Announcing the 2022 Honorary Fellows

Dr Nick Brown 

Editor-In-Chief of Archives of Disease in Childhood

His diverse career has combined direct clinical care as a general paediatrician with academic clinical research, teaching, and editorship of the UK's leading peer-reviewed paediatric journal. He has a genuine international perspective: although trained in the UK, he has strong links to South Asia and other low and middle-income countries and has worked in many of them. 
 
As Editor-In-Chief of Archives of Disease in Childhood, he has used his exceptional intellect and knowledge of biostatistics and research methods to maintain the quality of the journal. 

His work as a paediatrician in the last 40 years has spanned countries from Sudan and Afghanistan, he also ran a number of specialist clinics in a small general hospital in the UK. In turn his linguistic skills in languages such as Swedish and Urdu have enhanced his ability to communicate effectively with children and parents. He has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications.

Professor Steven Clifford

Director, Newcastle University Centre for Cancer & Professor of Molecular Paediatric Oncology
 
Professor Clifford has dedicated his career to improving the outcomes of children with medulloblastoma, the commonest malignant brain tumour in childhood. He’s an internationally renowned scientist who has led on the implementation of scientific advances directly benefitting children with brain tumours by using appropriate risk stratified treatment. He was responsible not only for the routine use of centralised biological analysis in the United Kingdom but also across Europe.

He founded the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer and has led numerous other institutes and developed other Cancer Centres. In addition, he was one of the founding members of Children with Cancer in Malawi, a charity that not only raises money to pay for chemotherapy and nurses in the paediatric oncology unit in Blantyre Malawi but also provides practical support to the unit in Malawi. 

Professor Clifford has successfully bridged the gap between outstanding scientific breakthroughs and the ability to translate this directly for the benefit of children.

Ms Yvonne Coghill

Director for the Workforce Race Equality Implementation Team NHS London

Ms Coghill is currently Director for the Workforce Race Equality Implementation Team NHS London. She is also a member of faculty at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in the United States where she helped develop their inclusion strategy. Yvonne has delivered lectures on inclusion and diversity at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
 
Ms Coghill was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare in 2010 and was appointed to the position of Director for WRES implementation in June 2015. In 2018 Yvonne was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing, a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list, an honorary fellowship from Kings College University, honorary doctorates from both Middlesex and Buckinghamshire University alike.

Dr David Evans

Consultant Neonatologist at Southmead Hospital in Bristol

Dr Evans has been a Consultant Neonatologist at Southmead Hospital for over 20 years and has also played important roles in postgraduate medical education for many of these years. In helping to advance and strengthen medical education, David has made a significant contribution to the lives of trainees and consequently the children in their care.

During the last year, Dr Evans has worked to ensure paediatric training and trainee progression continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic. This has required providing reassuring guidance to trainees, adapting the ARCP progression criteria, and seeking approval from the regulatory bodies to adapt and deliver remotely RCPCH exams and assessments.

In the 2021 New Years Honours list, Dr Evans was awarded an MBE for services to Neonatology and Medical Education, particularly during COVID-19. Dr Evans has served the RCPCH in a number of roles, and up until 2021 held the position of Vice President for Training & Assessment.

Ms Kath Evans

Director of Children's Nursing, Barts Health NHS Trust

Ms Evans is a registered general and children’s nurse and her career has included clinical, educational, managerial and service improvement roles. She is committed to ensuring the voices of children, young people, families/carers and maternity service users are heard in their care and in the design, delivery and commissioning of services. She established educational programmes in NHS London across five trusts to support and retain newly qualified nurses and worked as a Lecturer at Middlesex University.
 
She has achieved a number of educational degrees including MSc (Nursing) PG Dip, ILM Accredited Coach amongst others. She has also published programmes of work in a range of formats.

Ms Evans is an active member of the Association of Chief Children’s Nurses (ACCN) and committed to innovation and collaboration to enhance health care services for Children, Young People and their families.

Professor Humayun Iqbal Khan

Head of the Pediatrics Department in Services Hospital Lahore

Professor Khan is a practising paediatrician in Lahore in a teaching hospital in Pakistan. He has been working as an oncologist and in academia for the last 30 years. He has been involved in developing oncology services in Pakistan and has written a text-book on cancers in children which is used both locally as well as internationally.

His published works led to a change in practice across multiple hospitals regarding the over-usage of antibiotics. This has reduced deaths in NNICUs in the country. Through his research over years Dr Khan revolutionised the Hep B & C awareness in the hospitals as well as in the community to improve guidelines and mortality in collaboration with Obstetrics teams.

Professor Khan has contributed to the safety and quality of healthcare provided to children. He holds two-three sessions every week for the under-privileged children whose parents cannot afford private practitioners and he also directs them for free investigations and treatment in his hospital.

