Our team

Our team helps coordinate and support activity across our partnership, working closely with colleagues in our partner organisations to drive delivery of our vision and mission.

Dr Stephen Thomas, Joint Director                                              

Stephen in a clinical leader across diabetes, endocrinology and obesity at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (NHS FT) and has a strong understanding of the local system, having previously been a consultant at King’s College Hospital and an academic lecturer and academic research fellow in Diabetes & Endocrinology. 

Stephen’s clinical work focussed on looking after those with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who need extra specialist input and cares from people in internal medicine in an inpatient setting. Stephen is also a Clinical Director at the Trust and manages two busy directorates which focus on both outpatient and inpatient care, as well as a number of support functions.

Stephen is also the Clinical Director of the London Diabetes Clinical Network (NHS England, London Region), overseeing transformation and improvement across the capital to improve outcomes and reduce variation in care for people with diabetes. He was previously also the diabetes and long-term condition lead for Healthcare for London.

Dr Gavin Bewick, Joint Director

Gavin has a well-established reputation within the field of diabetes and obesity research built over the last 20 years and is an experienced leader within KCL. His current theme lead role focuses on research strategy within SCMMS, an area also identified as a priority for the DEO Clinical Academic Partnership. Gavin has also been a driving force behind the research and innovations workstream within DEO.

A key current interest of the Bewick lab is the role of the gut epithelium in the control of metabolism and the pathophysiology of diabetes and obesity. His lab is exploring the role of diet, the microbiome and immune signalling in shaping the gut epithelium in health and disease. The lab is also exploring how gut hormones can be targeted to prevent or treat Type 1 Diabetes. The lab used both pre-clinical and translational approaches encompassing methods ranging from organoid culture to single-cell transcriptomics to physiological studies.

Dr Sophie Harris, Joint Director 

Sophie is a Diabetes Consultant and Clinical Lead for Diabetes at King’s College Hospital NHS FT, alongside her role as Deputy Clinical Director of Diabetes at the South London Health Innovation Network (HIN). Her role within the HIN gives her insight into current innovation and implementation priorities across South London. She has leadership roles within the NHSEI London clinical network for diabetes and has recently taken on national responsibilities, including chairing a Get It Right First Time (GIRFT) diabetes at the front door working group and leading a project for NHS England looking at user experience and outcomes in diabetes.

Her previous research investigated reasons for inequalities in uptake of self-management education in people with type 1 diabetes in South London. The findings of this PhD supported a successful application for NHS England transformation funding and the subsequent development and implementation of a diabetes booking platform across South London.

Sophie is a research active clinician with a strong understanding of the priorities within KCL, and a passion for addressing health inequalities in service access and delivery. Her specific interests are around digital health, improvement and implementation, self-care, patient education and empowerment, including peer- support strategies. With specific clinical interest in Type 1 diabetes, diabetes and eating disorders and diabetes in pregnancy.

Dr Shubulade (Lade) Smith, Joint Director

Dr Lade Smith is a consultant psychiatrist and Clinical Director for the Forensic Service at the South London and Maudsley NHS FT. She is also a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London and Clinical Director at the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH).

She was awarded a CBE for services to forensic psychiatric intensive care in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019.She is Joint Presidential Lead for Race Equality at the Royal College of Psychiatrist. Alongside significant leadership experience, she has a strong academic focus and continues to do research at the IoPPN. She is also a clinical supervisor and trainer for junior psychiatrists from Guy's, King's, and St Thomas’ (GKT) Medical School, and teaches regularly on the DClinpsy and MRCPsych courses.

Shubulade was voted a BMA pioneering consultant and nominated as a Woman of the Year in 2002 for the development of her ‘One Stop Shop’, a medication review and physical monitoring clinic for people with mental health problems. She is known nationally and internationally for her work in the hormonal and reproductive effects of antipsychotic medications. Shubulade was responsible for some of the key sections in the influential ‘The Abandoned Illness’ report of the Schizophrenia Commission. More recently she was a key contributor to the Independent Mental Health Act Review, chaired by Professor Sir Simon Wessely. She led the Criminal Justice System topic group, and sat on the core working group, evidence review group and the African and Caribbean working group.

Ms Helen Kelsall, Joint Director

Helen is Deputy Chief Nursing Officer at South London and the Maudsley NHS FT. She is also an active member of the research and development team at the Trust which works to ensure the co-ordination and delivery of several clinical research studies within the Trust, including clinical, academic, and commercial research.

