Meet the Team

Deputy Director of People, Talent and Leadership

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.

Talent and Leadership Career Pathways Manager
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Jess has a passion for the personal, educational and professional development of individuals; supporting the staff of the NHS to deliver better health and care outcomes. She has extensive experience running complex strategic and operational programmes, and an understanding of embedding these within health and social care. Jess has returned to the team after a secondment period as Flexible Lead in NHS England, she brings with her a drive to build an inclusive community and co-create truly innovative and successful talent and development solutions.

Talent and Leadership Improvement Manager [email protected]

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 supporting 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 staff Health and Wellbeing for further experience and development. Avril re-joined the team in September 2020 as she is passionate about helping people to flourish. Avril is interested in process improvement and the evaluation of our work and it’s longer-term impact to support the improvement of patient care. Avril is an MTBI Step I Practitioner and mentor.

Talent and Leadership Coordinator

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Annemi joined the NHS Leadership Academy in 2012 coordinating and supporting various leadership development programmes for more than 7 years. Having previously qualified and worked as an Optometrist in South Africa before relocating to the UK, Annemi highly values patient care and is passionate about making a difference by helping others.
Before re-joining the South East Leadership Academy in October 2020, Annemi was deployed to multiple Covid response workstreams before working as the Integrated Care System Coordinator in the South East.
Annemi loves spending time with her family and friends, and enjoys the outdoors, running and tennis.

Talent and leadership Administrator

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Beth has a special interest in equality, diversity, and inclusion and she is driven to help make the NHS workforce diverse in order to truly represent society. She has returned from a secondment as EDI Business Support Manager in the Change and Transition team to help the employees through an organisational change. Beth is now bringing this experience with her to Talent and Leadership to create a compassionate, focused, and inclusive environment for colleagues to thrive and grow.