Board champions
Health and Care Research Wales's Board champions are Non-executive Directors nominated by their NHS organisation to ensure research is on the radar at Board level and that the profile of research is increased amongst staff and patients.
Working closely with the Executive Director responsible for research, as well as the Directors of R&D in each organisation, Board champions will:
- develop an understanding of the importance of research as a key driver for good health and social care services, supporting the promotion of Wales wide research campaigns and
- engage with the lead Executive Director and Research and Development lead to ensure local research activity is promoted and supported, monitored and reported effectively at Board level.
Meet our Board champions
- Aneurin Bevan University Health Board - Professor Helen Sweetland
-
Professor Helen Sweetland graduated in medicine from Sheffield University Medical School more than thirty-five years ago and worked in the NHS until she retired from her clinical post in 2020. She trained as a surgeon in Sheffield, before moving to Cardiff in 1996 as an Honorary Consultant Surgeon in Cardiff and Vale UHB /Senior Lecturer in Surgery in Cardiff University School of Medicine. She worked as a Consultant General Surgeon and Breast Surgeon. She was the Clinical Lead for the Breast Centre from 2017-2020. She has extensive experience in postgraduate medical training and has trained many surgeons who now work in the UK and worldwide.
Helen’s academic interests are in undergraduate medical education and clinical research such as new surgical techniques, shared decision making and breast cancer genetics. She has held several leadership roles within the School of Medicine, including MBBCh Programme Director and Director of Quality. Helen is currently the Interim Director of the Centre for Medical Education (CU). She has had external roles which include: external examiner for several Medical Schools and as a General Medical Council (GMC) Education Associate. In that capacity, she has visited other hospitals and medical schools in the UK to ensure that teaching and training meet GMC standards.
- Cardiff and Vale University Health Board - Professor Keith Harding
-
Professor Keith Harding worked as a clinical academic from 1991 to 2022 focusing on Wound Healing problems seen in clinical practice. He was the first consultant in wound healing in the United Kingdom. He developed a practice that was unique in its focus and helped create the first Masters course in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair in the World. Developed and validated the first Health Related Quality of Life tool - Cardiff Wound Impact Schedule (CWIS). He is the named co-inventor of a gene signature that identifies chronic wounds that could heal from wounds that are not capable of healing with current best practice.
He has helped Wales to be recognised as a leading country in the world in wound healing and has held appointments in other Universities in the UK, Australia and Singapore. He has generated funds from a variety of academic, clinical and commercial sources to create a comprehensive programme in wound healing. More recently he has applied his experience in the wound field to Clinical Innovation and was the University Dean of Clinical Innovation in Cardiff University from 2013-2018. He has published over four hundred papers, written many books, chapters and lectured globally. He is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of the International Wound Journal which is one of the most highly rated journals in the wound field.
Professor Harding was appointed CBE in January 2013 for his services to Medicine and Healthcare. His research, teaching and other roles have always been aimed at addressing the problem of wounds and being innovative in many aspects of clinical practice.
- Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board - Carolyn Donoghue
-
Carolyn is an experienced, highly skilled senior executive and Non-Executive Director with significant experience in the NHS and Higher Education in England and Wales. Originally qualifying as a Registered General Nurse, she later developed a clinical career – including a period of time in Western Australia – before moving into training and senior management. Carolyn held a number of senior roles in the NHS in Bristol before moving into Higher Education in the University of Bristol and latterly Cardiff University as College Registrar.
Carolyn has now developed a portfolio career which includes the role of Magistrate, Chair of the South East Wales Student Mental Health Project, Chair of the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre and Independent Member of the Board of Governors, University West of England. She also holds various voluntary roles in the local community.
Carolyn is a passionate advocate of the benefit of theatre and choirs, having participated in amateur dramatics and local choirs for many years. A more recent passion is Park Run, both volunteering and running.
- Digital Health and Care Wales - Rowan Gardner
-
Rowan has thirty years of experience working in innovative businesses applying computational methods to life science and patient data to understand disease and find new medicines and treatments. She is an experienced entrepreneur and advisor to fast growing companies and is a founder of PrecisionLife a company that seeks to expand precision medicine into the field of chronic disease.
Rowan is recognised as an advocate for diversity in STEM entrepreneurship – she was included as fifty Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2013 and she currently chairs the Cartier Women’s Initiative Science and Technology Pioneer Award Panel that seeks to support women impact entrepreneurs with grants and entrepreneurship development programme. She worked with pioneers of web and cloud computing based at CERN to help scientists use these frameworks in healthcare and pharmaceutical research.
- Health Education and Improvement Wales - Dr Ruth Hall
-
Medically qualified, Dr Ruth Hall practised in paediatrics and child health before specialising in public health medicine in north Wales, then serving as Chief Medical Officer for Wales from 1997 until 2005.
She has since held the non-executive board and advisory appointments as a member of NICE’s Public Health Advisory Committee, the board of Environment Agency and currently, that of Natural Resources Wales.
Since 2015, she has co-chaired the Mid Wales Healthcare Collaborative, focused on improving healthcare services in rural Wales.
A governor of the Public Policy Institute Wales hosted by Cardiff University, she also holds a visiting chair at the University of the West of England.
She is a Council member of the National Trust, and of the Canal and River Trust and its Wales Board.
- Hywel Dda University Health Board - Winston Weir
-
Winston Weir is currently a non-executive director of a school and a non-executive director of a church-led Housing Association. In both organisations Winston takes the lead for Finance, chairing the Finance committee. He has over ten years of Finance Director experience in the NHS in England and twenty years of senior finance experience. He worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP in Birmingham before joining the NHS.
Winston is also CPFA qualified with significant post-qualification experience in Public Sector Finance, procurement, service improvement and cost improvement programmes.
He is a trustee of a charity which supports the welfare and education of children in Harare, Zimbabwe. - Powys Teaching Health Board - Dr Rhobert
-
Dr Rhobert Lewis is a former University Dean of Engineering and Science. He chairs two Powys Teaching Health Board sub-committees. He is very keen on capturing innovative ideas from organisations outside and inside of Wales, including those generated by scientific and medical research.
- Public Health Wales - Professor Diane Crone
-
Professor Diane Crone has more than twenty years experience of Higher Education in both England and Wales. Prior to her university employment, she worked in local government and in primary and secondary NHS services. Her work in these roles involved intervention delivery in healthy lifestyle public health interventions, specifically in physical activity, mental health and wellbeing.
Since moving into the university sector, she has been awarded Professorial appointments in two UK based universities, in the area of exercise and health.
She is a member of Public Health England’s Expert Advisory Group on the ‘Every Mind Matters’ campaign and is currently a Professor of Exercise and Health at Cardiff Metropolitan University. - Swansea Bay University Health Board - Professor Keith Lloyd
-
Professor Keith Lloyd is Head of Swansea University Medical School and a clinical academic specialising in psychiatry. He trained in medicine before specialising in psychiatry and is a community psychiatrist in Swansea. Valuing mental health equally with physical health is core to everything I do.
Keith is committed to supporting innovation in health and social care and service innovation and is a principal investigator on Accelerate a pioneering collaboration between Welsh Universities and the Life Science Hub Wales. It helps translate innovative ideas into new technology, products, and services for the health and care sector, quickly.
Professor Lloyd chairs the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales and the Welsh Psychiatric Society; He is a member of the professional reference panel for the mental health charity HAFAL. Chairs the board of Volcano Theatre Company, and is a trustee of Heartbeat Trust UK.
Before taking up his current post, he was Head of NISCHR (now Health and Care Research Wales) – the Welsh Government body responsible for policy, strategy, and funding of health and social care research in Wales.
Keith’s research interests are in public mental health, suicide and the use of routine health data, including the management of mental disorders in primary care and community settings especially suicide and self-harm, and, patient perspectives. He is a principal investigator for the National Centre for Mental Health. - Velindre University NHS Trust - Professor Andrew Westwell
-
Professor Andrew Westwell qualified in chemistry at the University of Leeds, where he obtained his PhD in chemical synthesis in 1994. Following postdoctoral research at Loughborough University, he became a senior research fellow in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham, undertaking research in preclinical cancer drug discovery leading to the identification of a new clinical candidate drug.
In 2006, Andrew moved to a Senior Lecturer position within the Welsh School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University, becoming a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2016. He has continued his work on the discovery of new anticancer drug candidates targeting advanced and resistant diseases. Andrew’s recent collaborative work has led to a new advanced drug candidate against a novel cancer drug target known as Bcl3, and work continues to progress this project into first patient trials targeting resistant and metastatic colorectal and breast cancer. Other related research projects aim to develop new cancer diagnostic imaging molecules.
Andrew’s other roles have included being Treasurer for the British Association of Cancer Research (2004-2010), and most recently Dean of Research & Innovation for the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences at Cardiff University (2018-2021). He also currently serves on the scientific committee of Prostate Cancer UK and chairs the Programme Board for the WEDINOS new psychoactives project on behalf of Public Health Wales. During his academic career, he has been the author/co-author of over one hundred and fifty publications in international scientific journals.
- Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust - Hannah Rowan
-
Hannah has spent the last eight years in the charity sector in Wales after starting her career working as a teacher. She is an experienced coach, with an emphasis on high-level problem solving and strategic oversight.
Hannah is currently working as a Change Manager for Citizens Advice. She is also a Non-Executive Director for Qualifications Wales, the regulator for all non-degree qualifications in Wales.
Hannah is an enthusiastic advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion and the positive impact that this can have on the culture and performance of an organisation.