Meet the Team of Health Literacy UK

We are a dedicated, close-knit team working on health literacy initiatives. Our small but passionate team is committed to advancing health literacy

Tania Cork is our current Chair. she has lived in North Staffordshire for most of my life. I studied at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and qualified as a pharmacist in 1994. As a pharmacist she has gained experience working for pharmacy multiples, independent pharmacies, academia, GP practices, hospital. During her career as a pharmacist she has completed a Diploma in Community Pharmacy, an MSc in Community Pharmacy and Doctorate in Pharmacy, at Keele University and a Post Grad Certificate in Medical Education at Cardiff University. In November 2008 I was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Local Pharmaceutical Committee and now spends her time split between the LPC role and as an academic pharmacist. Her specialist research is in relation the Health Literacy and the community pharmacy and identifying health literacy interventions for everyday use in community pharmacy using qualitative and consensus methodology.

Kirsten McCormick is an Academic Librarian at Glasgow Caledonian University. She helps students, staff and researchers to develop their information literacy skills. She has also worked in public and school libraries in Scotland, where librarians play an active role in the creation and distribution of health and care information. In her post at the Mitchell Library Kirsten worked closely with MacmIllan Cancer Support to collaborate on developing Glasgow Libraries’ Healthy Reading offer. She was also involved in Macmillan’s work with NHS Inform on the Cancer Zone website. She is committed to the role of libraries and librarians in making health literacy more visible and to building information skills into health literacy initiatives.

Jonathan Berry joined NHS England and Improvement in November 2015 where he was the national lead for Health Literacy and Shared Decision Making. He left his role there in June 2023 and now works independently advising organisations on how to implement Health Literacy and Shared Decision Making. Prior to this he worked in the voluntary sector for a national organisation which specialises in delivering Health Literacy programmes in deprived communities, raising practitioner awareness about the impacts of low Health Literacy, user testing health information with people who have lower levels of Health Literacy and lobbying policy makers to ensure that health literacy is central to health and other government policies.  He has an extensive health background which includes developing and project managing the development of the national Health Literacy Programme, Skilled for Health, on behalf of the Department of Health and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Before that, he worked in the NHS for 10 years where, among other things, he introduced a PALS service and an Expert Patient Programme.  He background is in policy development, implementing policy, partnership working, quality improvement, change management, project management, training and advocacy. He has an MA in Applied Health Studies and was recently trained in Motivational Interviewing.

Joanne Protheroe -§ Professor Jo Protheroe has been a practising General Practitioner for over 25 years and has worked in various academic and research capacities, before joining Keele University in 2011. She was appointed as Professor of General Practice in Keele Medical School in 2017, where she is Director of General Practice Education and is the Director of Integrated Clinical Academic training for Keele. As Director of General Practice Education,sheleads the multidisciplinary team responsible for delivery of the GP content of the curriculum, including over 19 weeks of GP Placement activity over 5 years. As Director of Clinical Academic Training, she oversees a programme of NIHR funded research training for doctors in training in multiple specialties.She is a national expert in the field of Health Literacy and continues to practise as a GP, a role which fuels her research in health literacy and patient participation in their health, especially those in disadvantaged groups.

Gill Rowlands -Gill Rowlands is a Professor of Primary Care at Newcastle University, UK. Her research interests are the role of health literacy in health, the role of General Practice in addressing the problems faced by patients with lower health literacy, and the development of policy. She founded the Health Literacy UK group, and chairs the IUHPE Global Working Group on Health Literacy. She has over 80 peer-reviewed publications and six book chapters, and has co-edited two books.  

Mike Oliver -Mike is a registered Health Psychologist and Chartered Psychologist.  He is passionate about supporting health and care organisations to become more health literate in supporting their service users and patients. Before training as a Health Psychologist, Mike worked in the corporate sector.  He specialised in organisational change, creative thinking and facilitation.  He combines this experience with health literacy expertise to help NHS Trusts, Local Authorities and community groups on their health literacy journeys. In addition to his health literacy work, Mike applies his skills as a health psychologist in the areas of sleep and mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.  He also lectures at various universities and is a Visiting Fellow at Staffordshire University.

Anne McCuster – Anne is Programme Manager with Belfast Healthy Cities, currently leading the development of the Health Literacy programme as part of Belfast’s work as a member of WHO European Healthy Cities Network. This work includes leading development of a school’s resource to raise awareness of community pharmacy services with primary school children and delivering health literacy training to health professionals in Northern Ireland.  Anne also supports the Greening the City, Health Inequalities and Healthy Ageing programmes, recent work includes the Reducing Inequalities: Getting Results Flagship Training Programme and development of the Walkability Assessment for Healthy Ageing tool.

Mandy Wardle-McLeish