Our Steering Group

Shera Chok – Co-Founder & Chair

Shera is a GP in East London and is the former Chief Medical Officer at NHS Digital. She is an experienced Medical Director and Chief Clinical Information Officer who has also held national leadership roles with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. She worked at Barts Health, the largest acute trust in the NHS at the time as Director of Primary Care for six years, helping to improve patient pathways across organisational boundaries. Shera started the award-winning Shuri Network in 2019 as she is passionate about increasing diversity, innovation and safety and to encourage other women from minority ethnic groups to lead and engage with digital transformation.

She has helped to develop and implement health policy as a national clinical advisor on new models of care and Integrated Care Systems with NHS England and advised ministers a member of the NHS Independent Reconfiguration Panel for seven years. She is a member of the Sciana Network for European health leaders, sponsored by the Health Foundation.

Shera has volunteered as a clinician in countries including Sudan, Laos, Indonesia and Greece with NGOs working in war and disaster zones and with displaced populations. She studied at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard School of Public Health, focusing on quality improvement, community engagement and leading change and was seconded by the NHS to work with Crossrail. She has completed an M.B.A., M.A. in Inter-professional Education and a Nuffield Trust Fellowship on cross-organisational learning with Sunderland Athletic Football Club.

Rafiah Badat

Rafiah Badat is Speech and Language Therapist at St George’s University Trust and a National Institute of Health Research clinical doctoral research fellow based at City University of London.  Her PhD explores the role of user co-design in digital therapy.  Rafiah was a 2018 NHS Digital Pioneer Fellow and is due to start a research fellowship at The Alan Turing Institute in January 2021.

Di Bullman

Di Bullman is the Lead for ‘Our Future Workforce’ in the Digital Readiness Education Programme at Health Education England. We are building a comprehensive professional landscape for specialists in digital, data, information and technology working in health and social care. Key work is supporting the establishment of the Federation for Informatics Professionals (FEDIP), the Faculty of Clinical Informatics and the Shuri Network, as well as developing professional standards, learning and development products, professional networks and career pathways.
She has an MSc in Workforce Development and Performance Management, is an Associate of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics and has worked in a wide range of workforce and organisational development roles in the NHS since 1990.

@Di.Bullman

Nadira Hussain

Director of Leadership Development & Research, Socitm

An experienced ICT and change management leader with 25+ years, Nadira has worked primarily in local government; leading the ICT service, managing wider teams including digital, business improvement, transformation and customer services. Nadira has implemented numerous complex change programmes across shared services to deliver new operating models, efficiencies and service improvement.

At Soctim, Nadira continues to focus on the work she initiated as president of the society (15/16), building the leadership, skills and diversity of the sector’s workforce. Her passion is to tackle inequality, promote professionalism, improve personal development opportunities and champion women role models. Currently she sits on workforce development advisory boards for HEE and FedIP. Her voluntary and charitable work includes; channel board member for Ada’s List, steering group member for the Shuri network and non-executive director for the #techmums board.

@nadirahussain44
www.socitm.net

Fiona McDonald

Eddie Olla

Eddie is the Regional Director for Digital Transformation at NHS Midlands. He joined the National Health Service (NHS) in 1988 and has worked as a clinician in secondary and primary care sectors. Eddie moved into the IT sector utilising his clinical knowledge and skills which has proved valuable in helping organisations to improve patient experience and increase the quality of care.

As a non-practicing clinician and digital expert, Eddie is enthusiastic about innovative technologies and their application in Healthcare. Eddie believes that clinicians have a key role to play in the delivery of digital, interoperable electronic health records, artificial intelligence and population health
management.

Eddie is a graduate of the NHS Leadership Academy Executive Directors programme and is passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion to address healthcare inequalities for patients and championing equality for all staff.

Ayesha Rahim

Dr Ayesha Rahim is a Chief Clinical Information Officer and Deputy Medical Director, and has worked in the NHS since 2003. She is a graduate of the first cohort of the NHS Digital Academy and is a member of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics. Her interests include clinical engagement in digital transformation, and the representation of BAME women in the digital health sphere.

She works clinically as a psychiatrist, and can be found on Twitter @AyeshaRahimCCIO

Tracey Thomas

Senior Project Manager currently working at NHS Digital
I am a grandmother, mother and Leader. Many years experience within a variety of local, regional and national roles within the NHS.

I specialise in programme and project management, leadership development, organisation development and patient, carer and service user involvement; putting patients at the heart of service delivery.