Helen has worked across acute, mental health and community services, clinically and within leadership positions at NHS Foundation Trusts.  Prior to her current role, Helen was the Divisional Director of Nursing responsible for Acute and Emergency Medicine, Medical speciality Inpatient Services, Palliative care, and Cancer services, as well as a diverse number of Clinical Nurse Specialists, Advanced Nurse and Assistant Clinical Practitioners at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust.

She is currently responsible for the development and maintenance of professional standards across the Trust, contributing to strategic planning for the Trust as part of the Senior Nursing Leadership Team. Helen has experience in the delivery of both current and previous Trust’s strategic ambitions and quality priorities, including authoring and delivering Chelsea and Westminster 2020 – 2025 dementia clinical strategy. She co-led on the rapid redesign of non-elective patient pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic, having recognised a need for significant safe-service redesign. Helen leads on behalf of Nursing for the delivery of the South London and Maudsley NHS FT for Physical Health Care has a strong understanding of the local population but is also well connected with approaches to quality nationally.

Prof Emma Duncan, Joint Director

Emma is a Professor of Clinical Endocrinology at King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Physician at Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS FT. She is a specialist in endocrinology, with special interest in bone and neuroendocrine disease. She also holds roles as Professor of Medicine (honorary) at the University of Queensland and Adjunct Professor within the Faculty of Health at Queensland University of Technology. 

Emma is a highly experienced researcher and clinical research leader, who has led on both basic and clinical research studies across diverse areas of endocrinology. She has held many elected leadership positions within professional societies, contributing to leadership and governance nationally and internationally, previously serving as President of the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society, and currently serving as Councillor for the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research and Associate Editor for the Journal for Bone and Mineral Research and Endocrine Reviews. 

Emma’s main area of work is Bone and skeletal dysplasias, and common and rare genetics. Her research spans the genetics of many endocrine disorders, from common variant to rare monogenic diseases, publishing multiple high-impact papers interrogating genetics of osteoporosis and skeletal dysplasias, MODY [maturity- onset diabetes of the young], and phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas. Prof Duncan’s practical experience in gene mapping includes genetic epidemiology, linkage, genome-wide association studies, and massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technologies; and she has played a pioneering role in the translation of genetic technologies (such as high- throughput microarray genotyping and massively parallel sequencing) into clinical practice. Recently, she has contributed to COVID-19 research, particularly COVID-19 in children; and she co-leads the KCL COVID Symptom Study Biobank with particular focus on interrogating the genetics of the post-COVID syndrome. 

Michelle Martin, Programme Director (Maternity Cover)

Michelle joined DEO as our (interim) Programme Director in May 2022 where she leads DEO’s programme to ensure the delivery of its overall vision and mission.

Michelle has more than 25 years’ experience as a clinician and healthcare manager, 20 of these being within the private and public healthcare market within the UK. She has specialist expertise in strategic business and relationship development, clinician engagement and consultant relations, and strategic partner joint ventures of various structures. She has been instrumental in completing complex healthcare projects including tender processes, bid management and healthcare acquisitions and assimilation or transition of new facilities into existing organisations. Specifically, she has extensive experience of the development and implementation of successful private and NHS and other commercial joint ventures.

Alongside her role as DEO Programme Director, Michelle is also the current Director for Partnerships and Programmes for King’s Health Partners.

Sofie McEnery Ball, Programme Lead

Sofie joined King’s Health Partners Diabetes, Endocrinology & Obesity (KHP DEO) in July 2022, taking on the role of Programme Lead.

Sofie is experienced in strategic planning, national policy development, and service commissioning and delivery, having worked within health at a local and national level and in both UK and US health systems. She has spent time working as the National Programme Lead for childhood obesity and the National Child Measurement Programme at the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly Public Health England) within the Department of Health and Social Care, and as the Regional Strategic Lead for obesity, nutrition, and prediabetes at Southern California Kaiser Permanente.

Sofie is an experienced public health professional and a Registered Public Health Nutritionist (RNutr) with the Association for Nutrition.

Rosie Thistlethwayte, Programme Manager

Rosie joined the KHP Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity team in September 2022 as a programme manager. She is the team lead for diabetes and programme management lead for the One Team Clinical Transformation workstream. She also works on the integration of mental and physical health in the context of diabetes.

Prior to joining the team, Rosie completed the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme, working as a service manager and then as project manager at Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust , and as an executive officer at the Department of Health and Social Care. She has delivered a range of operational and strategic projects. These include the introduction of video appointments, the set-up of COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinics, and the introduction of a new paediatric complex obesity service.