Dr Michael Linney

Retired Consultant Paediatrician 

During the pandemic, Dr Linney ensured that children and young people were not forgotten; highlighting the impact of school closures and the harms faced by children not only from an educational standpoint, but also how schools can be considered a ‘safe place’ for some children. 

His work on determining the risk to children during the pandemic was instrumental in ensuring that children were able to go outside, see friends and attend school. This was referenced in a daily UK briefing which alluded to the College’s guidance on shielding. 

Dr Linney was a Consultant Paediatrician in respiratory medicine, leading a service providing care for children with complex illness and receiving long-term ventilation.

His position as Registrar for 2017-2021 saw him chair a number of committees, including CYP engagement, giving young people a voice, as well as Ethics and Law with aims to provide members with clear advice on issues such as therapeutic use of cannabis; and how to respond when parents and clinicians disagree.

Dame Mary Marsh

Past Chair of the Board of Trustees at RCPCH

Dame Marsh’s contribution to the College over her five years as Chair has been truly exceptional. She embedded the new governance structure that took effect in 2016; she has put large amounts of her time freely at the disposal of successive Presidents and CEOs; and she has always sought to put children and young people at the heart of what the College does. In addition, her wider contribution to child health in the UK has been exceptional: after a career as a teacher and head-teacher, she was CEO of the NSPCC from 2000-2008. She has also done much wider work in the charity and governance fields, including the recent establishment of a set of nationally-agreed Charity Ethical Principles.

Professor Mala Rao

Senior Clinical Fellow at Imperial College London

Professor Rao is a Senior Clinical Fellow at Imperial College London. She is the Medical Adviser to NHS England’s Workforce Race Equality Implementation Team and the Co-chair of the Race Equality Public Action Group. Mala has a career that has spanned public health practice, policy and research.

Professor Rao led the way in changing national immunisation policy for the childhood DPT Polio vaccinations and MMR. Mala’s review of the wellbeing in Black and Minority Ethnic populations in England was launched at the House of Lords in 2014 and led to the establishment of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Strategic (WRES) Advisory Group.

In 2013, Professor Rao was made an Officer of the British Empire by the Queen in 2013 for services to public health in the UK and overseas.

Professor Rao has spent many years supporting research and development projects in India, aimed at improving access to healthcare for those in poverty. She has strengthened the shared learning between England and developing countries.

Dr Robert Ross Russell

Director of Studies in Medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge

The establishment of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge an eight bed unit serving the whole of the East of England was thanks to Dr Russell. 

He also established a cystic fibrosis team, the focus of his work was on respiratory and cardiovascular function in children, with research interests in physiology, ethics and teaching. 

Dr Ross Russell is the Director of Studies in Medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and the Chair of the European Board of Paediatrics, the Paediatric section of the UEMS, which is responsible for overseeing training within all medical paediatric specialty groups across Europe.

Dr Ross Russell has encouraged discussion about paediatric training programs and the wish for high quality child care across European countries especially within the European Academy of Paediatrics and works as the RCPCH representative on the EAP. 

Dr Amanda Thomas

Retired Medical Director

The lasting legacy of her work is in the very demanding area of child protection. In her work as a community paediatrician based in Leeds, Dr Thomas developed a service in the colposcopic photo documentation of findings of child sexual abuse in Leeds. This has since become the gold standard for examination of children with suspected sexual abuse. As a staunch advocate for children’s rights, her belief that vulnerable children deserved the highest quality, evidence based practice to secure the best outcomes.
 
In her role as a paediatrician and then medical director, Dr Thomas established a pioneering follow-up service for children born to substance-abusing mothers. This became a model for a national pilot known as the National Children's Bureau.

Dr Thomas was active in the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, producing a UK National Guideline on testing, management and treatment. 

Internationally, Dr Thomas' work in child protection, particularly in the area of child sexual abuse and STIs spans countries and includes charities such as UNICEF. 

Professor Russell Viner

Professor of Adolescent Health at the UCL, Institute of Child Health

Professor of Adolescent Health at the UCL, Institute of Child Health, a paediatrician and adolescent physician working with young people with diabetes at the University College Hospital; Professor Viner also directs the Department of Health Obesity Policy Research Unit. 

He was also instrumental in leading the College’s effort of shaping the direction of the NHS Long Term Plan to ensure that the needs of the CYP were acknowledged. He holds the roles of Vice-Chair of the NHS England CYP Transformation Programme and Chair of NHS England’s CYP Stakeholder Council.

Professor Viner’s research focuses on population health, policy and health services for children and young people with a particular focus on obesity. He also has significant ‘hands-on’ experience within the NHS, having been Clinical Director in a busy teaching hospital and clinical director for children and young people for the NHS across London.

Professor Viner was an outstanding RCPCH President (2018-2021) leading the College during the tumultuous period of COVID-19.