Barbara Stilwell
PhD, MS, BSocSc, RN, RHV, FRCN
President
Barbara is a nurse, health visitor and primary care Family Nurse Practitioner with a decades long interest in supporting health worker performance through a range of education and practice initiatives. She has been involved in community nursing research in many settings, exploring models of care and implementation challenges. She has worked for the World Health Organization and for non-profit organizations as a technical specialist and has been based in the middle east and sub-Saharan Africa. For the past four years Barbara has been living in the UK and from 2018-2021 headed the global advocacy campaign, Nursing Now. She is now working as a consultant on a global research and implementation project on nurse leadership as well as editing a book on global health which will be published in 2023.
Prof Gina Awoko Higginbottom
MBE, PhD, M/A, B/A (Hons), RN, RM, RHV, FQNI, FAAN
Co-director
Dr Gina Marie Awoko Higginbottom MBE, PhD, M/A, Postgradip (Ed Studies), RN, RM, RHVis Emeritus Professor of Ethnicity and Community Health. She is a qualified nurse, midwife and health visitor and her clinical career as a nurse spans 22 years. Prof Higginbottom is an alumna of the Nottingham School of Nursing and completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield. She is a registered nurse in England and Canada. Prof Higginbottom is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, a Canada Research Chair (renewed, a recognition of research excellence by peers), a Nursing Research Scholar of the Smith and Nephew Foundation, a Mary Seacole Leadership Award holder and her PhD was supported by a prestigious National Primary Care Research Fellowship, Gina was the first health visitor to receive this award. In 1998 she was awarded an MBE for services to young people and Health Promotion.
Professor Sally Kendall
PhD, B.Sc (Hons)., RN, RHV, FQNI
Professor of Community Nursing and Public Health
Co-director
Sally joined CHSS in April 2016. As a NMC registered academic community nurse and health visitor, her main research interest is in primary and community health care, especially research that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of families and children in the community. I hold a strong belief in working in partnership with parents and families and understanding their needs to inform research and practice, most recently the experiences of women in Ukraine of perinatal mental health issues, Becoming Breast Feeding Friendly in UK and parenting using the TOPSE evaluation tool.
As a nurse and health visitor I have promoted the role of nursing in primary and community care throughout my career and supervised and managed multiple practice-based studies that examine the nursing contribution to primary health care, with reports on primary care being commissioned by the International Council of Nurses in Geneva. With my co-researchers I developed and validated the TOPSE tool for measuring parenting self-efficacy (www.topse.org) that is now widely used nationally and internationally. This has led to research with Aboriginal communities in Western Australia where I am Adjunct Professor and the Sir Walter Murdoch outstanding International Scholar at Murdoch University. I recently led the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly project across the UK in collaboration with Yale School of Public Health. International research also includes partnership working with colleagues in Ukraine to improve services for maternal mental health. I am currently working with the Children’s Policy Research Unit at UCL on several NIHR funded studies related to the evaluation of the Family Nurse Partnership in England, the delivery of the Health Visiting Service and Adverse Childhood Experiences.
As the lead for research capacity in the NIHR ARC for Kent, Surrey and Sussex, I also have a great interest in mentorship and supporting the health care workforce to develop their clinical and academic careers as a route to bringing transformation to health care delivery and outcomes for patients and families.
Research interests
Maternal and Child public health (including parenting, breastfeeding, perinatal mental health)
Primary Health Care
Global health
Qualitative methods/mixed methods
Supervision
Catherine Phillips – Parents and Practitioners perspectives on Early Intervention in childhood (PhD)
Adenile Omatayo – A realist evaluation of the Healthy weight, Healthy Nutrition Programme (PhD)
Jeanette Forbes – The experiences of parents and health visitors of the health visiting service in the Roma community of East London (PhD, UH)
Jacqueline Kelly – The experiences of siblings of having a brother or sister with a learning disability (PhD, UH)
Sara Thomas – Breastfeeding and maternal mental health (PCAF)
Mike Bossick
Hon. Treasurer
Mike qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1985 and after initial roles in financial consulting practice commenced a career advising on the taxation aspects of global natural resources development. Mike’s current work includes training mental health support volunteers and supporting people with mental health issues through listening.
