New Director of Allied and Public Health joins university

Gill (pictured below) joins the university from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) where she was interim Director of Practice and Development. She was previously Assistant Director with UK wide responsibility for physiotherapy education and workforce development. 

She qualified as a physiotherapist in 1997 and after a clinical career specialising in musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, moved into higher education. Her last academic post was as at UCLan, where she led a multi-professional rehabilitation sciences team after many years as a senior lecturer developing and delivering pre and post registration programmes. 

Gill has a keen interest in allied health professional (AHP) workforce development, curriculum design and delivery, diversity and inclusion and service improvement. In 2017 Gill undertook a two-year national clinical AHP fellowship at Health Education England where she led multiple projects around AHP supply and careers development. 

Gill has also maintained a clinical role until recently as an MSK advanced practitioner at Salford Royal NHS Trust. She has a passion for public health and led an award-winning service public health service redesign at the Trust, embedding NHS health checks and diabetes checks into the MSK physiotherapy service. She has a PhD exploring adherence and behaviour change within MSK physiotherapy.

Outside of work, Gill lives in rural Lancashire with her husband and three children. She loves sport and exercise and plays netball. She also enjoys cooking, baking and generally feeding people! 

Gill loves getting out and about with friends and family, travelling, fashion and interior design (in any spare time she has after providing a taxi service for her three teenagers!).

Gill said: “I am delighted to be returning to work in Salford and the North West, and as a Salford post-graduate alumni I am excited to be joining the team in the School of Health and Society. This really is the perfect job for me as it combines my love of public and preventative health with my passion for allied health professionals and the value they bring to our health and social care system. 

“I am looking forward to working with teams across the directorate, school and university and with external partners to help maximise our students’ experience and outcomes and to develop an unstoppable future workforce!”

Professor Margaret Rowe, Dean of the School of Health and Society, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Gill to the university as our new Director of Allied and Public Health. 

“Gill has fantastic expertise in workforce development and service improvement, and I know she will bring a wealth of passion and experience to the role. As the largest provider of Allied Health Professions undergraduate education in the North West, we have a proud tradition of ensuring our students get valuable real life experience throughout their time with us. I look forward to working with Gill as we continue to provide our students with the best experience possible.”