Professor Peter Farndon CBE,
Director

Peter Farndon leads the team as the Centre's director, drawing on long standing interest and experience in genetic education. He holds an MSc in medical education and is a member of the Education Committee of the European Society of Human Genetics.

Peter is Professor of Clinical Genetics at the University of Birmingham.  He has been involved with the practical application of genetics for patients for nearly 25 years, after a broad training in medicine and paediatrics. He gained an MD for research in Gorlin syndrome, a condition which predisposes to skin cancer. He is chair of the UK Genetic Testing Network and previous national roles include being President of the Clinical Genetics Society.

David Latham,
Associate Director

David Joined the team in November 2009, he is a nurse by profession having worked clinically in adult critical care and cardiothoracic. He brings to the centre experience from higher education and the NHS. For many years he worked in nurse education, both pre and post registration and while working at Keele University was Head of the School of Nursing for eleven years and Associate Dean for the Faculty of Health for three years. Latterly he worked in the NHS as Head of Organisational Development and Training.

David has a BA (Hons) in Education, a Certificate in Education, a certificate in Social research methodology and an MSc in Sport, Health and Exercise. He has recent clinical experience working in cardiac rehabilitation and a research interest in human performance.

Candy Cooley,
National Genetics Awareness Programme Manager

Candy Cooley M.Med.Sci, BSc (Hons) Edu, DPSN, DN, ONC, SRN, RSCN, Candy has a background in both education and clinical management. She first joined the team in September 2007 from a management role within a Primary Care Trust. Before that she was Head of Division for Cancer & Palliative Care at B'ham City University where she had worked as a lecturer for 15 years. For the last two years she has been working at NHS West Midlands, the Strategic Health Authority. Her role at the SHA was initially as Head of Hospital & Specialist Education within the Workforce Deanery and then as a Patient Safety Manager within the Quality Directorate. Her role also included working on the QIPP agenda for Care Homes and ThinkGlucose with the National Institute for Innovation and Improvement. Her role here at NGEDC is working with the Team to raise genetics awareness with both health professionals and the public.

Nisha Keen,
PA and Centre Administrator

Nisha works as PA to Peter Farndon, Centre Director. She also manages various administrative and financial procedures for the Centre. Nisha has a background in PA and administration management and came from a post in the Medical School at the University of Birmingham.

Peter Rainger,
e-Learning and Blended Learning Specialist

Peter has a diverse background from originally studying Mathematics and working both as a Disability Officer and Assistive Technologist in Higher Education (HE). Peter was seconded as a  Research Officer in the School of Education at Sussex University working nationally for JISC TechDis. In this role he undertook fast-paced action research into dyslexia, e-learning, mobile learning, web accessibility and usability and metadata standards; as well as delivering staff development across FE and HE. Peter later set up his own business and taught commercially for industry and for government bodies (e.g. JISC e-learning programme, BECTA etc). In a move back into HE Peter took on a multi-portfolio role with the Sussex Learning Network leading (across 7 subject disciplines) Web Development, Communications, Curriculum and Socio-economic Data Analysis and contributed to Curriculum Development and Online Information Advice and Guidance. Peter comes to the Centre from the University of Birmingham where he worked as a Senior eLearning Consultant developing pedagogically-driven staff development courses. Peter's role combines that of an Education Specialist and Technology Specialist and he now leads the Centre's e-learning and blended learning programme which works across all the Centre's work-streams.

Silvana Ioannou,
Communications Specialist

Silvana began her career in broadcast journalism and has over 15 years communications experience. Silvana has worked for high profiled education programmes for BBC/OU and ITV. She has industry awards for her work in specialist factual and broadcast media. Silvana uses many communication channels to create, tailor and deploy key messages about genetics to all stakeholder audiences and raise the Centre's profile. Silvana specialised in marketing for her postgraduate diploma in management studies and also has a postgraduate certificate in journalism.

Michelle Madeley,
Publications Specialist and Events Manager

Michelle manages a range of printed and electronic publications. Her role includes responsibilities to manage the scheduling, print buying, budgets and costs for the production of the Centre's publications and resources using Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Michelle also coordinates and oversees the Centre's conferences, courses and meetings and has a long background in administration and events management and came to the Centre from a post in the Careers Service at Aston University.

