Our faculty
The HLA Team
The HLA is run by a team of volunteers from a huge array of backgrounds and specialities. They are here to mentor and help our scholars, as well as run sessions during the cohort contact days.
Johann Malawana - Managing Director of the HLA
Johann has been in leadership roles for more than 15 years. He founded The HLA to address many issues he faced and witnessed in his career. Johann wanted to create focus and attention on developing students and professionals earlier in their careers. The HLA intends to support these individuals so they can take up leadership roles more confidently and improve the health systems they are part of.
Johann is best known as the former chair of the Junior Doctors Committee of the British Medical Association. However, he has held a variety of roles over 15 years.
Johann was a former President of Barts and The London Students’ Association, a former University of London Medical Students’ Officer at ULU and the founding Editor of The Medical Student. Following the crisis caused by Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) via Medical Training Application System (MTAS) in March 2007, Johann took over the Education and Training portfolio at the BMA in September 2007. He was responsible for a lot of detailed negotiations around the education and training environment in medicine for the next three years till 2010. He was credited with a lot of initiatives that improved the working and educational lives of junior doctors. He was responsible for designing the first Interdeanery Transfer System and negotiated for it to be implemented in every Deanery in the UK.
As a result of all this, Johann developed a strong representative and leadership reputation and was appointed to the boards of both the General Medical Council and the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board. He undertook a lot of work on both boards to ensure the voices of medical students and junior doctors were heard. Johann served as an advisor on several reviews of the medical education environment with a strong belief in the need for strong medical leadership and the power of young doctors and medical students to be a force for good in the NHS. Many of the engagement strategies developed for these reviews were a direct result of the work Johann undertook.
Through the Healthcare Leadership Academy, Johann hopes that leadership truly has a chance to be explored with people who are interested in understanding how to promote leadership in Healthcare.
George Miller - Director-General of the HLA
George is an Imperial Public Health Registrar and Emergency Medicine Doctor. As Director-General, he takes responsibility for the day-to-day running of the HLA, as well as separately chairing the HLA Research Collaborative. He is also an Honorary University Lecturer, a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, a lead for the Intermediate Leadership Programme and a Senior Manager at Medics.Academy.
He was one of the top scoring applicants for the AFP, CST and Public Health Training across the country, and has since presented national courses on ‘Success in Medical School’, ‘Preparing for the AFP’ and ‘Preparing for the PSA’. He is currently conducting policy research at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford.
Melody Redman - Clinical Genetics Registrar
Melody is currently a Clinical Genetics Registrar in Yorkshire, having previously completed a Leadership Fellow in Child Health Workforce Planning and an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Paediatrics. She has held several roles within the British Medical Association as a medical student and as a junior doctor, including having chaired two subcommittees. Her roles in this capacity have involved working on education and training, medico-political issues, and matters of scientific interest. She is also a CQC Specialist Advisor, and sits on the Board of Directors of Integritas Healthcare, which provides offender healthcare to vulnerable populations. Melody has engaged with national, regional and local media, in addition to producing blogs, mainly around medical issues.
Ali Jawad - Associate Course Director and NHS Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneur Fellow
Ali is currently a junior doctor in north-west London and an NHS Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneur Fellow as part of the first ever cohort under the National Clinical Director for Innovation at NHS England. He has a background in graphic design, innovation, charities, management, and education. He regularly gives talks on innovation in medical education and has presented his research internationally.
He continues to teach locally and also leads a national teaching course for medical students. Currently he is developing a student selected component for students at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry encouraging students to innovate in the healthcare field.
Derek Gallen - Emeritus Professor
Derek is the Postgraduate Dean in England and Wales. His main role is to facilitate the research interests of the deanery team around educational standards and introduce medical education to the generic curriculum of all trainees. As National Director of the UK Foundation Programme, he currently oversees the programme for the UK and was instrumental in securing initial funding. Derek was Chair of COPMeD (Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans of the United Kingdom). He has developed many new innovative training schemes for junior doctors in academic medicine and leadership.
He is President and a founding member of the Academy of Medical Educators (ASME), helping to raise the profile and standards of medical education across the UK.
Arrash Yassaee - Academic Paediatrics and Clinical Director, Huma
Arrash is an academic paediatric trainee in London and Clinical Director for Europe’s fastest growing technology company, with extensive policy experience with national and international organisations. He spent a year on the executive board of the NHS seven day services programme, has been involved in national contract negotiations, and has also contributed to various NHSE, DHSC, and international strategies including on child obesity, CAMHS, and substance use.
