About Us

Gemma started her NHS career as the Administration Manager for the Microbiology Lab in Ysbyty Gwynedd, moving to Conwy Local Health Board to work as an Information Analyst. Gemma has held a number of roles throughout her career including a secondment to a national role as Corporate Support Manager for Local Health Boards across Wales, Third Sector Contracting Officer and more recently as a Project Manager working on the transition of Independent Practices to Health Board Managed Practices.

Gemma was successfully appointed to the role of Academy Manager in September 2019 and has been involved from the beginning of the Academy journey. Gemma has a strong understanding of the opportunities that multi-disciplinary Primary and Community Care services can offer our patients and of the importance of social and community solutions in ensuring wellbeing.

Robyn started her career in the NHS as a Graduate Management Trainee in 2016 , Robyn has spent time in a number of areas across the health board, including Primary Care, Community, Secondary care and Children's services giving her a real understanding of the complexities of delivering healthcare to the local population.

Robyn is a starter finisher though and through, she will work though a project methodically while ensuring all stakeholders are involved and timelines are on track.

Stella has spent her whole career in the NHS, and been in research and evaluation roles for the last twelve years. Stella has extensive experience working on clinical trials as both Clinical Research Officer, and as Trial Manager on an NIHR funded palliative care trial.

Stella has been with the Academy since 2019 working on the Advanced Paramedic Practitioner Pacesetter, and undertaking a Masters by Research alongside the project. She joined the team on a permanent basis in 2022 and is looking forward to getting more involved with some of the Academy’s other innovative projects in primary care.

Stella has a passion for qualitative methods, but is slowly learning to embrace quantitative data!

Jess has been a GP for 17 years and working with the Academy team since 2019.

Jess leads on the training of  our multidisciplinary team members including; Nurses, Physiotherapist, Paramedics, Pharmacists, Medical students, Physician associates and GP Trainees.

Jess recently had a poster at RCGP 2021 -Using a GP in a role specifically designed to develop confidence and independent practice in group of Advanced Practitioners in a Teaching Hub.

Jess is passionate about creating a supportive environment for multidisciplinary learning and working in Primary Care.

Liz undertook GP training in North Wales and has been a GP for 25 years in the area mainly as a GP partner, but also worked in the Out of Hours service and as a locum GP at different times. She has also previously been a Primary and Community Care Assistant Medical Director in the Central Area of BCUHB until 2022, so involved in appraisal, revalidation, education and governance of primary care.

She is a GP trainer, and has helped train and support ANPs, medical students and Physician Associates and pharmacists into clinical roles in primary care.

She believes that supportive educational opportunities and reflective time and space are essential for good clinical practice, benefitting primary care clinicians individually, recruitment and retention generally, and leading most importantly to the best patient care.

She is excited about this new role to help coordinate and support these opportunities in BCUHB

Nia has always said that Primary Care is in her blood! The Daughter of a Practice Nurse, Nia has over 25 years nursing experience, twelve of which have been at Advanced Practice Level.

 Holding a postgraduate Specialist Practitioner Award in General Practice together with a full Advanced Clinical Practice Masters, Nia was thrilled to receive the Queens Nursing Title last year.

Nia is passionate about the provision of high quality, safe and effective nursing care and in 2021 was fortunate enough to win the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales Nurse of Year Award for her work in developing a Multi-Professional Advanced Practice Competency Framework for Primary Care, which Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW) now plan to roll out nationally. Her current PhD studies are based on the further development and measurement of this.

Nia secured the first Welsh Primary Care Consultant Nurse position in 2018 where she represents the Health Board on the Strategic Programme for Primary Care, the National Advisory Group for Advanced Clinical Practice and is Chair of the National Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP) Ratification sub group.

She sits as a council member on the National Association of Primary Care and holds an honorary senior lectureship with Bangor University.

Life outside of work is by no means at a slower pace, with three children, a slightly deranged fox terrier and a gaggle of aging hens, there is always lots to keep her occupied and maintain a healthy work-life balance!

Nikki Barlow has joined the Primary Care Academy team working across North Wales to provide support for, and lead on, specific areas of work including skills, education and training for the non clinical workforce within both independent and Managed Practices.

Nikki will also work with the team and contribute to the delivery of other work streams and projects focusing on the sustainability of Primary and Community services.  Her previous work experience includes community services and schemes, Primary Care, GMS practice, MDT working and a range of cluster networking.

Nikki’s has spent time as the Primary Care cluster co-ordinator for Central & South Denbighshire within the Central area. She was responsible for the development, implementation and integration of the primary and community services strategy across the cluster including the development of the integrated model of community based health and social care.  This was in addition to supporting the cluster leads in the collation and production of cluster plans and supporting the overall development and administration of clusters.  Nikki also supported training schedules to develop and train staff/colleagues both clinical and non clinical.

