Meet the Team
The HI NENC team is made up of an Executive, a Core Team who provide central support, and Programme Managers who lead on our Health Improvement and Patient Safety Programmes.
Find out more about the members of our team below.
Sarah Rendall
Digital Transformation Programme Manager
Talk to me about... Digital Inclusion, Robotic Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence
Email: [email protected]
Sarah joined the HI NENC in 2016 and worked in the Communications Team with a focus on digital comms before making the move into the HI NENC’s Digital Transformation Team in 2021.Throughout her career Sarah has worked in the private,…
Scott Rennie
Project Manager
Talk to me about... Economic Growth, Dynamic Purchasing System and Sustainability
Email: [email protected]
Scott joined Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria in September 2023 as a project manager within the Economic Growth team. He has taken on roles within the purchasing team where he helps the Business Development team manage the Dynamic…
Emma Reynolds
Project Support Officer - Patient Safety Collaborative
Talk to me about... Innovation Pathway, National Lipid Optimisation Programme
Email: [email protected]
Emma is an experienced Administrator with a eye for detail which comes from a background of proofreading, minute taking and all things “secretarial”. She joined the HI NENC from Newcastle University where she worked for 22 years. As Project Manager…
Emma Richardson
Programme Manager
Talk to me about... Innovation, Primary Care, Digital first primary care
Email: [email protected]
Emma joined the HI NENC as a Programme Manager in the Economic Growth team in January 2022. Emma’s background is in Children and Young People with a strong interest in Health research. Emma has worked in various roles within education…
Jill Riding
Project Manager
Talk to me about... Contracting - PMO - Pathway Transformation Fund
Email: [email protected]
Jill joined the HI NENC as a Project Support Officer (Executive) January 2020, after five years employed in a number of roles for North of England Commissioning Support Unit, most recently as Research Project Support Officer. She has a wealth…
Tony Roberts
Clinical Effectiveness Advisor
Talk to me about... Clinical Effectiveness, Patient Safety, measurement, Quality Improvement
Email: [email protected]
Tony has a measurement background, particularly relating to the safety and quality of clinical care. He Is Deputy Director Clinical Effectiveness at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Director of the North East Quality Observatory Service (NEQOS) as…
Helen Seymour
Medicines Optimisation Workstream Lead
Talk to me about... Medicines Optimisation
Prior to joining Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria (HINENC), Helen spent all of her career in the NHS. She is a registered pharmacist with extensive experience in both secondary and primary care pharmacy, as well as medicines information…
Hannah Spooner
Project Support Officer
Talk to me about... Project support for the Economic Growth team
Email: [email protected]
Hannah joined HI NENC in September 2023 as a Project Support Officer. Hannah completed her undergraduate Biomedical Sciences (Hons) degree at Northumbria University, before transferring to Newcastle University to earn her MSc in Medical Sciences. Since graduating, Hannah has worked…
Victoria Strassheim
Pain Workstream Project Lead
Talk to me about... Pain Pathway
Email: [email protected]
Victoria Strassheim is a Clinical Academic physiotherapist, with over 25 years wide ranging clinical experience and a master’s in clinical research. She also works in a multi-disciplinary fatigue clinic for patients with long term health conditions. Victoria has worked in…
David Tate
FREED Project Lead
Talk to me about... The FREED Programme, Senior Eating Disorders
Email: [email protected]
Over the last 22 months, David has planned, developed and championed the implementation of FREED (First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders) across TEWV NHS FT including establishing 2 children’s eating disorder teams and adults eating disorders team. To…
Donna Smith
Marketing and Communications Manager
Talk to me about... Branding, Content, Case Studies
Email: [email protected]
Working within the Communications team at the HI NENC Donna’s focus is on branding and content for brochures and case studies. As one of 15 HI NENC’s nationally and a multitude of local member organisations it is essential the core…
Gemma Todd
Project Support Officer
Talk to me about... PSC programme metrics, support for PSC and regional quality improvement network delivery.
Email: [email protected]
Gemma joined in December 2018 as a Project Support Officer to the Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC).Her remit is to provide professional support to the delivery of the PSC Programme and regional quality improvement network, working closely with Programme Leads, and…
Dr Rachel Turnbull
Programme Lead for Healthy Happy Places
Talk to me about... Mental health and the built environment
Email: [email protected]
Rachel works in healthcare innovation leading regional projects in the North East of England. Originally qualified as a clinician with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology Rachel has developed more than 12 years’ experience in project management and service improvement roles…
Nikola Urli
Project Support Officer
Talk to me about... Support for the National Lipid and FH programme, Implementing novel therapies, Reporting metrics
Email: [email protected]
Nikola is a Project Manager for the National Lipid and FH Programme. His duties include liaising with numerous stakeholders, supporting all 15 HINs, collating reports, as well as ensuring productivity across the entire network. He is currently supporting the national…
Mark Walsh
Trusted Research and Evaluation Environment (TREE) Portfolio Manager
Talk to me about... TREs, Digital, Healthcare collaborations
Email: [email protected]
Mark is currently Portfolio Manager for the NENC ICS ‘Trusted Research and Evaluation Environment’ (TREE.) Previously he was Programme Manager for the Great North Care Record (GNCR), helping develop the initial concept and blueprint for delivery. Mark was Director of…