Membership of the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health & HIV : Department of Health

Baroness Joyce Gould

Chair

Baroness Gould is a House of Lords Life Peer with a strong interest in sexual health. She is President of fpa (formerly named Family Planning Association), patron of FORWARD, an organisation that campaigns against female genital mutilation and also Chair of the All Party Pro Choice Group. She has extensive experience of chairing large groups and committees.

Anne Weyman

Joint Vice Chair

Anne Weyman was formerly Chief Executive of fpa. She was involved in the development of the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy and is also a member of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy. She has a wealth of experience across all aspects of sexual health and experience of public speaking and chairing meetings.

Derek Bodell

Joint Vice Chair

Formerly Chief Executive of the National AIDS Trust who has over 15 years experience in delivering Sexual Health and HIV services at both a strategic and local level. He also served as a member of the Sexual Health and HIV Steering Group and was involved in developing specific proposals in 1997 proposing the integration of HIV into a broader sexual health framework. He has extensive experience of chairing and facilitating groups.

Mike Adler CBE

Professor of Genitourinary Medicine, Royal Free and University Medical School and was seconded to the Department of Health until 2001 to take a lead on the development of the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy. He is an advisor to the All Party Group on AIDS, and the Health Select Committee. Has also served as a Trustee and Chairman of the National AIDS Trust (NAT), Clinical Director of HIV/AIDS/GUM and Drugs Services for both Bloomsbury and the Camden Community Health Services. He has been a non-executive director of the Health Development Agency since 1999.

Helen Ward

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Public Health and Honorary Consultant in Genitourinary Medicine at Imperial College London. She has taken up a part-time secondment as consultant epidemiologist at the Centre for Infections, Health Promotion Agency. Her remit at the HPA includes chairing the UK HIV Prevention Liaison Committee, and leading on the monitoring of waiting times in GU clinics, the provision of surveillance data to better meet local needs, and national support for outbreak response. Helen has extensive experience in public health, research and clinical service provision in the field of sexual health, and has developed innovative health promotion and clinical services for female sex workers and other hard to reach groups. She has published extensively, and is currently editor of the medical journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

William Ford Young

A full time ''grass roots'' GP for 13 years during which time his interest in sexual health and HIV has been developed by work in GUM clinics. Is currently the sexual health lead for Eastern Cheshire PCT, the lead for sexual health for Royal College of GPs Task Group for Sex, Drugs and HIV. He is also the Royal College of GPs representative for the Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Diseases 'STIF' (Sexually transmitted Infection Foundation Course) Steering Committee. He is also the GP member of the Chlamydia Screening Steering Group at Department of Health and GP member of the PHLS Advisory Committee on STDs.

Connie Smith

Currently a Co- Director of Westside Contraceptive Services, Westminster PCT. She is also Chair of the Clinical Advisory Committee of the fpa. Was Co-Chair of the Sexual Health Services Working Group and a member of the Sexual Health Strategy Steering Group which helped to development of the Strategy. She is an adviser to the Medicines Control Agency and the Committee on Safety on Medicines on contraception issues. Is formerly the Director of the Clinical Effectiveness Unit for the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health at the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Patrick French

Currently a Consultant in Genito-Urinary Medicine at Camden PCT, Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Royal Free & University College Medical School and Honorary Consultant Physician at the Whittington and UCLH Trusts. Was involved in the development of the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy as a member of the Steering Group. Also took responsibility for developing the Strategy's approach to strengthening and modernising sexual health treatment and care services.

George Kinghorn

Professor George Kinghorn has been a Consultant in Gentio-Urinary Medicine, Clinical Director for Communicable Diseases and a full time lead for clinical teaching and research in Sheffield since 1979. Is involved in a variety of local, regional and national initiatives including being the immediate past President of the Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Diseases (MSSVD). Was the main author of the GU medicine response to the consultation on the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy.

Kathy French

Currently a part time sexual health advisor at the Royal College of Nursing. Working on a distance learning package for nurses that has been commissioned by the Department of Health. Previous position was Clinical Nurse Manager for Contraception and Termination of Pregnancy Services at Kings Healthcare in London and Clinical Nurse Specialist in contraception. Is undertaking a PHD in teenage pregnancy and the invisibility of young males. She continues to do clinical locum work to maintain clinical skills and knowledge.

