Meet the team
The new steering committee for the Public Health Forum was formed in January 2013.- Jason Warriner - Chair
- Beverley Griggs
- Helen Kirk
- Joanne Ashmore
- Linda Bailey
- Mairi Gaffney
- Nicola Meredith
Jason Warriner
Jason qualified as a nurse in 1993 and has over 20 years experience as an RCN activist at a local, regional and national level. After graduating as a nurse from Leeds College of Health Jason initially specialised in cardiac nursing before moving into the field of HIV and sexual health. After holding a number of senior nursing positions in the NHS he moved into his current role as Clinical Director for the Terrence Higgins Trust (The national HIV and Sexual Health charity) in August 2009. Jason has a undertaken post registration courses in sexual health, HIV and contraception alongside gaining a BSc Health Care Studies, post graduate certificate in management and post graduate diplomas in management and education and training. He is a member of the Chartered Management Institute.
Jason has worked in South Africa with CHIVA Africa, a project that supports the roll out of HIV treatment to children and is also the Healthcare Manager for Crisis, the national homelessness charity. From 2006 - 2010 Jason was Chair of RCN Congress and served on RCN Council.
Beverley Griggs
Beverley undertook her nurse training at Queens Univeristy of Belfast in 1995 and spent the next five years working in trauma and orthopaedics at the Royal Victoria Hospital. She continued studying part time at Queens and graduated with a BSc Hons in Health studies in 2001. She then completed a postgraduate certificate in community nursing at Univerity of Ulster, specialising in occupational health nursing. Following this she headed to London and spent the next five years working in various occupational health roles in the public and private sector. During this time she undertook and MSc in Organisational Psychiatry and Psychology at Kings College London.
Beverley moved to Guernsey in 2008, to manage the Health and Social Services Department's occupational health service and in December 2010 re-located to Scotland where she is currently occupational health nurse manager at NHS Borders. Her areas of interest include mental well-being, health inequalities and workplace psychology.
Helen Kirk
Helen is an occupational health nurse managing her own consultancy. Based in Cheshire, she has carried out projects around the UK. She has recently led an occupational health review for the NHS in the North West. In addition to working across a number of NHS Trusts OH departments she recently held a Department of Health role as the Health and Wellbeing champion in the North East and North West of England.
She was invited by NICE to advise them on occupational health nursing in the development of the guidance on promoting mental wellbeing in the workplace and has been appointed to the NICE topic selection panel. Helen is the OH nurse member on the UK panel for health care workers with blood borne viruses and is a member of the Royal College of Physician’s Health and Work Development Unit steering group.
Helen is a strong advocate for nursing, publishing in journals and speaking at conferences regularly, and continually looking for opportunities to promote Occupational Health nursing.
Joanne Ashmore
Joanne graduated from Sheffield School of Nursing & Midwifery in 1992 and gradually migrated south to London where she worked in Anaesthetics. In 1996, Joanne undertook a BSc in Health Studies at North London University, now London Metropolitan University and then a PG Diploma in Community Health (Health Visiting) at King's College, London. Joanne specialised in asylum seeker health, TBand immunisations and then worked her way up to Modern Matron in Health Visiting before embarking on an MSc in Public Health at City University in 2003.
Joanne moved to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in 2006 and became a Nurse Consultant in Health Protection in November 2007. Joanne's areas of interest and specialisms include teaching and awareness raising of public health/health protection issues amongst front line health and social care practitioners, immunisations (including MMR & seasonal/swine flu immunisations), pandemic influenza, investigation and management of health protection incidents and outbreaks such as measles and, finally, supporting stakeholder organisations to fulfill their own health protection responsibilities.
Mairi Gaffney
Mairi has worked in the field of occupational health for 28 years. Her experience has been gained across a range of sectors and includes private industry in engineering, setting up a local authority occupational health service and most recently she has returned to work within the health service. Her current role as Head of Healthy Working Lives within National Services Scotland has a wide remit covering health and safety, fire, occupational health training, health promotion and case management. This remit gives Mairi the opportunity to work across a range of disciplines and for her service to bring a one-stop shop for employees
Mairi has also worked as a visiting lecturer and now holds an honorary post with the University of Glasgow as a lecturer within the Public Health Faculty. Mairi is also Vice Chair of the Senior Occupational Health Nurses Group.
Linda Bailey
Linda has been a nurse since 1984, first as an Enrolled Nurse, then as a Registered Nurse and Health Visitor. She was one of the first nurses in England to qualify for Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health and membership of the UK Voluntary Register for Public Health in 2006. Linda's current role is as a Consultant in Public Health in Barking & Dagenham leading on Adult Health Improvement.
She has been involved in the RCN since she was a student nurse, and has held various offices in the RCN including Steward, Branch Chair, Agenda Committee Member, Council Member for London, Nurse Honorary Treasurer abd Chair of the RCN Health Visitor and Public Health Forum. In her spare time Linda volunteers with Festival Medical Services providing health care at music festivals including Glastonbury and Reading.
Nicola Meredith
Nicola trained in Cardiff in the 1980’s and has a background in practice nursing. Currently a specialist nurse in the Vaccine Preventable Disease Programme at Public Health Wales. Her area of expertise is primarily immunisation, and her professional interests include influenza, practice nursing and travel health