Much of his recent work focuses on the workforce. Following chairing roles at the BMA and RCP, Arrash published national guidance on junior doctor engagement and leadership with FMLM, before returning to NHS England to drive a number of time-critical national workforce projects as part of the Covid recovery efforts.
Arrash is also interested in healthcare finance, corporate governance and the business side of healthcare, completing his MBA in 2021. In recognition of his achievements was awarded a founding fellowship with FMLM in 2018, the youngest individual to have achieved this at the time.
“My role on the Faculty has offered me the privilege to work closely with some of the best and brightest future leaders and guide them through early, critical stages of their development. Now, I am now leading HLA:Think, the Healthcare Leadership Academy’s policy offering to our community and the wider system. We want to give early career professionals the platform to shape the wider healthcare conversations and have similar development opportunities that I was fortunate enough to have early in my career.” -Arrash Yassaee
Colby Benari - Head of the Academic Careers Office, University College London
Colby has over a decade of experience supporting biomedical researchers and clinicians to find mentors, win funding and develop their careers. As Head of the Academic Careers Office, University College London, Colby is responsible for developing the careers of over 5,000 graduate students and many more postdoctoral biomedical researchers through innovative and impactful programmes. Colby has previously managed research funding schemes and mentoring schemes for Cancer Research UK and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.
Colby also delivers soft skills training (such as networking, mentoring and building an entrepreneurial mindset) to researchers and clinicians on a freelance basis.
“I have the pleasure of delivering a session on networking in an academic environment to the HLA Scholars. In the workshop we discuss how you can network well without being aggressive or ‘alpha’. We go through practical tips and tricks that I have learned over the last decade and we troubleshoot common networking problems.” – Colby Benari
Tom Dolphin - Consultant Anaesthetist
Tom is an anaesthetist based in London and was formerly Chair of the BMA’s UK Junior Doctors Committee and contract negotiator for the BMA. Long before that, Tom was a sabbatical student president at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry for two years.
“I am a mentor for two HLA scholars. I also review material for the educational modules and have been invited to be a panel member for one of the HLA events at the House of Lord.” – Tom Dolphin
Tom Foley - Senior Clinical Lead for Data, NHS Digital
Tom specialises as a child and adolescent psychiatrist and has degrees in software engineering, economics and public policy. Since working as a full-time management consultant with PwC and BDO, Tom has spent time in clinical practice, academia and consultancy. He conducts reviews on healthcare policy issues and has held operational positions with the Care Quality Commission and Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. He has also held a range of committee and associate positions with Monitor, British Medical Association, Royal College of Psychiatrists and General Medical Council.
Julian Archer - Executive General Manager Education & Professor in Medical Education Research
Julian has been funded by NIHR for 9 years as a member of the Faculty to undertake medical education research. He established and directed CAMERA at the University of Plymouth – one of Europe’s largest med-ed research groups. Julian has also Led a UK-wide research study into the impacts of medical revalidation and has been appointed the new ‘Director of Education’ at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Matthew Prior - Subspecialty Trainee in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery
Matt was Chair of RCOG Trainees’ Committee during the junior doctors’ contract dispute and co-founded the national trainee research collaborative UK-ARCOG.
“I am a HLA faculty member and I deliver sessions on leadership roles for junior doctors, presentation and debating skills. I am also a mentor for HLA scholars.” – Matthew Prior
Roshana Mehdian - Orthopaedic Registrar and Trade Advisor
Roshana is an Orthopaedic Registrar in south London, who champions less than full-time working.
“As a founding member of the HLA, it is incredible to see what HLA has become. From just an idea to unite the creativity and potential in our profession to a full scale international operation. I have really enjoyed teaching at the group sessions, chairing at the conference and mentoring my scholars. It gives me great hope for the future of our profession” – Roshana Mehdian
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Jahangir (Jingy) Alom - Junior Doctor
Jahangir is a Junior Doctor in the Midlands. He graduated with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Medical School at the University of Southampton. Whilst he was there he was the MedSoc President and a co-founder of an award-winning widening participation initiative. Outside of his clinical career, Jahangir lobby’s widening participation policy to key stakeholders such as Health Education England and the Medical Schools Council.
Jahangir was a founding scholar at the HLA. After completing his scholarship he continued to stay involved with the HLA by mentoring new scholars and most recently delivering the campaigning stream of the scholarship. Having benefited from the scholarship, Jahangir felt it was only right to contribute to the programme himself. Being a faculty tutor means he will work closely with new scholars to develop their skills and implement their projects.
