Alison Paterson

Chair and Member for Eastern, January 2024 - December 2027

Alison is a Senior Lecturer (Adult Nursing) at the University of Hertfordshire. Previously, she was the Deputy Divisional Director of Nursing and Quality for Cancer incorporating the Lead Cancer Nurse role at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. Qualified for over 20 years she started her nursing career on a Bone marrow transplant ward moving onto intensive care and completing her Masters in Advancing Critical Care Nursing at Kings College London. More recently she has held CNS roles in Haemato-Oncology and Acute Oncology including a Lecturer-Practitioner role qualifying as an Independent Prescriber and practicing at an advanced level.

Alison has been a member of Blood Cancer UK Nurses group since 2018 and a member of their Healthcare Professional Advisory Group since 2020 contributing to the APPG on Blood Cancer. She is also the Lead for the East Of England Cancer Alliance Lead Cancer Nurses Group.

Get in touch: PNC.Eastern@rcn.org.uk

Donna Gallagher

Vice Chair and Member for Northern Ireland, January 2024 - December 2027

Donna has been a member of the RCN for over 20 years. She joined the RCN Professional Nursing Committee in January 2024 and also sits on the Northern Ireland Board as an ex-officio member. 

Having commenced nurse training in 1989, Donna specialised in mental health nursing, with a keen interest in the physical and mental health of older people. She moved in to further education and then higher education as a lecturer and senior lecturer at The Open University. Donna was influential in the development of The Open University’s nursing programme, working across HSC trusts and the independent sector in Northern Ireland and as part of a wider UK provision. She has also worked with the NMC as a programme reviewer.

As member of the Professional Nursing Committee, Donna hopes to influence and inform a wide range of topics and policies on behalf of RCN members and use her knowledge, skills and networks to support the work of the RCN. She continues her passion for mental health and recovery, and continues to practise as a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist, keen to support others on their life journey.

Get in touch: PNC.NorthernIreland@rcn.org.uk

Aquiline Chivinge MBE

Member for East Midlands, January 2024 - December 2027

Aquiline trained in Zimbabwe as a Registered General Nurse and Midwife before moving to Scotland and Australia, and settling in Nottingham in 1997. She has over 28 years of NHS experience.

Aquiline has worked on different medical and surgical wards at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust as she progressed from staff nurse to deputy sister, sister, matron, Clinical Lead post and now as Assistant Director Nursing /Midwifery and AHP –Inclusion. She holds the Honorary Professor role at University of Nottingham School of Health Sciences and is an Advisory Board Member on the Forum for Shared Governance. Listening to staff and patient voices has enabled Aquiline to collaborate, innovate and develop new pathways, some of which include local communities. This work was a contributory factor in Aquiline's receipt of an MBE in 2020, for services to patients from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Aquiline served for two terms as a member of the East Midlands Board before taking up her seat on the Professional Nursing Committee.

Aquiline is passionate about compassionate leadership and listening to our member voices ensuring that every voice is heard and concerns acted on. She believes that together we are stronger.

Get in touch: PNC.EastMidlands@rcn.org.uk

Sonia Henry

Member for London, January 2024 - December 2027

Sonia is a Registered Nurse with over 30 years of nursing experience. Sonia has worked in women’s health and medical and surgical including primary and community healthcare. Sonia has held senior nursing roles, providing leadership and management within specific areas of clinical and quality governance. Sonia joined Royal Trinity Hospice Charity as their Director of Nursing in August 2022. She has worked on raising the profile of nursing, across educational institutions, recruitment and retention of nurses, including Return to Practice and International Nursing. Sonia recently supported the healthcare assistants to train as nursing associates into the hospice core nursing workforce. She is passionate about continually improving the representation that reflects the diversity of the nursing workforce to ensure safe staffing levels.

Get in touch: PNC.London@rcn.org.uk

Oladunni Akinbulumo

Member for North West, January 2024 - December 2027

Biography to follow.

Get in touch: PNC.NorthWest@rcn.org.uk

Tim Grace

Member for Northern, January 2024 - December 2027

Tim Grace works in a community mental health service as a Psychological Therapist, where he is a part of the Leadership Team. Though he is an independent prescriber, his main professional interests relate to working with people with voice-hearing experiences, service development, teaching, supervision and research. He has been involved in a number of research studies, though the most notable was working as part of a team whose study was published in The Lancet.

