
| Anastasia Vinnikova, Early Careers Recruitment Adviser and Co-Chair, Mental Health Network at the Bank of England
Anastasia Vinnikova is an Early Careers Recruitment Adviser at the Bank of England, where she is also Co-Chair of the Mental Health Network. She sits on the Thriving from the Start Network Steering Committee (a cross-organisational mental health network for young people entering the City), and is on the Commission for Equality in Mental Health at the Centre for Mental Health. Anastasia has lived experience of severe anxiety and depression, which impacted her significantly during her time before and during university.
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| Rosie Tressler, CEO, Student Minds
Rosie has been working on the issue of student mental health for several years and was recently awarded with an OBE for her work in higher education. She has had various roles at Student Minds supporting volunteering, campaigning and training development before becoming the charity's CEO in 2015. Rosie is involved with multiple programmes to transform the health of student and university communities, and currently oversees the development of the University Mental Health Charter, a national quality improvement and reward scheme which is being co-produced with students and the university community.
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| Nancy Hey, CEO, What works centre for wellbeing
Nancy Hey is a global leader in the field of wellbeing. In 2014 she set up the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, the UK’s national body for wellbeing evidence and practice aiming to understand what governments, business, communities and people can do to improve wellbeing. The Centre is the first of its kind in the world and is working with the OECD, over 18 universities across the UK and in partnership with HM Government, Business and Civil Society.
Prior to setting up the Centre, she worked in the UK Civil Service as a policy professional and coach, delivering cross Government policies including on Constitutional Reform. She has worked with the UK’s top Civil Servants to introduce wellbeing into public policy and to establish the professional policy community in the UK. She has degrees in Law and in Coaching & Development, and is a passionate advocate for learning.
She has two young daughters and a devotion to Southampton FC.
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| Peter Bonfield OBE FREng, Vice-Chancellor and President, The University of WestminsterPeter is Vice-Chancellor and President of The University of Westminster, which is closely involved in business, professional and academic life within London, as well as overseas. Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer at BRE Group, where he forged a number of research and teaching partnerships with global universities.
He is Chair of the London Higher Health and Wellbeing Network, established to help in bringing London’s universities together to make a practical difference to students’ wellbeing, and is committed to making wellbeing and mental health an explicit priority. Peter is also currently Deputy President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a member of the Board of UK Active. Peter has long been passionate about higher education and has also worked across several government departments as a non-executive and expert on a wide range of briefs, including chairing four independent reviews for the Government.
He is a former National Cycling Champion and coach.
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| Amy Lightstone, Head of Communications and Business Strategy, London HigherAmy Lightstone is Head of Communications and Business Strategy at London Higher, the membership organisations for London’s HEIs. As well as spending seven years as the Head of the London Medicine & Healthcare division leading on medical, dental and healthcare HE policy, Amy leads on London Higher’s health and wellbeing agenda for staff and students across London’s HEIs. Amy has significant experience working in health policy and higher education, and has a degrees in Public Health and Nutrition.
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| Dr Phil Richards, Chief Innovation Officer, JiscPhil has a first degree in physics and doctorate in nuclear structure physics (with experiments undertaken at CERN) from University of Oxford. His early career was in e-learning, with roles at Cardiff University, University of Hull and King’s College London. He then transitioned into senior management, with positions at Aberystwyth University, University of Plymouth and most recently Director of IT at Loughborough University. Phil is responsible for developing new national Jisc services including data & analytics, research data and repositories, AR/VR, and AI-driven next-generation digital learning.
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| Dr Sandeep Ranote, Medical Director, North West Boroughs Healthcare, NHS Foundation Trust
Professor Sandeep Ranote is Medical Director and Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. She developed the award-winning medical skin camouflage service for promoting recovery in self-harm in partnership with Changing faces charity. Her published research includes perinatal neuroimaging, eating disorders and medical skin camouflage. She has been clinical advisor to The National Children's museum 'Eureka' and currently sits on the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Eating Disorder executive committee and is a regular expert media contributor. She was part of the ministerial task-force, Future in Mind, 2015, and clinical expert for NHS England’s eating disorder commissioning guidance and workforce curriculum 2015-2016. She is a contributing author to the Royal College of Psychiatrists' book 'The Female Mind' and was awarded a fellowship to The Royal College in 2014. As Greater Manchester Health and Social Care partnership’s Children’s mental health lead, Sandeep leads the award winning Mentally Healthy Schools Programme and the University Mental Health strategy and pilot trailblazer service starting in 2019.