“HLA Scholars are like-minded passionate people. They come together to create a supportive and collaborative platform. Together they can achieve high impact projects that take international coverage.” -Jahangir (Jingy) Alom
Adam Williams - Consultant Neurosurgeon and Director of ASiT
I followed a pretty standard training for Neurosurgery, with pre-CCT training in the Severn Deanery (Bristol) and then a fellowship in endoscopic pituitary and skull base neurosurgery in Oxford. This was, however, supplemented by a number of leadership roles within The Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) culminating as Director and President. This was unquestionably the highlight of my training and left me with a deep-seated drive to help young trainees develop into great clinicians and great leaders.
“Leadership can be innate, can be thrust-upon people, and can be learned. However, the latter is often poorly delivered to trainees and yet critical throughout their careers. In my view, the HLA was undoubtedly the best example of early-year leadership training. Who wouldn’t want to be involved!? It is a fantastic opportunity to pass on some of the leadership skills I have learned through trial and error, but rather selfishly, I find it inspiring to meet so many dynamic trainees who have amazingly broad skill sets – and will go on to achieve far more than I ever will! It is universally positive! I have found it to be much more of a partnership than a mentorship. We learn from each other”– Adam Williams
Dina Saleh - Internal Medicine Trainee
Dina is an Internal Medicine Trainee doctor based in London with an interest in oncology. She graduated from Imperial College London in 2018 and completed her academic foundation year programme training in North Central London. Her interest in leadership stemmed from her year at the Imperial College Business School where she intercalated in the Management BSc degree. Dina was heavily involved in leadership roles throughout her time both during and after university. She was also awarded multiple prizes for both her outstanding contribution to the life of medical school and her academic results.
She was one of the founding scholars in the first pilot of the Healthcare Leadership Academy in 2016. Following this, she designed and developed The Healthcare Leadership Academy Mentoring Programme for future scholars.
“The best thing about being involved in the HLA is to be introduced to a community of driven, like-minded and passionate people doing incredibly inspiring things at all stages of training. I am lucky to have brilliant mentors through the HLA and was excited to set up a programme to ensure future scholars can benefit and share my experience.” – Dina Saleh
Soham Bandyopadhyay - Cohort Director
A UK-based academic doctor with interests in neuroscience, global surgery, and medical education. He is an educational and research mentor for students internationally. Having held leadership positions in a number of national and international organisations, he joined the HLA as a cohort director in 2021.
Felix Torrance - Cohort Director
Felix is a doctor based in Australia with an interest in Global Health and Health Inequalities. He previously graduated from Newcastle University and completed the Foundation Programme in Edinburgh. Felix joined the HLA in the toon in 2019 and became the cohort director of our first Scottish cohort of scholars in Edinburgh in 2020. His interest in Global Health stems from his Masters through Research in Global Health and his elective, which saw him spend time in The Gambia and Zambia respectively and he hopes to work for humanitarian aid organisations in the future.
Felix also loves teaching, and this is reflected in his HLA project which was a guide created to help interim FY doctors during the COVID pandemic, written and peer-reviewed by other junior doctors. He is the lead of the Core Principles in Healthcare Leadership module at UCLan.
Carina Dowson - Newcastle Cohort Director, WIHL Network Lead
Carina is an Acute Medicine Consultant and Clinical Lead at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation trust. Originally an HLA scholar in 2019, she is currently a cohort director for Newcastle and the network lead of the Women in Healthcare Leadership (WIHL).
She is passionate about improving flexible and LTFT working, focusing on this during her MSc in Medical Leadership and setting up the HEENE LTFT forum, which continues to aim to improve LTFT training across all specialties in the North East.
Carina is also an Honorary Clinical Tutor for UCLAN, teaching on the Core Principles of Healthcare Leadership PGCert module.
Jack Haywood - Belfast Cohort Co-Director
Jack is a Public Health Registrar based in London, with an interest in sustainable development delivering health co-benefits and equitable access to HIV and sexual health services.
He joined the HLA in 2016 as a Scholar in the inaugural cohort whilst Vice President of King’s College London Student’s Union. Jack went on to complete the Academic Foundation Programme in medical education. This facilitated his involvement in a national project evaluating psychiatry placements in the Foundation Programme. He also commenced an MSc in Global Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Jack has more recently worked in Belfast for two years where he became the Co-Director of the first Belfast HLA cohort in 2020.