Debbie Preston

Following a 10 year midwifery career Debbie is now a practice nurse in a general practice surgery in Blackpool, Lancashire. She works in all areas of chronic disease management and her specialty is sexual health. Essentially this consists of sexual health promotion, cervical and STI screening and family planning. Her main interest is around the implications of the GMS contract in terms of the provision of effective sexual health services and its impact on the local population.

Heather Wilson

Currently a Senior Health Adviser at Barnet Hospital and is also the President of the Society of Health Advisers in Sexually Transmitted Diseases (SHASTD). Has extensive knowledge of STIs and HIV. Is also a member of the Department of Health's Health Adviser Working Party and helped to develop recommendations for the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy. Is also currently involved in writing health promotion guidelines for health advisors on behalf of the Department of Health.

Kate Guthrie

Consultant Gynaecologist/Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Clinical Director of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Partnership for Hull and East Yorkshire. The Partnership delivers sexual health services to four PCTs and the Hospitals Trust, and is a registered training centre for the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Physicians. Dr Guthrie is the lead for abortion services in the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and undertakes Family Planning and Community Clinics as well as management duties for the Partnership. She is Chair of the Joint Training Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Faculty of Family Planning, Honorary Treasurer and Officer of the Faculty of Family Planning, Lead for the Faculty working party for the Special Skills Module; Abortion Care and updating the Career Grade Training Syllabus and Logbook, and was a member of the MedFASH Advisory Board for Stands for Sexual Health Services. She published 11 Journal articles between 1983 and 2000.

Stephen Slack

Currently the Director of the Centre for Sexual Health & HIV Sheffield. For more than ten years Stephen Slack worked within the area of sexual health for the Social Services Department in Sheffield, initially as a specialist social worker for people with HIV before taking the role of Team Manager for the HIV Social Work Team and Lead Officer for Sexual Health. He has contributed to writing a local sexual health policy, based on the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy, which is being implemented. Stephen has also been involved in regional HIV training. Latterly he has been appointed to the post of Director at The Centre for HIV and Sexual Health in Sheffield. Stephen's previous background as a child protection and mental health social worker continues to inform his work in sexual health.

Christopher Woolls

Is currently the Director of The Cara Trust, formerly Director of Staffordshire Buddies. Worked in partnership with key local stakeholders, including people living with HIV, to formulate responses to the Sexual Health Strategy. Was previously Health Promotion Manager at Terrence Higgins Trust South. Has extensive knowledge and understanding of people living with HIV and AIDS.

Nicholas Partridge

Nick Partridge is currently Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust and has worked in the HIV/AIDS field since 1985. He has overseen the development, implementation and monitoring of HIV and STI prevention programmes, as well as the creation and delivery of a wide range of social care and advice services for people living with HIV. He was a member of the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy Steering Group and is a member of the Commission for Health Improvement.

Elisabeth Crafer

Chief Executive of Positively Women, a London based national organisation providing peer support to women living with HIV. Was a member of the Sexual Health Strategy Steering Group and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy Social Care group. Is also chair of the pan-London HIV Providers Consortium with 48 member organisations. Has also provided evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS, providing parliamentarians with evidence on issues affecting women and children.

Dr Barry Evans

Dr Barry Evans (ex-officio)

Dr Barry Evans is a medically qualified public health consultant / epidemiologist and as an ex officio member of the IAG brings many years experience in surveillance of sexually transmitted infections including HIV. After qualifying he did initial jobs in the UK and then worked in public health in third world situations before returning to the UK for family reasons. He spent 5 years in an academic department in South London working at the interface between service and academic public health. He began work in the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in 1990 and, apart from 2 years as a Director of Public Health in SE London, has continued to work at the Centre since (now integrated with the laboratories on the Colindale site and known as the Centre for Infections within the Health Protection Agency). He is the Caldicott Guardian for the Centre for Infections and brings that commitment to information governance to the committee. He also has a long term interest in teaching and training.

Simon Blake

Simon Blake is Chief Executive of Brook, the leading voluntary sector provider of integrated sexual health services for young people across the UK. Through a Network of Centres, Brook provides clinical services, education and outreach in 50 locations. In 2005/6 Brook reached over 200,000 young people and an additional 840,000 young people via the website. Brook provides support to professionals through publications, training, consultancy, conferences and exchange, a subscription membership scheme for professionals. (www.brook.org).

Simon has written on all aspects of personal, social and health education, particularly teaching and learning about sex and relationships. Simon is a member of the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group and was previously Director of the Sex Education Forum, the leading authority on sex and relationships education.

Deborah Jack

Deborah Jack is Chief Executive of the National AIDS Trust. She held senior marketing positions in the public and commercial sectors – including three years as Marketing Director of St Mary’s NHS Trust - before joining the voluntary sector in early 1993.Before joining NAT as Chief Executive in December 2003, Deborah worked at Brook – the sexual health charity for young people – as Head of Policy & Campaigns and Deputy Chief Executive.Deborah has a particular interest in health inequalities and human rights issues.

Ruth Lowbury

Executive Director of the Medical Foundation for AIDS & Sexual Health (MedFASH), Ruth has spent most of her career involved in different aspects of sexual health. She has led a number of major national projects at MedFASH and previously managed the Health Education Authority’s Sexual Health and HIV Programme. Ruth was a member of two working groups which helped to develop the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy and is currently also a member of the UK Chief Medical Officers’ Expert Advisory Group on AIDS, Chair of the Sex Education Forum and a trustee of Brook London.

Hong Tan

Hong Tan is London's first Sexual Health Programme Director working on behalf of all 31 Primary Care Trusts. He leads London's strategic planning of Sexual Health services and chairs the commissioning group for London HIV Prevention Programmes and the London Sexual Health Commissioning Network. He led development of the London Sexual Health Promotion Framework and London Contraception Plan.

Hong is passionate about Sexual Health and has over 15 years experience in commissioning of health and social care in health, local authority and voluntary sector. This includes being lead commissioner for the London HIV consortium where he co-ordinated the development of London's HIV strategy and Patient and Public Health strategy for specialised services.

Christine Owen

Christine Owen is currently Assistant Director of Health Improvement for NHS Northwest. One of her priority areas for health improvement and reduction in health inequalities is sexual health. Christine is also currently a member of the DH National Programme Board for Sexual Health. She is the former sexual health lead for the old Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority and prior to that worked as a commissioner in a PCT where sexual health was also one of her topic areas. She helped to establish a Sexual Health Network for Cheshire and Merseyside. She is a strong advocate for improving health and health services through networks and is proud of the fact that the North West now has three active Sexual Health Networks. Christine is both management and public health trained.

Kevin Smith

Dr Kevin Smith is the Medical Advisor to the Yorkshire and Humber NHS Specialised Commissioning Group. He is a consultant in Public Health Medicine with a wide experience of working in commissioning organizations in the NHS. As an ex officio member of the IAG, Kevin brings his commissioning expertise as well as an understanding of population health. He has been involved in the commissioning and governance of sexual health services for eight years since leaving clinical medicine for public health.

His previous post as Deputy Regional Director of Public Health at NHS Yorkshire and the Humber led to his involvement in the production of the Government White Paper "Commissioning for health and wellbeing".

Kierra Box

Young Persons Representative

Kierra Box is a 20-year-old student from London. She has always been interested in issues around the recognition of young people and their needs and views, and was involved with the youth press agency Children's Express from 11 onwards, while at 17 she co-founded Hands Up For Peace in February 2003. In 2004, HUFP was re-launched as Hands Up For, an organisation dedicated to ensuring that the young are involved in wider society through promotion of their views. The overriding theme of these activities has been a belief that young people's views need to be taken in to account, both about issues that directly affect them and about wider social issues that may affect their future lives. In order for this to happen, they must be allowed free access to information and be encouraged to participate in the democratic process and societal debate.

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