Meet the Team

Karen joined the South East People and Culture team in March 2024.

She joined the NHS Leadership Academy in 2019 and has a wealth of experience in talent management (supporting organisations to attract and maintain high-performing individuals), with a strong focus on increasing diversity and inclusion. As well as working in the London region, Karen has also held a national role as NHS England’s Head of Talent pipelines, has worked for NHS Leadership Academy, Health Education England and the Forensic Science Service – where she started her career as a forensic scientist. 

As the Talent regional programme lead, she set up the first London Regional Talent Board and Aspire Together Executive Director Talent Pool. During the COVID-19 first wave, she established the London Deployment hub, deploying workforce to the London Nightingale, Trusts and social care and redeploying volunteers, returning and retired workforce. While supporting the London COVID-19 Testing cell, she managed the London lateral flow test early and wider London role out and Breast Screening services.

Karen is a trained coach, mentor and action learning set facilitator. Throughout all her roles, she has always had a passion for talent management, leadership and investing in people to fulfil their potential.

Fi’s role is to ensure we identify, support and recruit the amazing and diverse talent who hold and aspire to Executive roles.

She has worked in talent and leadership in the NHS for nearly 15 years having previously worked in operational management, commissioning, informatics and clinical roles. Fi is qualified and experienced in various tools to support individuals and teams including Hogan psychometrics, MBTI Step I, II, flex models, HLM 360, mentoring train-the-trainer. She is an executive coach (ILM 7) specialising in career coaching and navigating barriers to inclusion. She holds a BSc in Integrated Health and an MSc in Health and Public Leadership and is an alumni of the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. Fi is passionate about approaching talent management as a cultural change tool to ultimately improve the care we provide. She loves helping leaders discover their unique strengths, developing clever data visualisations and a strong espresso.

Avril joined the NHS in 2009 as an experienced manager, with a background in leading logistics and customer service operations in a global healthcare organisation. Avril has experience of working in European and global teams and has been integral to delivery of large-scale IT projects and company spin-offs.

Avril worked in leadership development in Thames Valley and Wessex for several years as a programme manager before moving into a national team staff Health and Wellbeing manager role for further experience and development. Avril re-joined the team in September 2020 as she is passionate about supporting our talent and helping people to flourish. Avril has a keen interest in the evaluation of our work and it’s longer-term impact to support the improvement of patient care and outcomes, along with process improvement.

Avril is a qualified Healthcare Leadership Model (HLM) 360 Feedback Facilitator, accredited coach, MTBI Step I Practitioner, and mentor.

Sapna joined the South East People and Culture team in September 2024, bringing over 20 years of cross-industry experience – including 11 in the public sector and the past 12 in healthcare. Since 2019, she has focused on talent and leadership, starting with leading national recruitment for the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme, and later driving key talent initiatives across regional and national teams. Sapna has a strong background in building collaborative partnerships and delivering impactful programmes. Her extensive experience in change management and co-design has included leading evaluations of assessment and recruitment activities within healthcare.

As a Talent Programme Lead, Sapna has led initiatives like career pathway mapping for social care professionals, creating bespoke programs for place-based leaders and implementing digital solutions to support talent development.

Passionate about unlocking the potential in everyone, Sapna is committed to empowering others and is a trained coach, HLM 360 feedback facilitator, and Action Learning Set (ALS) facilitator. Her approach blends strategic thinking with a genuine belief in people, making her work both impactful and deeply rewarding.

Satnam joined the NHS in 2014, providing administration support to the Quality Team  within the East Midlands Clinical Commissioning Group. From there she has moved to different parts of the NHS working across Training and Development, Assessments and Revalidation and most recently Professional support and Wellbeing within NHS England. She joins the People and Leadership team in the Southeast in December 2024. Satnam is a people’s person and is passionate about the key role we play in delivering better healthcare outcomes for patients. Outside of work Satnam is a very spiritual person who enjoys meditation, long walks and spending quality time with family and friends