The Academy Advisory Board

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Dr Donald Macaskill has worked for many years in the health and social care sectors across the United Kingdom. A particular professional focus has been issues related to bereavement, palliative care and individual human rights. He is the CEO of Scottish Care and serves on a number of Scottish, UK and international charities and boards related to health and social care. 

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Dr Sarah Barry, PhD, is Director of Academic Programmes & Senior Lecturer at Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. She is Centre Director and Director of the HRB funded National SPHeRE Programme in health services, policy and population health. Her research focusses on integrated care implementation in complex systems. Recent work includes evaluation of Community Healthcare Networks Implementation for the HSE.

Sarah has been a PPI representative for many years, working with a variety of organisations including NIHR, NICE, and the MS Society. She is a keen advocate for the inclusivity of PPI and its potential to assist and improve the relevance and experience of research for both researchers and participants. With a BSc in Natural Science, she has worked in management and administration across a variety of sectors including health, pharmaceutical, accountancy and law.

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Juliet is strategic lead for nursing and midwifery research in NHS Lothian and Honorary Professor of Practice at Queen’s University, Belfast. Her role includes professional leadership of 180 clinical research nurses/midwives working on clinical trials and research capacity building including developing clinical academic career pathways for health and care professionals, working in partnership with 6 universities across Scotland.  She supervises 6 PhD students in 4 different institutions in nursing, learning disabilities, mental health and midwifery. 

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Margaret Maxwell is Professor of Health Services and Mental Health Research at the University of Stirling and took up the post of Director of the Chief Scientist Office funded Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Research Unit (NMAHP-RU) in October 2016. As Director of the NMAHP-RU, she has a long-standing interest in developing research capacity and capability within the NHS workforce to enable delivery of evidence-based care. She has been involved in health services research for over 30 years, focusing on quality and delivery of care and the management of long-term conditions and common mental health problems.

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Irene Oldfather is a former MSP and Chair of the Scottish Parliament European and External Affairs Committee. Now Director of Strategy and Engagement with ALLIANCE Scotland, she consults with a range of national and advisory bodies including the Health and Social Care Partners Group, the IHub Board, the Focus on Dementia Advisory Forum, and Living Well in Communities Board. She is also on the board of the Scottish Ambulance Service.

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Ken Sutherland is MD of Canon Medical Research Europe and Assistant to the Chief Technology Executive of Canon Medical in Japan. He serves on MRC’s Translational Research Group and is an advisor to EPSRC.

Ken studied Electronics and computer science at Edinburgh University and gained a PhD in image analysis and four years postdoctoral research experience in medical image analysis.

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Margaret is Head of Care and Well Being Innovation at the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre  with a focus on  supporting innovation in care and whole system working. She previously led the national Technology Enabled Care programme in Scotland since 2014 in partnership with the NHS, Local Government, Third, Housing and Independent sector providers which aimed to support at scale deployment in Scotland. She is active in  the European arena and wider international work.  

Margaret is a Trustee /Board member  of ENABLE Scotland and Hanover Housing Association.

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Anna has a BA in Music from Columbia University and an MSc in Music by Research from the University of Edinburgh. During her MSc, Anna worked on a project that explored the use of music in Edinburgh care homes. Her PhD is titled 'Exploring the pathways for music engagement in care homes'.

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Wanok has a BSc in Optometry from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and MSc in Primary Care Ophthalmology from The University of Edinburgh. He also has a Fellowship in Low Vision Rehabilitation from LV Prasad Eye Institute, India. He will use his knowledge and experience in optometry and low vision to explore the feasibility of using reading performance to monitor trends in visual and other physiological functionalities related to ageing.

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Eilidh completed her undergraduate degree in Philosophy at The University of Glasgow (2019). For her undergraduate dissertation she studied the issues with programming ethical codes into AI machines. Wanting to explore the relationship between technology and ethics further she went on to complete her masters in Digital Media and Culture at The University of Edinburgh (2020). Eilidh’s previous research in AI ethics and philosophy will help inform her research project where she will attempt to identify and resolve the ethical challenges with using AI to help assist older people within the community.