Our People
Our people and partners are at the heart of everything we do
Directors and Core Team
Professor Durka Dougall
Durka is a medical consultant and public health specialist who has been working in the NHS for 25 years. Durka is passionate about transforming the approach of the health and care system in England so that it is much more joined up, equitable, effective in preventing as well as treating ill-health, and focussed on enabling people (patients, families, staff and communities) to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible. For the last 10 years, Durka has been leading efforts through a variety of roles on population health and tackling health inequalities across UK and more globally. She has supported many individuals, organisations and systems to progress their efforts forwards for this and is proud to be recognised as a trusted leader in this space. Durka is the Chief Executive of the Centre for Population Health, a Non-Executive Director for NHS Trusts, and an Academic supporting University College London and University of East London.
Merron Simpson
Merron is a visionary change leader with 30 years’ experience influencing at national and local levels. Her passion is to bring congruence between policies, services and the reality of people’s and communities’ lives.
A former Head of Policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, she has become known for her inclusive leadership of ground-up, cross-sector service, system and policy change. Blending her thought leadership capabilities, cross-sector knowledge, experience working in complex environments and deep interest in people, she develops novel approaches, narratives and framings that resonate widely, inspire movements and drive tangible change.
Peter Hay
A social worker by training, and an experienced leader of social care services to adults and children, Peter is curious about ways of building good lives, developing people’s control over their care and health, and fascinated by the demands upon leadership styles that support these aims.
Matt Brayshaw
Matt has worked in the community for the last 25 years, by turns teaching and advocating for people using NHS mental health services. He worked for Birmingham and Solihull Liaison & Diversion service for five years, a groundbreaking NHS service which supported people to better lives and wellbeing after initial meetings at the city's police custody. The service won two Howard League national awards for its work. Matt has supported the development of numerous lived experience forums, training and innovative projects rooted in the voices of people experiencing multiple disadvantage.
Lynne Bowers
Lynne has 30 years NHS experience and a life-long commitment to advocacy for a range of charities, including The British Red Cross, The Gates Foundation, Help for Heroes, The Children’s Society and Autism UK.
Rohema Khan
Rohema is an experienced professional at the forefront of strategic planning and management with a strong background in health, education, skills and employment. She has a proven track record of workforce transformation, stakeholder management, inclusion, social justice, system leadership, and learning development. Her robust skills set includes partnership/collaborative working, system leadership, strategy development, project / programme management, developing inclusive practices and attracting funding.
Donna McLaughlin
Donna is a trained executive coach, who is currently engaged in a PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) exploring inclusive recruitment with the NHS. Donna has spent nearly 30 years working within the NHS including a decade serving Trust Boards in Merseyside and Greater Manchester as Director of Operations/ Chief Officer. Donna cares passionately about empowering people and communities to create a more inclusive society.
Neil McGregor-Paterson
Neil is an accomplished communications professional with over 30 years experience in providing communication, advocacy and policy counsel to the lifesciences and associated sectors. This includes Managing Director roles with some of the UK´s leading PR agencies.
Katy Saunders
Katy is Social Finance’s Executive Director for Investment & Partnerships. She worked in the NHS for over 20 years and is a skilled collaborator who is passionate about driving systemic transformation by supporting national charities and place-based organisations to develop health and social care solutions that work for both communities and the NHS.
Stephanie Lee
Stephanie is an Independent Consultant with over 25 years’ education experience. Her areas of expertise and interest are in equality and inclusion. Prior to becoming a freelance consultant, Stephanie worked in higher education for nearly 20 years in the area of widening access, during which time she was Head of Widening Participation at The University of Manchester.
Ambassadors
Chris Carlin
Chris has been a Transformation Manager at NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, specialising in health inequalities, since 2017. Before joining the NHS, he spent 17 years in Halton’s vibrant VCFSE sector, working in local charities and community centres, where he developed a passion for ‘people-powered change.’ In addition to his NHS role, Chris serves as a Labour Councillor for Halton Castle Ward in Runcorn. He is deeply committed to under-served communities, particularly care-experienced young people, drawing from his own formative experiences.
