Becky May 

Apprentice ODP – Nuffield Heath

Becky is a student ODP based in Exeter with a passion for mental health and wellbeing. She is am a member of the South-West Afpp regional team and a member of the Student and Early Career Specialist Interetst Group.

Claire Kilbride

Surgical Care Practitioner – Robotics – Colorectal & Abdominal Wall Reconstruction

Surgical Care Practitioner and AfPP Advancing Roles SIG Lead, I qualified as an ODP in 2000, working across multiple specialities. In 2009 I became a surgical first assistant in colorectal surgery, naturally progressing on to more advanced assisting with the introduction of robotics, having undertaken a master’s degree and now a fully qualified surgical care practitioner. I am dedicated to advancing perioperative roles, leading with governance and compassion, and empowering teams to deliver safe, high-quality surgical care. I am actively involved in national discussions surrounding the SFA/SCP PCC position statement, workforce development and robotic surgery practice.

Dave James

Speaker Coach & Professional Speaker – Dave the Coach Ltd

Dave James is a speaker coach and 2x TEDx speaker who helps people speak authentically without losing themselves. Drawing on backgrounds in healthcare and mindfulness, his work explores trust, psychological safety, and what becomes possible when people feel safe using their voice. A TEDx Editor’s Pick speaker.

Derek Hrabovsky

Consultant Anaesthetist, Leadership Capacity in Healthcare Strategist – South Eastern Trust

Derek Hrabovsky is a Consultant Anaesthetist at the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald, and a former member of the Northern Ireland Helicopter Emergency Medical Service. A graduate of Queen’s University Belfast and a psychotherapeutic counsellor and coach, he specialises in leadership capacity and longevity in healthcare along with burnout prevention and recovery for professionals working in high-pressure clinical environments.

Faye Lowry

Senior Lecturer, Operating Department Practice – Edge Hill University

Faye Lowry is a registered Operating Department Practitioner with fifteen years of clinical experience. She now works as a Senior Lecturer, specialising in perioperative practice and education. Passionate about developing the future workforce, she combines extensive clinical expertise with a commitment to supporting inclusive, high‑quality learning for all students.

Heather Briscoe

Clinical Specialist for IV Access and Securement – Solventum

Heather has been an adult nurse since 2008, specialising in vascular access device insertion and management since 2016.  A clinical lead from 2018, then moved from the NHS into industry as a clinical specialist in 2024.  She brings experience, passion for vascular access, patient safety, clinical efficiency and 2 years as an elected board member for NIVAS.

Helen Campbell

Anaesthesia Associate – The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital

Heather Campbell is a GMC-registered Anaesthesia Associate at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. She is also a member of the GMC Anaesthesia Associate Registration Board and President for AAs at UMAPs union, she has extensive experience in perioperative education, workforce development, governance and patient safety.

Helen Fowler

Senior Lecturer in Clinical Skills and Simulation/Scrub Nurse – Liverpool John Moores University 

Helen is an experienced perioperative professional with a background spanning general surgery, orthopaedics, obstetrics, and neurosurgery, now working in higher education delivering clinical skills and simulation. Her work focuses on evidence-informed practice, workforce development, and using simulation and human factors to enhance safety, team performance, and resilience in complex healthcare environments.

Hugh Montgomery

Professor of Intensive Care Medical – University College London

Hugh is a consultant Intensivist; UCL Professor of Intensive Care Medicine (>900 scientific publications, >15 (inter)national awards); co-chair, multinational Lancet Countdown on Health/Climate Change; co-chair UK Health Alliance on Climate Change ( >1m members); founder, non-profit climate action RealZero. He was awarded the OBE (2022) partly for climate work.

Jen Maher

AfPP Education Lead – AfPP

A Registered Operating Department Practitioner with over 27 years’ experience, Jen has held a variety of roles across operating departments in the Liverpool area. Most recently, she worked as Clinical Manager for Quality Improvement at Alder Hey Hospital.

Jen served as an elected Trustee for AfPP for over two years before joining the headquarters team in August 2024. She is passionate about improving workplace culture and supporting theatre practitioners to be the best they can be.

Julie Storr

CEO S3 Global Health – S3 Global Health

Jules is an infection prevention and control (IPC) expert and global health leader. She’s led IPC programs nationally and globally and advocates for compassionate, person-centred IPC. Jules was involved in the development of WHO’s surgical checklist, is a topic lead for Patient Safety Learning’s Leadership Hub and Honorary Adviser at Global Health Partnerships. She is past president of the UK and Ireland Infection Prevention Society.

Kath Sansom

Grassroots Patient Safety Advocate – Founder of Sling The Mesh campaign

Kath Sansom founded Sling The Mesh in 2015 with 20 members after experiencing complications from a bladder mesh sling. It has since grown into a global network of nearly 13,000 members, advocating for fully informed consent, improved data capture on complications, enhanced care pathways for mesh‑injured patients, and stronger, more transparent evidence on the long‑term outcomes of all types of mesh surgery.

Katharina Lederle

Sleep and Circadian Rhythm Specialist and Therapist – Dr Kat Sleep

Dr Kat, a sleep and body clock specialist and counsellor, provides one-to-one sleep coaching. She combines a deep understanding of the biology of sleep and the body clock (PhD in Human Circadian Physiology & Behaviour, and MSc in Biosciences) and learnings from Mindfulness, Acceptance Commitment Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy. 

Khaled Ahmed

Senior clinical fellow in cardiac anaesthesia – Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust 

Khaled is a senior clinical fellow in cardiac anaesthesia at Nottingham University Hospital with an interest in cardiothoracic anaesthesia and a special focus on monitoring especially neurological monitors. His experience includes intensive care and perioperative management, and he is passionate about advancing anaesthetic techniques for improved patient outcomes.