Yamen Jabr - Newcastle Cohort Co-Director
Yamen is a cohort co-director for Newcastle and a core surgical trainee based in the North West with an interest in orthoplastic surgery and medical education, the latter of which was expanded upon during his role as a scholar in 2020 while working as a clinical teaching fellow. His passion for improving access to educational opportunities served as the theme behind his project to support socioeconomically disadvantaged students in London aspiring to apply to and enter medical school.
As a medical student, he worked with several organisations including the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations from 2011-2016 and participated in the WHO’s World Health Assembly as a youth delegate.
He aims to combine his clinical interests with effective and sustainable leadership within the NHS in the future, supported by currently working towards an MSc in Healthcare Leadership.
In his free time, he enjoys swimming, cycling and eating everything Italian!
Ilse Blomberg - Junior doctor
Ilse is a doctor based in The Netherlands with a special interest in education, geriatrics and medical-political-societal issues. She has been a scholar in the third London cohort, travelling back and forth from Amsterdam. Together with fellow HLA scholars Jim and Emma, she started the first international cohort in Amsterdam. Since then she has been involved in the HLA as cohort director, organizer of HLA Café and the first virtual introduction day of 2020. She is also responsible for the personal development of the (assistant) cohort directors.
As a medical student, Ilse has been extensively active in student representation within the medical faculty and central university student council of the University of Amsterdam. She is currently working towards a career within the field of geriatrics, elderly care or general practice. Within the challenges of our ageing population, she aims to make a positive impact on a sustainable future of the Dutch healthcare system, while improving the quality of care for the elderly.
Kieran Robinson - Cohort Director & Paramedic
Kieran is a Senior Paramedic based in the East of England. He first developed an interest in Leadership through his role as an Area Manager for St John Ambulance. After completing his HLA scholar year, Kieran has been Assistant Director of the Newcastle cohort and this year is Cohort Director of one of our London cohorts.
Quality Improvement and Change Management are some of Kieran’s interests and he is involved with a project to provide feedback to ambulance staff on the clinical decisions they make to allow for reflective practice.
Kieran attended Edinburgh University to complete his MSc in Critical Care and hopes to complete additional clinical training to become a Critical Care Paramedic with an Air Ambulance service before taking on further clinical leadership roles in the workplace. Kieran currently works for a private ambulance service as a Clinical Team Educator, helping to develop future ambulance clinicians.
Felyx Wong - Assistant Director, Recruitment
Felyx completed his HLA scholarship year during medical school and is currently involved in overseeing the recruitment process for the HLA. He really enjoys teaching and is involved in several initiatives which aim to provide more training and practice in teaching skills for early years medical students.
Alex Lee - London Cohort Director
Alex is a Doctor based in the East of England with a background in legal practice holding a first-class degree in Law. He holds numerous awards/prizes in leadership, management and education. Alex joined as a Cohort Director after completing the HLA scholar programme.
His interests encompass creating a culture of systemic change including inter alia sustainable working patterns, reducing the tick-box culture in medical career progression, and encouraging realistic patient attitudes towards healthcare. Alex’s work in health policy has led to working with previous NHS CEOs to inform the Long Term Plan 2019.
Alex’s views are often made known on Twitter (@Aleexxies).
Ilaf Moslawy - Cohort Director
Ilaf is a student doctor in her final year at the University of Southampton with an interest in trauma & orthopaedic surgery, staff wellbeing, sustainable healthcare, quality improvement, and global surgery.
Ilaf joined the HLA in 2020 as a scholar in the Amsterdam Cohort and now leads the Amsterdam Virtual Cohort. Ilaf is continuing her HLA project called ‘Medics4Medics’ with a team of fellow medical students introducing a peer support programme that aims to nurture a supportive community, challenge mental health stigma, and encourage self-referral in the medical community at Southampton Medical School.
Ilaf has completed an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development at SOAS, University of London and wants to pursue a career in global surgery with humanitarian organisations. Ilaf is also an In2MedSchool mentor providing free 1-to-1 mentoring for students from widening participation backgrounds aspiring to study Medicine.
Outside of medicine, Ilaf enjoys swimming, cycling, yoga, and cooking, and is currently learning Spanish.
Asha Thomson - Cohort Director
Asha is an unconventional portfolio dentist who holds formal roles within surgery, education and leadership and has a passion for authentic and compassionate leadership.