Tim’s clinical role involves providing highly specialist psychological interventions, including cognitive therapy and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for people troubled by their mental health. He provides clinical supervision for a range of professionals and has supervised postgraduate students on MSc university courses and postgraduate CBT courses in the Northern region.

However, the most rewarding aspect of his role is his direct clinical work; he feels very privileged to be in a position to help people whose lives have been affected by trauma and adversity, and has learned considerably from the people he has worked with. Tim also works together with people with lived experience of mental health problems in other settings, such as developing workshops, deliver training to staff, and service development. Clinical leadership is an interesting and important part of Tim’s role, as it allows him to influence patient care across services while still retaining the individual clinical work that he enjoys.

The RCN has been a part of Tim’s professional life for most of his career. Tim was lucky enough to spend 15 months on secondment with the RCN, which he reports was a valuable time which provided him with many skills and experiences to draw on in his NHS role. Being part of the RCN Professional Nursing Committee is a relatively new role, but one which he is already finding very rewarding, and in which he is looking forward to contributing to over the coming years.

When Tim is not working, he enjoys spending time with his family, and has a wide variety of interests, including travel, football (spectating), eating out and theatre. Recently he has tried his hand at growing his own fruit and vegetables, with varying degrees of success. Tim has also been learning Chinese for the past few years, though he thinks it will be many more years before he can claim to speak Chinese.

Get in touch: PNC.Northern@rcn.org.uk

Jessica Davidson MBE FRCN

Member for Scotland, January 2026 - December 2029

Jessica is a dual-qualified adult and mental health nurse. For the last 18 years, she has worked extensively in the field of Justice Nursing in Scotland, concentrating on SARCS and Police Custody nursing, education and strategy development. This has included providing education and simulation laboratories for forensic examination, law, science and nursing at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.
 
Jessica’s interests lie in addressing health inequalities, workforce development and professional issues in nursing and equity. As an RCN member, she has served as Chair of the Nursing in Justice and Forensic Forum and has been an engaged RCN Fellow since receiving her Fellowship in 2018. She was awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse in 2017 and received an MBE in the King’s New Years Honours in 2024. 
 
Alongside nursing, Jessica runs a small choir called Edinburgh Voices and sing with the Scottish Opera Community Chorus. She is working on developing voice and recovery from trauma, and other artistic projects.

Get in touch: PNC.Scotland@rcn.org.uk

Ruth Bailey

Member for South East, January 2026 - December 2029

Ruth is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in sexual health. She works in primary care supporting patients with contraception choices, menopause management, cervical screening and sexual health and wellbeing. 

Ruth is proud to be a BMS registered menopause specialist and CoSRH trainer and is the nurse representative/Elected Trustee to the College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare Council. She is a passionate advocate for women’s health and has contributed to numerous national projects, resources and campaigns through her previous 8 years’ service on the RCN Women’s Health Forum. These include the RCN guidance on Menopause, and cervical screening for physically disabled women and autistic women. She has represented the RCN at All Parliamentary Groups and recently gave evidence on women’s reproductive health issues to the parliamentary select committee on Women and Equalities. She has published widely on Women’s Health and professional Nursing issues and is a regular nurse speaker on webinars, conferences and podcasts.

Ruth is an active member of East Sussex branch and presented the branch resolution calling for an evidence-based strategy to prevent nurse suicide, at Congress in 2023. She was the previous Chair of the Forum Chairs Group and is deeply committed to promoting professional activism and engagement across the Nursing community.
Ruth was honoured to receive the title of Queen’s Nurse in 2022. 

When she is not working or campaigning, you can usually find Ruth on the beach, in the sea, or singing show tunes with BHOS musical theatre choir.

Get in touch: PNC.SouthEast@rcn.org.uk

Charlotte Hall

Member for South West, January 2026 - December 2029

Charlotte is a registered adult nurse, educator and advocate with experience working across acute, urgent and community care. She is currently the Lead for Education and Skills Development at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where she has led award-winning initiatives across wellbeing, international nurse support and safer staffing, including a peer support programme and improvements to the Trust’s OSCE pathway. Beyond her Trust, Charlotte is a Registrant member of the NMC Fitness to Practise Committee, ensuring balanced and evidence-driven decision-making as a representative of the profession.
 
As an RCN member, Charlotte has served as the Student member of RCN Council and Chair of the Students Committee, and she currently represents members as an accredited Learning Rep and Steward. Charlotte played an active role in industrial action taken by RCN members, supporting national campaigning, derogation planning and strike-day mobilisation.
 
