Annie was appointed as Director of Patient Experience in December 2009 – a new senior leadership role for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, designed to strengthen Board accountability and ensure visibility and momentum for a trust wide Patient Experience Programme.She has been in her new role as Chief Experience Officer since May 2018. It is the first post of its kind in the NHS, with responsibility for leading improvements in staff experience and well-being and integrating this with the existing Northumbria patient experience programme.

Annie is a Health Foundation Generation Q fellow – a pioneering programme, aimed at developing a new generation of skilled and effective leaders of quality improvement in healthcare. She is a founding director of RUBIS Qi, which was established in 2016 – an externally facing improvement arm of Northumbria Healthcare and NHS consultancy offering coaching and improvement support across the NHS.

Before taking up her current role Annie enjoyed 13 years of senior clinical leadership responsibilities as Clinical director of the award winning, Stroke Northumbria service, as well as Allied Health Professional lead for the North East Cardiovascular Network.

A qualified teacher and senior lecturer, Annie’s particular interests in the development of clinical practice within education, coproduction and the role of the service users as teachers.