Clare joined the NHS 6 years ago as a project manager but has been exposed to some really exciting projects since joining. With a career background in sales and marketing in publishing magazine and newspaper houses in North Wales and London, Clare has utilised her engagement skills to drive multi-disciplinary projects from concept to successful delivery.

Starting her career in the NHS as the Community Resources Teams (CRT) project manager, Clare was leading on a number of work streams including developing the 9 CRTs in Conwy and Denbighshire working across both Health and Social care to support culture change, team building and renovating and upgrading estates for the teams.

Clare then moved over to Primary Care to become the project manager leading the innovative ‘MY LIFE’ project in Conwy West which was multi-agency project which focussed on improving the health and well-being of the population of Conwy West Cluster by education, encouragement and support to make beneficial lifestyle choices.

Clare also has experience in quality and service improvement which are currently being used to design, develop and implement Skills, Education and Training Hubs across 4 sites in Managed Practices across North Wales.

Angela has worked in a variety of care settings as a registered nurse and midwife for nearly 40 years! This has taken her all over the UK and overseas working in areas such as neonatology, cardiology, occupational health nursing and for the last 25 years in primary care. Her primary care career started when she was a Nursing Officer within the Royal Air Force, and she was hooked! On returning back to north Wales she trained as a primary care Advanced Nurse Practitioner and more recently attained a Professional Doctorate in Healthcare in 2017.

Angela remains passionate about improving patient care within all that we do, with a focus on continually supporting our workforce to promote positive outcomes. She has been a huge advocate for primary care nursing for many years, helping to drive education, training and development opportunities locally. She has received a Queen’s Nurse Award for her service to community nursing and has contributed to service changes at national level.

She loves to travel, and is planning to tour with her campervan and rescue pup. Although, expecting a small terrier pup he’s now the size of a Labrador!!

My journey into general practice started at the turn of the millennium in January 2000. Having initially completed all essential skill sets and achieving Diploma’s in chronic disease domains, I went on to complete a BSc (Hons) Specialist Practitioner Qualification in General Practice in 2005 and then on to complete my independent prescribing and Masters in Advanced Clinical Practice and have worked as a clinical ANP in general practice until 2019.

In April 2019, I joined the Health Board Primary and Community Care Team for East IHC and gained experience as both Practice Development Nurse and Interim Lead Nurse before recently joining the BCUHB Primary Care Academy in August 2023.

Professional educational in partnership with clinical supervision that facilitates the translation of theory to practice is fundamental to the provision of high quality, evidenced based care to all of our patients and in the development of a knowledgeable, confident and competent workforce.

I feel very fortunate to have developed a career in general practice and having travelled this educational pathway myself, I now feel equally fortunate to hold a position that supports the education and training for health care professionals who have also chosen general practice as their career.

Meleri has been a GP for 7 years and is new to the Academy team.  She spent many years in training away from her beloved North Wales, and has now returned, ready to convince anyone ready to listen about why they should come here to live and work.  She has an interest in health inequalities and is looking forward to harnessing local innovation in recruitment to improve access for all. In her spare time she is often found roaming the beaches or mountains with her family or tending, rather unsuccessfully, to her garden.

Pete is Acting Assistant Director, North Wales Dental Service and Project Director for the Dental Academy. Pete is an experienced change and continuous improvement manager, experienced business development manager and innovator.

He has worked within PCT, CCG and Mental Health Foundation Trusts in England, as well as working in Prison Healthcare and Secondary Care treatment centres for an Independent Sector NHS delivery organisation. Complex partner and stakeholder relationships are normal to Pete, having managed the successful bid for a Health and Wellbeing centre involving Independent Sector, NHS FT, 2 CCGs, 9 GP practices, a league of friends, 2 Local Authorities and numerous local charity and not for profit organisations.

He has worked for BCUHB since January 2020 and is passionate about increasing access to dentistry, supporting opportunities for staff to develop their skills and careers, innovating service delivery and quality improvement.

Becca joined BCUHB in November 2020 as the Project Manager for the North Wales Dental Academy, in February 2022 she was promoted to Service Improvement Lead for the North Wales Dental Service due to her enthusiasm and drive for implementing positive change. Coming from a marketing and communications background, she has a wealth of experience in making amazing things happen by bringing projects, messaging and strategy to life in any environment; from buildings, conference centres, to computer screens, exhibition halls and 3D worlds.  Becca has delivered a diverse range of multi-faceted projects for both the public and private sector working across the UK and Europe. Her focus and drive, combined with her love of developing ideas, project management and creative communications experience, ensure that projects are delivered on time and to requirements.