Charlotte has also advocated for the nursing profession on a global scale through the Nursing Now Challenge. This culminated in her representing early career nurses and midwives at the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva as part of a roundtable led by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros - an experience she regards as one of the proudest moments of her career.

Charlotte is currently pursuing a Master’s in Professional Development to strengthen her expertise in education, leadership and organisational development. She is also a Trustee of the KingsBarton Theatre charity, reflecting her commitment to supporting community arts and culture. Charlotte is a passionate advocate for the arts and holds qualifications in drama, media performance and arts-based health training.

Get in touch: PNC.SouthWest@rcn.org.uk

Melanie Blethyn-Roberts

Member for Wales, January 2026 - December 2029

Melanie qualified as a nurse in 2008, following a career as a psychology lecturer and working alongside social services. Her motivation to pursue nursing came from the support of nurses during serious health issues, and she worked as a healthcare support worker until the start of her training.
 
As a qualified nurse, Melanie has worked in intensive care and general practice settings, and as a health visitor. She has completed an MSc in community health and qualifications in independent prescribing, leading to her current role as an advanced nurse practitioner in general practice, managing the practice's team of nurses and healthcare support workers. Throughout her career, she has maintained the same passion for nursing that she had on the day she started training, which she attributes to working with excellent nurses and MDT colleagues. 
 
Her clinical areas of interest include women's health and obesity management, and the wider determinants of health and health policy.

Get in touch: PNC.Wales@rcn.org.uk

Ebenezer Akore Yeboah

Member for West Midlands, January 2026 - December 2029

Biography to follow.

Get involved: PNC.WestMidlands@rcn.org.uk

Anna Young

Member for Yorkshire and the Humber, January 2026 - December 2029

Anna Young is an accomplished portfolio nurse with extensive experience spanning clinical practice, strategic leadership, education, and research. In her current roles as both Primary Care Training Programme Director (NHSE NEY) and NMP Development Lead primary care South Yorkshire, she has driven innovation by using research and change models to create new workstreams. 

Anna is committed to advancing the nursing profession and to compassionate leadership. This includes working on initiatives that have increased the number of primary care nurses working confidently in non-medical prescribing.  She has also contributed to policy development in this area, co-creating frameworks for non-medical prescribing and embedding research into clinical settings. Anna is also passionate about nurse representation and has advocated for nurses on decision-making boards and committees at local, regional, and national levels. 

Anna maintains active clinical practice and research, including leading national research repository programs and developing tools to integrate research into everyday nursing. She has published on nursing leadership, research, and professional development, and spoken national and international conferences. 

In 2023, Anna was honoured as a Queen’s Nurse. In addition to her qualifications in nursing, Anna is currently pursuing a Level 5 Coaching Apprenticeship to further her commitment to improving patient care through supporting the nursing workforce.

Get in touch: PNC.YorksandHumber@rcn.org.uk

Kevin Morley

Nursing Support Worker member, January 2026 - December 2029

Biography to follow.

Get in touch: PNC.NursingSupportWorker@rcn.org.uk

Sophie du Plessis

Student member, January 2026 - December 2027

Sophie is a first-year MNurs Adult and Mental Health Nursing student at King’s College London. With a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Toronto, she brings academic insight, lived experience, and frontline care work to her dual registration training. Prior to starting her nursing course, Sophie worked full-time as an HCA in Pre-Operative Assessment, developing a strong foundation in person-centred, evidence-based care. Her recent placements have spanned acute medical, surgical, and mental health inpatient units, where she has relished the opportunity to work as part of skilled multidisciplinary teams and learn from accomplished mentors and leaders in the field.

Sophie is passionate about people - advocacy, inclusivity, and accessibility are at the heart of what she does. She has a particular interest in early intervention and community-based care. She recently had the opportunity to present a policy proposal at a university event, where she focused on early intervention for eating disorders in community fitness settings. She is now collaborating informally with Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, to help develop accredited training resources for gym and fitness professionals. As part of her commitment to removing barriers to care, she is also working towards her Level 2 British Sign Language qualification. Sophie is dedicated to challenging stigma, supporting person-centred improvements in care, shaping health policy, and advocating for patients, staff, and the future of the profession. She aspires to enter the field of addiction and homelessness outreach upon graduation.