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| Mark Brown, Former Editor, One in Four MagazineMark is development director of Social Spider CIC, ex-editor of One in Four magazine, one of Nursing Times/Health Service Journal Social Media Pioneers 2014, mental health writer, doer. Currently working on a project around coproduction and cocreation. Mark regularly works with the National Survivor User Network and is supporting Hearing Voices Network in development of app to collect experiences of voice hearing. Mark writing on mental health has appeared at Mental Health Today, The Guardian, Prospect, The i paper, Prospect, New Statesman and others. He is currently writer in residence at Centre for Mental Health and is @markoneinfour on twitter.
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| Dr Jess Deighton, Associate Professor in Child Mental Health and Wellbeing, UCL, Head of Resilience Research and Evaluation, Anna Freud CentreDr Deighton's expertise focus is on: 1) the evaluation of interventions and multifaceted programmes to support mental health and well-being in children; 2) factors that promote resilience in children and young people; 3) the interplay between mental health and educational outcomes.
She leads the national evaluation of the Big Lottery Fund’s HeadStart programme and the Department for Education funded Children and Young People’s Mental Health Research and Evaluation Programme. She is also a senior researcher for the North Thames CLAHRC and the Department of Health’s Child Policy Research Unit.
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| Gedminte Mikulenaite, Policy Researcher, Universities UK
Gedminte is a Policy Researcher at Universities UK, with a specific focus on mental health in higher education and research culture and talent.
She has previously worked as a project administrator for student support and a project officer for postgraduate research education teams at the University of Essex.
Gedminte studied International Relations at the University of Essex.
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| Clare Stafford, CEO, Charlie Waller Memorial Trust (CWMT)
Clare has worked within the mental health field for 25 years, holding senior management roles commissioning and providing mental health services in the voluntary and NHS sectors, including two years as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Department of Health. Before joining the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust Clare worked for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, developing services for people with long term conditions, depression, anxiety and related mental health problems. She has overseen a significant increase in CWMT’s charitable activities, notably expanding training and resources to better equip young people, parents and professionals to support mental health and wellbeing.
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| Dr Liliana Galindo, Harm Reduction leader, The
Loop and Psychiatrist CPFT NHS, University of CambridgeDr Galindo is a psychiatrist and a neuroscientist researcher. She works in CAMEO, an early intervention service in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and as a postdoctoral researcher at Cambridge University. Since 2018 Dr Galindo is one of the healthcare leaders of The Loop. The Loop is a not for profit community organisation which provides drug safety testing and harm reduction services in the UK.
Part of her research is about harm reduction and the recreational use of psychoactive substances as a collaboration with other harm reduction NGOs in the Trans-European Drug Information project.
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| Professor Steve West CBE, DL, Vice-Chancellor, President and CEO, University of the West of England, Bristol
Professor Steve West CBE, DL is Vice-Chancellor, President and CEO of the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is Non-Executive Director for the Office for Students and Chair of the UUK Mental Health in Higher Education Working Group.
He is Chair of the West of England LEP, Chair of the West of England Academic Health Science Network and Non-Executive Director for the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.
Professor West is a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Gloucestershire and was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2017, for services to Higher Education.
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| Phil Packer MBE, Charity AmbassadorPhil Packer MBE (mil) MA MA(Ed) FRSA is a Charity Ambassador, Patron and Campaigner. He has been the recipient of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award and Pride of Britain Fundraiser of the Year.
In 2008, Phil sustained injuries to his heart, ribs and catastrophic damage to his spinal cord. Just over a year later he embarked on three physical challenges within a six-month period that would inspire millions. His efforts raised over £1.3million for the wounded. In 2012, he walked 2012 miles throughout every county of Great Britain & Northern Ireland to raise awareness of mental health and psychological trauma. With his spinal cord injury, this was the equivalent of walking 310 marathon distances in 331 days. His life post-injury has been to make the Mental Fitness and Mental Wellbeing of young people, and those experiencing trauma, his business and duty remains the driving force in his life.
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| Professor Jane Longmore, Vice-Chancellor, The University of ChichesterProfessor Jane Longmore is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Chichester where she has led the development of the £35 million Creative and Digital Technology Park to accelerate the provision of higher skills in West Sussex.
Professor Longmore has worked in a wide range of universities, holding roles in both teaching and academic management. With a strong commitment to widening educational opportunity, she is incoming Chair of the University Vocational Awards Council and Chair of the Sussex Learning Network. She is a Professor of Urban History and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her contribution to the promotion and knowledge of history led to the award of an Honorary Fellowship of the Historical Association in 2013.
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