Meet the Team

Non-urgent advice: Karen Chummun

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 returning/retired workforce. While supporting the London COVID-19 Testing cell, she managed the London lateral flow test early and wider London role out.  

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.


Non-urgent advice: Beth Hill (On Secondment out of the team)

Systems Leadership Senior Manager [email protected]

Beth started her career as an accountant with Ernst and Young and joined the NHS through the GMTS. She has a good understanding of the NHS, having worked in many different organisations, in different roles and in different teams, before specialising in Organisational Development.  Her interests are system working, change management, leadership development and public health.

Beth joined the Leadership Academy in March 2021 to develop the systems leadership programmes.  She is a coach, with a particular interest inclusive coaching, MBTI facilitator, and an action learning set facilitator.

 

Non-urgent advice: Jayne Beresford

Primary Care Programme Manager
[email protected]

Jayne is a Business Psychologist who has worked for many years as and Organisation Development (OD) Consultant in a number of contexts across the public and private sector. She has led major culture change programmes alongside leadership development programmes and other consultancy projects to enable teams, individuals and organisations to move through change and complexity.
Jayne joined the South East Leadership Academy in 2018 and has led many of our OD and Inclusion programmes. Jayne is the Primary Care Programme Lead. As part of this she works with individuals, teams and networks across the South East to support the growth and maturity of Primary Care Networks and to grow and develop leaders within that.
Jayne is also an experienced coach, accredited in a number of psychometric tools and believes strongly in empowering leaders through their own insights to create the cultures of inclusion and compassion that we believe in.

Non-urgent advice: Jess Done (On Secondment out of the team)

Talent and Leadership Career Pathways Manager
[email protected]

Jess has a passion for the personal, educational and professional development of individuals; supporting the staff of the NHS to be able 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. After a number of years working in the corporate sector, she has returned to the South East Leadership Academy with a drive to build an inclusive leadership community and co-create truly innovative and successful leadership and organisational development solutions.

Non-urgent advice: Becky Williamson

Leadership Development Senior Manager
[email protected]

Hello, my name is Becky Williamson (she/her), I have come from the national Leadership for Personalised Care programme of work at NHS England. Additionally, I have worked across the network of NHS Leadership Academies over the past 8 years including the East Midlands, Midlands and the South West. I am a Healthcare Leadership Model 360, Action Learning Set and My Everything DiSC Facilitator, qualified Coach and experienced in programme delivery. Scoping, commissioning and design of leadership interventions and relationship management is a large part of my role. I have a clinical background having qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2008. I was awarded the Nottinghamshire Roosevelt Travelling Scholarship 2012 which provided the fantastic opportunity to research the role of Occupational Therapy in early rehabilitation at Major Trauma Centres of America. I have presented at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Conference 2013 and 2014 and the World Occupational Therapy Congress 2014 in Japan to share my personal development and leadership journey. I have found that my Occupational Therapy skills of working alongside people to enable them to achieve their goals has translated well into the world of leadership, lifelong learning, and people development. 

Non-urgent advice: Avril Bryant

Business and Performance 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.

Non-urgent advice: Sandra Elsenussi

Positive Action Programmes Inclusion Coordinator
[email protected]

Hailing from a background in oil and gas management, Sandra joined the NHS in 2015 initially as an Executive Assistant. Since then, she has supported various projects within the NHS spanning over 5 years. In early 2020, Sandra began working for the National Leadership Academy under the umbrella of coaching and mentoring. By October 2020 Sandra moved to the South East Leadership Academy supporting the drive for inclusion and positive action programmes. Passionate about the importance of human  rights and human development, Sandra continues to volunteer with organisations inherent on sustaining dignity, respect and equality in human life.

Non-urgent advice: Annemi Muller

Leadership Development Manager
[email protected]

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.

Non-urgent advice: Nicola Ladkin

Leadership Development Coordinator [email protected]

Nicola is new to the South East Leadership Academy, having previously worked in the Midlands leadership Academy since 2021. Much of Nicola’s career has been in the Private Sector in Marketing and Data Analytics. Nicola is dedicated to improving patient care and staff experience through the development of exceptional and inclusive leadership. She is values driven, has a wealth of experience and knowledge and is excited to contribute to the success of the South East Academy. Outside of work, Nicola enjoys botany, philosophy and playing the guitar, drums, and piano. Nicola is very passionate about promoting inclusion and equality in everything she does and raising awareness of issues.