Loreen Chikwera
Loreen is an academic and researcher in the Policy team at the King's Fund, driven by a commitment to bringing the voices of minoritised communities and those with lived experience from the margins to the centre of work on health inequalities. With an eclectic background spanning public sector leadership, cross-sector community policy work, and university teaching in Sociology and Psychology, she brings a critical social science lens - grounded in her PhD in gender and migration studies - to everything she does. She currently sits on the National Academy of Social Prescribing advisory group, supporting pilots for older people from underserved groups facing financial hardship.
George Fielding
George is an active, passionate advocate for disabled people and champion for better social care - recognised in 2019 with a British Empire Medal for services to young disabled people and their families.
An experienced fundraiser, he has raised over £11m for charity since 2012, and is a regular TV and radio commentator, appearing on Sky News, Channel 4 News and BBC Radio 5 Live. He has also given keynote speeches at both Houses of Parliament, 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, addressing royalty, Prime Ministers, Secretaries of State, and the public.
Lisa Holden
Lisa is a well-established community connector bringing her lived experience to the role. Working from a citizen perspective, she is connecting people to other people within North Yorkshire and Humberside Integrated Care System by joining up the dots. As a ´socially fluid´ person, she adds social oil into the mix, helping to ensure connections are made between the right people at the right time. Lisa is also a longtime member of The Health Creation Alliance and has added rich insight, input and support to many programmes and activities.
Dr Sandra Husbands
Sandra is a dedicated public health leader with over 30 years' experience across the UK and internationally. Her passion is unleashing the power of individuals and communities to improve their own health and wellbeing.
Currently Director of Public Health for the City of London and London Borough of Hackney, she previously served as Executive DPH at Swansea Bay University Health Board. Blending senior experience across the NHS, local government and Public Health England, she drives improvements in population health and healthcare quality to achieve better outcomes for patients. She is a board member and trustee of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), and co-chairs its London workstream on Tackling Racism and Inequalities.
Associates
Steve Inett
Steve is an experienced practitioner in public consultation, involvement and coproduction as well as being a qualified trainer. He brings knowledge and experience from thirty years in health, social care, housing, education and voluntary sector roles.
Steve is committed to empowering those with the least opportunity in life, amplifying their voices, helping them achieve their goals, and working towards a fairer system to support them.
“I would like THCA’s Health Creation approach to be the foremost approach used by public bodies to improve the health of communities.”
Sonal Metha
Sonal originally trained as a Pharmacist and is a quality improvement coach. She brings a wide-ranging experience in the health and wellbeing sector, including clinical and community led approaches.
Sonal is experienced in cross sector partnership development and collaborative approaches. She has particular interest in leadership development and applying systems thinking to support integration within health and care.
“Having worked on several projects with THCA over the years I have seen the benefits of a health creating approach to services, systems and most importantly the communities they work with.”
Emma Lugrin FRSPH
Emma has spent the last three decades working in the places others often overlook: underserved communities where the gap between what people need and what they receive is widest. Emma’s work has spanned homelessness, substance misuse, NHS England Primary Care, and now Women's Health, always rooted in Quality Improvement that's practical, not theoretical.
Emma's work focuses on connecting people, communities, and organisations - cutting through complexity to find what actually works.
“I was excited to find THCA, a real ground-up movement fashioning the health creation approach by looking principally through the community and lived experience lens rather than the service lens.”
Andrew Fenton
With over 20 years' experience across the NHS, Andrew is a leader with expertise spanning population health, health inequalities, public health, primary care, digital transformation, and large-scale programme delivery, including the Covid-19 Vaccination Programme.
Formerly Director of Population Health and Inequalities at NHS South, Central and West CSU, Andrew now works as an independent consultant supporting organisations across the VCSE, health and care sectors, providing practical approaches to improve outcomes, reduce inequalities and deliver meaningful change.
“In my previous role with SCW CSU I worked with THCA on the Core20PLUS Connectors programme. I found their approach really interesting and am happy to be working with them to help scale up their delivery capability.”