Michelle Bishop,
Education Development Officer - Medicine

Michelle has a background in molecular biology and clinical genetics, working as a genetic counsellor in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. She has an honours degree in biochemistry, Graduate Diploma in Genetic Counselling and is currently completing her PhD in the field of genetics education. She also has extensive experience in teaching genetics to high school and medical school students. Michelle joined the Centre in November 2008. She is involved in supporting genetics education and training for medical students, Foundation trainees, non-genetics specialty trainees including GP trainees and doctors in practice. This includes the development of learning outcomes across the continuum of medical education and the development and evaluation of genetics resources for medical practitioners.

Dr Emma Tonkin,
Education Development Officer - Nursing

With a background in molecular biology (human genetics) and experience in communicating complex scientific information to patient families, Emma joined the Centre as Education Development Officer for the nursing professions. In this role she is working to raise awareness about genetics applied to nursing practice and is involved in supporting education and training in genetics at both pre- and post-registration levels. Emma is actively involved in the web-based genetics education resource 'Telling Stories, Understanding Real Life Genetics'

Dr Caroline Bradley,
Education Development Officer - Pharmacy and Dietetics

Caroline has a background in molecular biology gaining a Masters degree in molecular and cellular biology in 2003 and later completing a PhD in the field of medical & molecular genetics. Most recently Caroline has been working in a biotechnology company running clinical trials for novel diagnostic assays.

William Foster,
Education Development Officer - Genetic testing

William is currently developing a genetic for health website in conjunction with UKGTN, having formerly been responsible for the Genetic Conditions Specialist Collection on NHS Evidence. He has a degree in Mathematics and Operational Research from Lancaster University but his working life has been spent in information management. In addition to his professional experience in a number of sectors, he has over twenty years experience as a university educator in information and library management courses including responsibility for the design and development of a Health Information Services Management module for Macmillan Cancer Support information centre managers.

Mahesh Punn,
E-Learning Project Officer

Mahesh comes from a background in teaching and multimedia production. Graduating with a degree in Multimedia Design in 2001, Mahesh has worked extensively in the education sector as Multimedia Developer and Lecturer. He also has experience in E-Learning. Mahesh is currently responsible for developing the Centre's Virtual Learning Environment and the production of e-learning resources.

Professor Maggie Kirk,
Lead Professional Specialist - Nursing

Maggie is Head of Research at the Faculty of Health, Sport & Science, University of Glamorgan, Leader of the Genomics Policy Unit and lead author of "Fit for Practice in the Genetics Era. A competence based education framework for nurses, midwives and health visitors." Maggie was awarded the 2006 ISONG Founders' Award for her "standing contribution to nursing education in genetics".

Professor Alain Li Wan Po,
Lead Professional Specialist - Pharmacy

Alain is Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy, Nottingham, UK. He has held the chairs of Pharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmaceutics at the Universities of Nottingham and Aston, and The Queen's University of Belfast, and acted as examiner at numerous national and international universities. He is Editor of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics. He has published four books and over 100 papers in both medical and pharmaceutical journals. He has served as a member of the UK Committee on Safety of Medicines (now the Commission on Human Medicines), and is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Royal Statistical Society. Trained in Pharmacy (Bpharm, PhD), Statistics, Economics and Mathematical Sciences (BA and BSc), his current research interest is in evidence-based pharmacogenomics and personalised pharmacotherapy

Dr Denise Williams,
Clinical Lead National Library for Genetic Conditions

Denise Williams works as a Consultant Clinical Geneticist for the West Midlands Regional Genetics Service. Her clinical interests include eye genetics, for which she has established a regional ophthalmic genetics service, paediatric genetics and prenatal genetics. She has a strong commitment to genetics training and is the Clinical Genetics Training Programme Director and Regional Specialties Advisor for the West Midlands . She is a member of the Clinical Genetics Supraregional Specialist Training Committee and the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board Specialist Advisory Committee. In January 2006 she worked with the Centre's team writing material for the Genetics in Practice section of their website. She rejoined the Centre in November 2007 as lead clinician for the NHS Genetic Conditions Specialist Library. She works closely with William Foster.

Dr Kevin Whelan,
Professional Advisor in Academic Dietetics

Kevin graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry and an MSc in Nutrition and Dietetics before practising as a Registered Dietitian within the NHS, specialising in the nutritional management of patients with gastrointestinal disorders. His PhD and post-doctoral research has involved the use of a DNA probing technique to map the effects of enteral nutrition on the colonic microbiota. He is a Lecturer in Nutritional Sciences at King's College London and is currently undertaking research on the involvement, confidence, knowledge and training in genetics of pre- and post-registration Dietitians.