Page 95 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

Professor Laura Serrant

Professor of Nursing, Sheffield Hallam University

The past 12 months have been big for Laura. She was Science, Medicine & Engineering
among a select few nurses picked from all over the world to
participate in a Global Nurses Policy Leadership programme
with the International Council of Nurses. Just 26 other
nurses were selected for the programme at the end of 2017.
It’s the latest in a successful career that has seen her as
emerge as one of only six black nursing professors out of
more than 250 in the UK.
Throughout her career, Laura has not shied away from
supporting some of the more disadvantaged people in
society. Beginning her career as a nurse in the early 1990s,
she did outreach work with prostitutes, raised awareness
around HIV and AIDS, and supported the homeless and
those addicted to drugs and alcohol.
She is the Professor of Nursing in the Centre for Health
and Social Care Research at Sheffield Hallam and is chair
of the Chief Nursing Office for England’s BME Strategic
Advisory Group, and an ambassador for the Equality
Challenge Unit for Higher Education.
She has a long list of accolades to her name, including a
Fellowship of the Queens Nursing Institute for her leadership
in community nursing and the 2017 Florence Nightingale
research funding award. She was also appointed by the
Department of Health to the Prime Minister’s commission for
the Review of Nursing and Midwifery.
A specialist in areas such as health disparities, diversity
leadership, sexual health and transcultural issues in health
and wellbeing, she has published high-profile papers on
prostate cancer advocacy for black-Caribbean men and the
promotion of sexual health screening programmes, to name
a few.
Emeka Okaro She is also an ambassador for the Mary Seacole Memorial
Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Statue, a tribute to the Jamaican-born Crimean War nurse.

Emeka Okaro is Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist
at Barts Health NHS Trust, the largest NHS Trust in the UK.
A highly respected and sought-after gynaecologist, he
also has a private practice at the Hospital of St John and
Elizabeth in London. From 2011 to 2013 he was the Divisional
Director of Acute and Family Division where he managed a
£150m budget.
His client list is full of top names – celebrities,
businesswomen and government officials are among
his patients.
He has built a successful career specialising in
gynaecological ultrasound and is a certified diagnostic and
therapeutic Colposcopist, and Royal College of Obstetricians
and Gynaecologists accredited Minimal Access Surgeon.
He has played a big role in encouraging and supporting
students from BAME backgrounds to enter the field, is a
regular lecturer on the use of ultrasound in the
management of common gynaecological problems, and
has been published in a number of leading medical journals
and books.

powerful-media.com 85