She is a registered PRINCE2 Practitioner and has recently completed a masters in the Control of Infectious Diseases.

Isabel Rockingham, Programme Manager

Isabel joined the KHP DEO team in November 2022 as a Programme Manager. She is the team lead for obesity and programme team lead for the One Team Education and Training workstream. She also contributes to the KHP work on Population Health from an obesity perspective. 

Before joining KHP, Isabel completed the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme (GMTS) and held multiple operational and strategic roles in a range of settings. She has experience of primary care commissioning at place and national levels and has led on projects relating to health inequalities, COVID-19 vaccinations, and remote monitoring. At system level, Isabel worked as an Integrated Care System Programme Development Manager, overseeing the successful merging of three Clinical Commissioning Groups into an Integrated Care Board, and producing an organisational strategy for engaging with people and communities. 

Isabel also contributed to quality improvement projects during her time in a Big four consulting firm and led transformation initiatives alongside her operational management responsibilities as Service Support Manager at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Jake Lawler, Project Manager

Jake joined the team in July 2022 and is managing projects across both the Neurosciences and DEO Clinical Academic Partnerships. He is supporting the Research and Innovation workstream within the One Team programme, the Diabetes workstream in the international Health Outcomes Observatory (H20) project, and KHP Patient & Public Engagement initiative.

Jake is a registered nurse and has management experience across NHS and private healthcare settings, including acting as a CQC Registered Manager. He has delivered operational projects including development of training and clinical competency practices, implementing electronic patient records, authoring published patient resources and improving referral triage processes in the community.

Prior to joining KHP, Jake was a Lead Analyst on the Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Apollo Programme Deployment Team and led the electronic health record configuration strategy for adult and children’s community nursing services across Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts

Juliana Stainforth, Project Manager

Juliana joined KHP DEO as a Project Manager in July 2022. Her role entails providing support and management to several projects, including supporting the co-development of a Mental Health Strategy for Diabetes. This includes working alongside our partners to set out our priorities for the next three years. Juliana is also the Communications Lead for DEO and is responsible for producing the quarterly newsletter and sharing DEO news and achievements on social media. 

Juliana has previous experience working in both the private and public health sectors. Prior to joining DEO, Juliana worked for KHP as an Executive Assistant for the Neurosciences and Haematology Clinical Academic Partnerships. She has also worked in medical assistance on a government contract managing the healthcare of diplomats posted overseas.

Juliana is also a Project Manager for KHP Neurosciences Clinical Academic Partnership.

Evegnia Kovryga (Education & Training Project Support Officer - Interim)

Evgenia initially joined KHP Women and Children’s Health in November 2021 as maternity cover to support and facilitate Education and Training programmes. Since January 2022 she has also joined KHP DEO assisting the team with One Team Education & Training priority areas. Evgenia’s professional experience sits predominantly in Higher Education with various responsibilities across Academic Development and Services, Admissions, PG, PhD and Research Support and Quality Assurance.  As a recent MA Advance Theatre Practice graduate, Evgenia also brings a creative background and experience in production to DEO.

Ann Pun, Project Support Officer

Anna has joined KHP DEO as a project support officer to provide programme support to the DEO Programme Board and the One Team Oversight Group. She also supports and helps manage the Obesity Working Group with Professor Barbara McGowan, a Lancet Commission piece with Professor Francesco Rubino, and the HARPdoc project. Anna also works for KHP Women and Children’s Health.

Anna has previously worked as research assistant at the University of Bath, where she investigated the efficacy of alcohol calorie labelling on perceived behaviour change. She has also worked on bank as a senior project support officer at RM Partners, a West London Cancer Alliance, where she supported the Research and Innovation workstream.

Ross Yates, Project Manager

Ross is posted with KHP as part of the civil service project delivery fast stream. His first role on the fast stream was a 12-month posting in HMRC, working as a project manager on a Data Transformation programme. Prior to starting the fast stream, Ross completed a degree in Business and Economics. As part of a year in industry during degree, he had a role as a procurement analyst in the private sector. 

Ross has been posted to KHP on a six-month secondment as a project manager. He will be leading and supporting on a range of projects across DEO. Some examples include the creation of a CBT diabetes module at KCL and the Diabetes Transition & Young Adult Care Pilot in Southwark and Lambeth. 

To get in touch with the Institute and learn more about our work, please email deo@kcl.ac.uk.