Current President - Dr Liz Westcott Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery, Oxford Brookes University, Email: westcottej@brookes.ac.uk Twitter: @lwestcott1
Liz has been a member of Sigma since 2014. She is also an Executive Coach and Coaching Supervisor and is a member of the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies (ICCMAS).
Dr Janet Scammell is an Associate Professor (Nursing) in the Department of Nursing Science, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Bournemouth University.
She undertook her undergraduate nurse education in London and midwifery in Exeter. Janet worked as a qualified practitioner in London, Devon and Dorset in a number of clinical roles, including nurse management, specialising in oncology.
Janet has worked in nursing and inter-professional education for over 20 years, undertaking a number of roles including Lead for Post-Qualification Programmes, Director of Pre-Registration Nursing Studies and Head of Learning and Teaching. She is currently Joint Director of the Nursing for Long-term Health Research Centre at Bournemouth University:
https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/nursing-long-term-healthJanet's doctoral studies concerned ‘Race and the mentor-student relationship in nursing’. Her current research interests concern nursing leadership and the workforce. Janet’s publications span education for person-centred care, practice learning, social inclusion and nurse retention. She has just completed a funded project in this latter area:
https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/making-tracs-improve-nurse-retentionJanet is keen to further develop her own scholarship and support others in the same endeavour.
Treasurer - Paula Shepherd, Bournemouth University
As a University Practice Learning Adviser within the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at Bournemouth University, Paula's interprofessional role includes the support of students and practice in the provision of high quality placement experience and is currently completing a fellowship with Health Education England for the RePAIR I. P. (Reducing Pre-Registration Attrition and Improving Retention Implementation Project). Paula is also an academic adviser and lecturer for pre-registration students. Since qualifying as an adult nurse in 1986 Paula has had many opportunities to experience nursing in different fields and has worked in the USA as well as the UK private and national health system.
Lead and Vice President for the Northern Hub - Dr Kirsten Jack
Dr Kirsten Jack is a registered nurse on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register and a member of the Royal College of Nursing. She currently holds the position of Reader/Associate Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. Before commencing an academic career, Kirsten specialised in community/primary health care nursing, holding numerous roles in the North West of England, UK. Kirsten is a fellow of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2019) and a HEA National Teaching Fellow (2014). She is also a Principal Fellow of the HEA. She is passionate about promoting meaningful learning experiences for healthcare students and her research focuses on creativity in teaching. She has published widely, specifically on the use of the arts in learning and teaching and innovative ways to support clinical education. Her research extends into social care and she has led several projects aimed at exploring and promoting education in care home settings. She currently leads interprofessional education in the Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Chair of the Communications Committee and Webmaster - Catherine Best
Catherine is a specialist community public health nurse on part 3 of the NMC nursing register. She is an Honorary Visiting Nursing Lecturer at the University of Bradford and is to commence a new role at CU Scarborough on July 1st as a nursing tutor. In January 2012 Catherine was awarded the Queen’s Nurse Title by the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) in recognition of her commitment to the delivery of high standards of patient care and continually improving professional practice. Catherine is now a regular blogger for the QNI.
Catherine has also presented at multiple National and International Conferences, written articles for the BMJ Medical Humanities on-line journal. Written and had published several conference proceedings and had papers published with peer reviewed journals including Primary Health Care Journal, Nurse Education in Practice and Nurse Education Today. She has a professional commitment to develop her writing skills for publication. Her interests include the importance of nurses writing for publication, reflective practice and nursing narrative.
Chair of the Governance Committee - Lin Purandare
Lin qualified as an Enrolled Nurse in 1975 and a registered nurse in 1977. After initially staffing on a busy surgical ward, she went to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London to learn about cancer. Staying on after the course, becoming a ward sister on the Leukaemia and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. After a brief career break, during which she travelled and gave birth to two children, she returned to nursing. Taking a part-time role so she could also complete a B.Sc (Hons.) in Nursing. She completed several Master's modules and earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Cancer Care. She completed an Independent Nurse Prescribing Course in 2006, becoming one of the first nurses in the country to independently prescribe cancer chemotherapy, working a joint role as Nurse Consultant in Oncology and Lead Research Nurse. She is passionate about service development and encouraging and supporting colleagues to achieve their potential. After retiring from the NHS in 2015 she subsequently worked as Clinical Lead in a Dementia Care home, relishing the challenge of learning new skills. She was invited to join Phi Mu in 2014 and inducted in 2015. She has been Chair of the Governance committee since 2018.