Members of Committee:
Dr Nicola Carey
PhD, RN, RM Specialist Practitioner General Practice
Reader in Long Term Conditions
School of Health Sciences, University of Surrey
OCRID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2841-1760
Scopus Author ID:
Nicola is a Reader and lead for the Long term Conditions and Ageing Cluster with the School of Health Sciences. Nicola worked in primary care as a practice nurse and nurse practitioner
Nicola’s work is underpinned by her clinical experience in developing, and evaluating innovative services in primary care: she is engaged in applied research that aims to provide high quality impact and outputs that have a positive effect on service provision, patients, service users, carers, and students at a local, national and international level. Her research interests include quality improvement, workforce development, frailty, non-medical prescribing and patient self-management. https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/nicola-carey
Dr Edwin Chamanga
Nurse leader, researcher, and healthcare academic
Dr Edwin Chamanga is a nurse leader, researcher, and healthcare academic with extensive experience in clinical practice, healthcare management, and higher education. Originally from Zimbabwe and now based in the United Kingdom, he has worked in nursing since 2004 and has held a range of senior leadership roles within the national health service (NHS). Edwin has published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at national and international conferences, and holds a PhD in Health Services Research. His interests include leadership, workforce development, health systems strengthening, and improving patient outcomes. He is also an Associate Editor for Primary Health Care Research & Development, a Cambridge University Press journal.
Dr Helen Elliott
Associate Professor, EdD, PGCert, MSc, RGN, RSCN, RHV, BSc, BSc (Hons), SFHEA
The University of Greenwich, School of Health Sciences
ORCHID: 0000-0002-8798-1037
Helen is an Associate Professor (teaching and learning) in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing. With a background in adult nursing, children’s nursing and health Visiting, Helen joined the University of Greenwich as Senior Lecturer in 2013. Helen currently leads the Public Health Practice team of Senior Lecturers and Teaching Fellows in District Nursing, Health Visiting, Speech and Language therapy, Practice Nursing and Nursing Associates. Helen is also lead for the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing Programme.
Helen completed a Doctorate in Education in 2019 with her thesis entitled ‘An examination of the factors that inform health visitors’ effective identification and support of women experiencing domestic violence and abuse’. Since completing her doctorate, Helen has disseminated her findings to national and international audiences.
Helen’s research interests are in domestic violence and abuse, leadership/management, and academic skills in higher education.
Areas of expertise:
Helen teaches aspects of leadership development, health promotion, health visiting theory and practice, domestic abuse, qualitative research studies and academic skills.
Publications:
Elliott, H. (2016). Barriers to the disclosure of domestic violence and abuse in health visiting. Journal of Health Visiting. https://doi.org/10.
Prof Elaine Haycock-Stuart
PhD, PFHEA, RGN, RM, RHV
Senior Lecturer Nursing Studies, Director of Quality Assurance
School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh
Honorary Health Visiting Consultant in NHS Lothian
OCRID: 0000-0002-0070-3019
Scopus Author ID: 6506415803
Elaine’s programme of research has an overarching focus on public health and also service organisation and delivery. Recent work has an emphasis on investigating nursing leadership in the community setting, young adults stroke rehabilitation, person centred care and people’s experiences of health and healthcare services including midwifery care.
The overarching main aims of the programme of research are to improve quality of care and patient safety. Recent research examines student fitness to practise and raising concerns in clinical practice. Elaine undertakes this research through qualitative and mixed methods approaches. Elaine’s experience and work in community nursing and primary care services connects research at the interface between health and social care alongside that of nursing education. See Research Profile http://edin.ac/1rndloc
Dr Bruce Harper-Ovstebo
Dr Bruce Harper-Ovstebo is Associate Professor (College Partnerships) in the School of Health & Social Care at Edinburgh Napier University and Honorary Nurse Consultant in Community and District Nursing Research with NHS Lothian. A District Nurse by professional background, his research interests centre on healthcare workforce development and sustainability, with particular expertise in district and community nursing, professional practice and workforce planning.
Bruce’s doctoral research used longitudinal focused ethnography to explore the role and work of district nursing teams, including the tacit dimensions of professional practice that can remain invisible within conventional approaches to workforce measurement and planning. His developing research programme examines how healthcare workforces can be attracted, developed and sustained, alongside the organisation and delivery of community-based care.
Bruce has particular methodological interests in ethnographic and qualitative research and reflexive thematic analysis. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Community Nursing from October 2026.
Life Members:
