Our Board

I live near Swansea with my husband and 1 of 2 of my adult children.

I have been a public servant for 35 years. In May 2015 I joined the Community Health Council movement as the Chief Officer at Hywel Dda Community Health Council. In 2016, I was appointed as Chief Executive at the Board of Community Health Councils on a job share basis until I took on the role full time in 2019.

For most of the last 15 years, my work has focused on the NHS in Wales. I was an independent reviewer of the leadership and governance of NHS Trusts and Local Health Boards in Wales, a governance advisor working on the 2009 NHS reforms in Wales, and a Director at Healthcare Inspectorate Wales.

I am committed to encouraging and enabling members of the public to be actively involved in decisions affecting the design and delivery of health and social care services for their families and local communities.

I am delighted to have been appointed as the first Chief Executive of Llais and I feel passionate about the work we do.

I am currently the longest serving Vice-Chancellor in Wales and over the last twenty years I have played a significant role in the reconfiguration of the Welsh Higher Education system.

I studied at Aberystwyth University and Jesus College, Oxford University.

I am a fluent bilingual speaker and I previously served as the Deputy Chair of the Welsh Language Board and on numerous advisory committees of Welsh Government and the Council of Europe with regard to educational and cultural policy.

I have championed many international initiatives which have focussed on intercultural issues, and I am a strong advocate for inclusion and cultural equity through education and the arts.

Over the years I have played a significant role in numerous charities in Wales and have a strong appreciation of change management and effective governance.  I am currently Chair of one of the largest charities in Wales – the Representative Body of the Church.

I am a Welsh Supernumerary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University. I am also a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and the Royal Society of Arts and a Trustee of the Welsh National Opera.

I am delighted to have been appointed as the first Chair of Llais, an all-Wales organisations committed to making real positive changes for the people of Wales. 

A native of Mid Wales and a fluent Welsh speaker, I now live in Cardiff with my husband, but regularly travel to Mid and North Wales for family visits and work commitments.

I am a chartered accountant and have worked as a finance professional for over 30 years across the public, private and charitable sectors. For the past 10 years I have run a consultancy practice providing business development services to social enterprises and charities.

I have also served on various boards and committees.  I am currently chair of the Risk and Audit committees of the Welsh Language Commissioner and the Future Generations Commissioner and a Board member of Adnodd Cyf, the organisation that commissions bilingual educational resources to support the new Curriculum for Wales.

I am passionate about ensuring that organisations are well run, with good governance, effective risk management and sound financial management.  I have led on several strategic organisational reviews and change programmes within the public sector.

I am also passionate about ensuring that health and social care services continue to evolve to meet the needs of citizens, both now and in the future, ensuring better use of public finances and resources while delivering real, sustainable change to people’s lives.  Ensuring that citizens’ voices are heard and represented is critical to such change.

I look forward to using my knowledge, expertise and personal experiences to support the development of Llais and help drive positive service change across health and social care for the people of Wales.

I live in Swansea with my daughter and I am an author, coach, and a health equity and wellbeing consultant.

I am particularly passionate about tackling health inequities, equipping women to thrive after cancer and helping leaders to boost workforce resilience.

I believe that everyone deserves to be heard, understood and thrive no matter their life circumstances.

I have used my personal experience and expertise to create bespoke training content for healthcare professionals on improving healthcare provision.

I am also a researcher, Patient Teaching Partner and Visiting Lecturer at Cardiff University. I advise on research projects and teach on patient-centred care, focusing on what constitutes poor versus good healthcare provision.

I love giving back and I do this through various roles and positions, including:

Ambassador for Maggie's Cancer Centres and Media Volunteer for Cancer Research UK. I was previously a Public Health Volunteer for Breast Cancer Now – a role I undertook for 7 years.

One of my favourite mantras is: "I am here to make things better".

I plan to use my skills, expertise and personal experiences to support the development of Llais and its functions.

My professional background is predominantly in the fields of education, media and community engagement.

I have significant experience in digital inclusion and recently retired from my role as a Director at Cwmpas (formerly the Wales Co-operative Centre) where I led the delivery of Welsh Government’s digital inclusion programme for several years.

I previously held senior positions at the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care and the University of South Wales, creating and leading programmes specialising in the co-production of patients’ and citizens’ stories to improve service delivery. I was the founder Senior Producer of the BBC’s award-winning community based Digital Storytelling initiative.

Previous non-executive roles include Chair of Digital Leaders for Wales,  a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee (Wales) and the member for Wales on the UK wide Communications Consumer Panel. I have also served on several expert panels.

I am honoured to have been appointed to the Board of Llais and I look forward to helping drive positive service change across health and social care for the people of Wales. 

I was born on the family sheep farm near Aberystwyth.

I studied at Oxford University and completed my education with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Following that I worked in the agricultural supply industry for eight years.

In 1990 I joined the family business. Since returning to the farm, it has become my passion to influence the decision making process in the NHS to meet the needs of the rural populations of Mid Wales.

I have done this through a variety of avenues and roles from protest, Community Health Council membership, Chair of Rural Health and Care Wales and Co-Chair of the Mid Wales Healthcare Collaborative.

These roles are what sparked my interest in the coproduction of services and led to me doing an MBA at Aberystwyth University. This postgraduate qualification concluded with a report on how the public and patients could best influence their care services whilst avoiding the marketisation of those services.  

I look forward to contributing my knowledge and experience to help develop Llais services for the people of Wales.

I was born in pre-independence Zimbabwe. I have lived in America and Canada before immigrating to the United Kingdom in 1990.

I have worked as a volunteer co-ordinator for a charity, a risk advisor to the NHS Corporate Governance Team, a Complaints assessor for the Ombudsman, and a Complaints Manager for Swansea Bay Health Board.

Change scares us all; We have to be brave to learn from each other and brave to teach each other.