Lead and Vice President for the Midlands Hub - Raluca Vagner
Raluca is a registered nurse who works within the Intensive Care Unit of the Oxford University Hospitals Trust and is an Associate Lecturer with Oxford Brookes University. She is the Sigma Phi Mu Chapter Lead and Vice President for the Midlands and aims to support Chapter members to best utilise Sigma to achieve their professional goal.Raluca is also part of the prestigious Global Mentorship Programme provided by Sigma and is currently being mentored by an extraordinarily inspiring Intensive Care Nurse based in New York City. Her commitment to the nursing profession has already seen her receive a number of prestigious nominations and awards including the Edith Cavell Star Award for her commitment to improving the patient experience. Her passion for research saw her develop a postgraduate research dissertation for her Masters programme – “The evaluation of a one-stop website for people with amputations – a usability study”) for which she was awarded an exceptional and unprecedented 100%. This project saw her recognised nationally and internationally having been awarded the Edith Cavell Star Award for her commitment to improving the patient experience, Leadership Digital and Innovation Award by the Council of Deans of Health, Oxford Brookes Social Entrepreneurship Award, finalist for the RCNi Award, and the Student Nursing Times Awards and Global Challenge. She has taken her passion for research further by starting her own Journal Club in the Intensive Care Unit, where she currently works.
Chair of the Leadership Succession Committee - Ashley Spriggs
Chair of the Finance Committee - Dr Adriane A. de Savorgnani AB, MPH, DBA, RN, FACHE Email: a.desavorgnani@gmail
Adriane de Savorgnani worked for ten years in hospital and public health nursing before joining the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps in 1975. Holding a variety of clinical and administrative positions in the Navy, she completed her active duty service as Assistant Deputy Chief, Medical Operations Support (Acting) at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, DC, in 2003. Since then she has been employed at the Defense Attache Office and the Federal Benefits Unit, U.S. Embassy London. In the Phi Mu Chapter she has served as Vice President and is currently Chairman, Finance Committee.
Former President (2011- 2016) - Professor Elizabeth A Rosser, Email: Erosser@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dr Elizabeth Rosser is Professor Emeritus at Bournemouth University having acted as Dean of Faculty (Health and Social Sciences) for the 18 months prior to retiring in August 2018. As a professional nurse with a midwifery qualification, Elizabeth was the first President of the Phi Mu Chapter (England) and completed 4 years as an elected member of Sigma’s Board of Directors from 2015-2019. At present she is an elected member of Sigma’s Leadership Succession Committee. Elizabeth feels passionately about leadership in nursing and set up the first Phi Mu Chapter leadership programme in January 2019, a one year programme, run annually. Having worked in Colombia, South America as a nurse/midwife and co-ordinated a Higher Education link with NE Brazil to introduce the new role of nurse-midwife, she has a particular interest in transcultural nursing. She also has a passion for research and publication and she is keen to support others in this endeavour. She firmly believes in developing and actively promoting the scholarship agenda for nursing.
Honorary President - Dame Professor Betty Kershaw, DBE, FRCN, OStJ,
Professor Betty Kershaw, DBE, FRCN, OStJ, retired in 2006 as Dean of Nursing and Midwifery at The University of Sheffield.
Betty holds visiting Professorships at Birmingham City and Manchester Metropolitan Universities. She was RCN President from 1994-1998 and CNO for St John Ambulance from 1998-2005. She was a member of the DH (England) Preceptorship Working Group and worked with the NMC on the new Pre-registration Nursing Curriculum. During her time as RCN Education Adviser (Congress 2007-Jan 2011) she was involved with the Advisory group working with Skills for Health on the Skills Passport. She was President of the England Honour Society – now named the Phi Mu Chapter (England) – for two years handing over to Professor Elizabeth Rosser of Bournemouth University in July last year. Betty has two Lifetime Achievement Awards; one from the UK the other from the USA. She is married with two sons and five grandchildren.