training in 1983 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and moved back to Norfolk in 1986 where she worked in an Orthopaedic unit for 2 years. She then moved to Wiltshire in 1988 and worked in as a ward sister on a GI surgical ward. She later moved into the role as a practice development nurse where she focused on quality standards and audit and also implemented mentorship and preceptorship programmes for newly qualified nurses, and set up clinical supervision for all qualified nurses within the Hospital. 

Kate moved into the field of Occupational Health in 1998 and studied at the University of Bristol where she gained her Diploma in Occupational Health Nursing.  She continues to work for the NHS and has transformed a small, physician led, reactive department into a totally nurse led, innovative department that generates income for the Trust. 

Kate is currently focusing on Steve Boorman’s report “NHS Health & Wellbeing”, and the impact this has on the employees and Occupational Health within the Trust and how the recommendations will be implemented across the NHS as a whole.

Kate is always up for a challenge and in 2009 cycled 300kms across Jordan for Charity and is looking for something just as exciting for 2010!  In her spare time she enjoys daily treks across the beautiful Wiltshire countryside with her 2 very energetic Dalmatians!

Greta Thornbory - Professional Development Director - Oxfordshire
TD MSc. RGN ROH PGCEA CMIOSH 

Greta Thornbory was appointed PDD in October 2008. She is an occupational health and educational consultant with 30 years experience in OH practice and teaching. During that time she has worked with government departments, professional bodies; pharmaceutical, educational and other companies on a variety of occupational health and safety projects. She also worked for the Royal College of Nursing for 12 years as a senior lecturer and programme director of both OH and CPD. She is now Consulting and CPD Editor of Occupational Health. She also wrote Occupational health 2008: Making the business case published in Nov 2007 and co-author with Joan Lewis of Employment Law and occupational health: a practical handbook published in 2010. More details can be found at www.gretathornbory.co.uk

Immediate Past President -Jeremy Smith
RGN NEBOSH Cert BSC Hons (OHN)

Jeremy was re-elected President at the AGM on 12 November 2009 having previously held several roles on the board including that of Regional Director for the South East and Vice President.

Jeremy started his nursing career in 1985 at Charing Cross Hospital and has worked in occupational health since 1996, after spending several years in A&E. Jeremy has worked in occupational health in the south east area in a number of different roles since that time. He is now Occupational Health Manager at Kent County Council.

As well as working full time Jeremy is also a serving member of the Territorial Army and holds the rank of Captain, QARANC (V). This led to him being deployed to Iraq for 6 months in 2003 where all of his Trauma and Occupational Health skills were put to good use.
 
Jeremy is passionate about Occupational Health and his interests include coaching, respiratory medicine and trauma.

He is also extremely knowledgeable regarding the nuances of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations.

Association Administrator, Treasurer, Secretary
Linda Riseborough
admin@aohnp.co.uk

Linda has worked for the Association since 2000, following her administrative assistance with the 1999 and 2000 symposium. She now works 15 hours a week as the Administrator, Treasurer and Secretary of AOHNP (UK). Although on the National Board Linda is a non-voting member.

Linda lives near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire where she runs a boarding kennels as well as the Association. She is generally sitting at her desk sometime between 10am -12 noon and 2 - 4pm. Naturally every now and then she needs to play with the "guests" and check them in and out so if you miss her, just leave a message. The voicemail/fax machine is on 24 hours a day and she does try and return all calls the same day. Similarly, she tries to respond to emails by return - assuming she knows the answers to your questions.

Linda tries to co-ordinate the running of the Association efficiently but asks for your patience when major projects such as the RAML, conference, Good Practice Forum and AGM upset the usual routine of book-keeping, membership updates, OH Today, contact with the board, website update etc.