Lauren Turner

Respiratory Clinical Educator at Ambu

Lauren is a Clinical Educator specialising in respiratory and airway techniques at Ambu. She teaches CPD Accredited workshops focusing on Difficult Airway Management, One Lung Ventilation and Navigational Bronchoscopy. Today’s focus will be around the unexpected difficult airway, covering clinical skills such as the Aintree Exchange Technique, Scope Handling skills and the VAFI technique. She also covers a wide product range for airway skills, and is happy to answer any questions around bronchoscopes, video laryngoscopes and supraglottic airway devices, and how each device should be used in the DAS 2025 Algorithm.

Lauren Willson

Theatre Clinical Education Lead/ODP – Practice Plus Group- Emerson’s Green Hospital 

Lauren is a Theatre Practitioner and Clinical Education Lead with experience across NHS, Private adult and paediatric care. Passionate about staff wellbeing, supportive learning environments, and promoting best practice within multidisciplinary teams. Committed to delivering safe, holistic, and patient-centered care in the theatre setting.  Other Interests include primary/secondary school career outreach & Softball.

Lindsay Keeley

Clinical, Patient Safety & Quality Lead -The Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP)

Lindsay Keeley is a nationally recognised leader in perioperative patient safety with over 40 years’ experience across the NHS and independent sectors. As AfPP’s Clinical Patient Safety and Quality Lead, she works closely with industry partners and perioperative teams to strengthen national standards and improve safety in operating theatres.Through the Professional Advice Service (PAS), Lindsay provides expert, evidence‑based guidance on patient safety, quality, and best practice. Her portfolio includes leading compliance audits, supporting national events, and benchmarking practice against AfPP Standards using the AfPP Audit Tool. Lindsay is a key contributor to national work on surgical fires, surgical plume safety, and infection prevention and control, shaping AfPP guidance and supporting safer practice across the UK. Her long-standing commitment to professional development includes leadership roles within AfPP and the RCN, as well as international collaboration with the Friends of African Nursing.

Lisa Tierney

Trustee – AfPP

Lisa has worked in operating theatres since 1980, primarily as a scrub practitioner. She held senior roles in the NHS for 38 years before becoming Head of Nursing at The Private Clinic of Harley Street. A Specialist Advisor with the CQC since 2015, she has inspected both NHS and independent services. Lisa also served as a Major in the Army Reserves for 18 years, with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lisa is a long-standing member of AfPP, serving as a non-elected Trustee and Consultant. She represents AfPP on the SAFE OR steering group, promoting surgical safety in low-income countries, and has delivered multidisciplinary training in Africa, India, Bangladesh, and the UK. She also consults on regulatory compliance and registration for healthcare providers.

Marcus Stow OBE MStJ, RN, BSc(Hons)

Non- Executive Director Hub – Royal College of Surgeons of England – Innovation Hub

Nurse leader, Defence medicine innovator and MedTech strategist Marcus Stow OBE draws on three decades of frontline and humanitarian experience to explore what extreme clinical environments teach us about innovation, resilience and patient safety, and most importantly; the central role of the perioperative practitioner in shaping surgery’s future.

Maxine Page

Matron for Theatres, PACU, Pre Assessment and Acute Pain, Princess Alexandra Hospital

Maxine is the Theatre Matron Nurse, at Princess Alexandra Hospital and a former associate lecturer at Anglia Ruskin Universityon the ODP degree programme. She is passionate sharing her perioperative experiences to inform and energise theatre practitioners. Currently Maxine is the AfPP President Elect, an AfPP Consultant and an AfPP Link Member.

Mo Belal

Consultant Urological Surgeon – University Hospitals

Mr Mo Belal is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (since 2011), specialising in neuro-urology and urinary tract reconstruction. He has published extensively and is currently BAUS Vice President for Education, formerly Chair of the BAUS Section of Female, Neuro-urology and Urodynamics, and BAUS Mesh Lead with NHS England. He is a trustee of several charities and an SIA ambassador.

Nick Carlton Bland

Consultant Neurosurgeon Walton Centre

Mr Nick Carleton‑Bland is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at The Walton Centre, appointed in 2017, with extensive international training in London, San Francisco and Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and completed a two‑year complex spinal neurosurgery fellowship. Alongside his full‑time clinical practice, he is a national human factors trainer, international lecturer and award‑winning educator, recognised nationally for excellence in surgical teaching.

Dr Nigel Roberts

Associate Divisional Director – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Dr. Nigel Roberts is the Associate Divisional Director at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust. Nigel has worked in theatres since 1998 and commenced his career at Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital as a Support Worker before completing his ODP training in 1998. Nigel has gone on to publish fourteen research papers, participated in numerous blogs on the patient safety learning hub, spoke at seventeen conferences, two of these were international, designed the latest NatSSIPs 8 flowchart and successfully obtained a PhD, Professional Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy on the 15^th January 2026. Nigel is also a nationally recognised speaker on patient safety and the Deputy Chair of the national network of Theatre Managers in the UK and Ireland. Nigel has created the first Never Event group in the United Kingdom that enables the cyclical learning of previous Never Events.

Sharon Fox

Head of Decontamination UHB & Director of Education IDSc – Insitute of Decontamination Science

Sharon Fox is an experienced Decontamination Practitioner and Healthcare Scientist with over 30 years’ expertise dedicated to patient safety and the advancement of decontamination practice. Beginning her career in Sterile Services in 1990, she has held a range of senior operational, educational, and national leadership roles, including Training Manager and Production and Quality Manager.
Sharon is currently Head of Decontamination at University Hospitals Birmingham, where she leads and assures safe, effective decontamination practices across the organization, supporting the prevention of healthcare-associated infections. She works closely with multidisciplinary teams to embed patient safety and best practice.