Eddie began his career as a social worker, later becoming Director of Care and Support within Adult Social Care at Sheffield City Council. He has worked in Lancashire and Cumbria in a range of managerial roles and during the flu pandemic was seconded to the Department of Health in London.

For nearly all his career, developing personalised services for older people has been central to his life and work. He has worked alongside a number of voluntary or private sector organisations seeking to plan, run and improve services in partnership with older citizens. Eddie has led on establishing amongst many others: the 50-plus congress and the expert elders network in Sheffield, along with a range of modern housing with care support services.

As Director of Care, he saw at first hand the benefits of the work of Action For Elders to older people in the projects run both within the council’s own directly managed resource centres and independent sector care homes. Eddie is keen to use his passion, knowledge and experience to assist Action for Elders grow and provide opportunities for older adults to sustain or improve their health and wellbeing.

Since his retirement in 2013, Eddie has become a keen photographer. He is also kept very busy with four grandchildren. He drives the lunch club minibus, helps out with a soup run for the homeless and is treasurer at his local church. In between, he and wife Sue like to escape in their touring caravan for some peace and quiet!

Contact: info@actionforelders.org.uk

Lesley worked for many years as a GP in a large practice in York. Over this period her interests enabled her to develop management experience and split time between both clinical and management roles. Lesley was clinical lead and founder member of the York Integrated Care Team; providing support for older people who fall between the service gaps. She built relationships and links between organisations who provided services in the community for older people. This included membership of boards offering Joined-Up Intermediate Services, Social Prescribing and Local Area Coordination. Lesley is also a trustee of York CVS.

Lesley retired in 2020 just before the pandemic, returning to work to support Covid vaccination and telephone services during this time. As a keen cyclist, she raises money for health related issues by doing endurance events (slowly!). A keen advocate of active later life, Lesley loves long distance walks and travelling in her camper van. She enjoys reading, films and has taken up yet another vocation by learning to paint during her retirement.

Contact: info@actionforelders.org.uk

 

Jackie is a Registered Nurse and Nurse Educator with over 36 years’ experience. She holds a first-class Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing Older Adults and Masters’ Degree in Education. With over 10 years’ practice, management and leadership experience in the NHS, Jackie assumed the role of Lead Specialist on the Assisted Living Innovation Platform at Innovate UK in 2008. These included the £37.1m Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale in 2010-2013 and the £7.6m Long Term Care Revolution National SBRI Challenge in 2013-2015. Between 2009 – 2015 Jackie was the UK’s representative on the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme, and a member of both the Contents Working Group as well as the AAL Forum Committee.

In September 2016 Jackie became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has earned an international reputation as an innovation strategist on ageing and is a respected speaker. She continues to redefine healthcare and later life in the UK as an unrelenting, unapologetic challenger of the status quo. Her research interests are sexuality and sexual health in later life. Jackie is the proud grandmother of three and still finds plenty of time to pursue her passion for making soft furnishings.

Contact: info@actionforelders.org.uk

Tika Malla is a Postdoctoral BBSRC Career Development Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at University of Oxford. Originally working on her Ph.D. in mechanistic interactions of antibiotics with a drug target for tuberculosis, she translated her work to target COVID-19 during the pandemic. She also worked as a Junior Dean, providing welfare and mental health support to both undergraduate and graduate students during her Ph.D. Along with her research, Tika is passionate about her community and the older population; including those who may not feel fully at home after moving to the UK. By joining Action for Elders, she wants to bring focus to marginalised older people, increasing the accessibility and reach of Action of Elders to support them.

At 30, Tika is our youngest board member and is sure to bring another dimension to our strategic planning and intergenerational work at Action for Elders.

Contact: info@actionforelders.org.uk

Paul is a Business Consultant within the NHS and has extensive experience of working in the Health and Social Care environment at both operational and strategic levels. He has worked at senior level positions within the NHS and has expertise in Programme & Project management and innovative business solutions with procurement, service re-design strategic planning, delivery and governance. Paul has also had responsibility for the successful procuring several large scale programmes ranging from clinical services to non-clinical services. Having the advantage of both aspects of commissioning and direct service delivery this has provided unparallel expertise within these areas to ensure that the services preserve quality while delivering the agreed outcomes.

Paul Provides consultancy to the Health Service on service developments with expertise in Service and strategic Management. He has written and published several articles on service re-design and operational issues and speaks at national conferences as a subject matter expert on health care development. He is closely involved in our project implementation and evidence base.