Asha joined The Healthcare Leadership Academy as a London scholar in the 2019-2020 programme where she was able to develop her passion for Global and Oral Health. She is now a cohort director for the London Cohort and is
passionate to encourage authenticity and compassion within leadership.
Asha holds a formal role as a Speciality Dentist in Oral Maxillofacial Surgery where she is a singly qualified speciality doctor currently undertaking her postgraduate medical degree at Barts and The London (Queen Mary’s)
University. She teaches undergraduate dental students at Kings College, London where she is a Senior Clinical Teacher in Oral Surgery and holds a leadership role with NHSE/I and the Local Dental Networks in East of England
as a Senior Leadership Fellow where she supports the Local Dental Network chair in East Anglia and has led on multiple regional projects to improve recruitment and retention in areas of unmet need and urgent access to dental care, this includes the Assistant Dentist Integrated Care Pilot
Programme which was published in the British Dental Journal in 2021. She also holds the role as the role as chair of the Dental Leadership Alumnus within Health Education Midlands and East.
Asha has co-lead and delivered workshops relating to clinical leadership at conferences such as the ‘Trailblazer’ conference hosted by the North West Deanery and the ‘Leadership and Innovation’ workshop at the Midlands and
East Dental Showcase. Asha also has a passion for 1 resilience development and led and implemented, with the co-founders from the Dental Leadership Collaborative, the first clinical leadership resilience programme at Kings
College, London in 2020 for undergraduate dental students.
As co-founder and director of the Global and Oral Health Collaborative she has co-led two Global and Oral Health conferences and is passionate about integrating and ensuring oral health is a priority within the healthcare
agenda.
She has presented over 50 presentations from regional to international levels and believes that inter-professional education, authentic and compassionate leadership and resilience are vital in creating the next generation of future
healthcare leaders.
Dr Eleanor Morris - Cohort Director, WIHL Mentor
Elle is an Academic Foundation doctor, with interests in Psychiatry, Neurodevelopment and Medical Education, currently working in South Yorkshire. She is also the Trustee for Training with a global health charity, Students for Kids International Projects.
Elle graduated from Hull York Medical School in 2021 and was an HLA Scholar during the 2020/1 academic year. As a Scholar, Elle led the Women in Healthcare Leadership (WIHL) webinar series in partnership with HLA Live. One of Elle’s career goals is to increase inclusivity in medical careers, particularly with regard to gender and socioeconomic background.
Jacob Bloor - Cohort Director
Jacob is an Academic Doctor and Honorary Clinical Teacher currently based in South Yorkshire. Throughout medical training, Jacob has held a number of leadership positions including regional lead for the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management and Local educational lead for JASME.
In 2020 he obtained a scholarship with the Healthcare Leadership Academy where he co-founded MindHealth, a proactive well-being not-for-profit organisation for medical students. Subsequently, he has taken on the role of
Amsterdam Cohort Director for the HLA. Most recently, he was awarded the Jack M Legate award for his efforts in Leadership and for founding the first Medical Leadership and Management society at Liverpool University.
On a local level, he has also held a number of positions in both leadership
and education and founded an online revision resource, Just4Meds, which is used by over 5000 medical students monthly. Jacob has a passion for quality improvement across all sectors inclusive of healthcare in primary and
secondary care services, hospital management and medical education, with an ambition to work in Emergency medicine in the future. In his spare time, he enjoys teaching and practising yoga as a fully qualified RYT200, playing tennis and tutoring GCSE and A level students from disadvantaged
backgrounds.
Jim Determeijer - International Expansion Lead
Jim is a Medical Doctor and Global Health PhD-candidate who grew up in various African countries and The Netherlands. His goal is to create sustainable opportunities for others, build inclusive communities for people at all levels of society and bring local and international experts together to
spark innovation.
Within The HLA, Jim was part of the second HLA cohort in London and subsequently set up the first International Cohort in Amsterdam together with Ilse Blomberg and Emma Oostenbroek. With the desire to expand the opportunities of The HLA to more healthcare professionals around the world and diversify its community, Jim created The HLA: International Expansion. Together with an international team he now works on expanding The HLA physically and virtually.
Outside The HLA, Jim has gathered funding and now performs a Global Health PhD with the preliminary title: “Towards effective and safe family participation in the hospital care of adults in resource-limited settings: To enhance care and tackle health worker shortages”. He has also been involved in The Dutch National ThinkTank to improve the quality and equal opportunities of primary and secondary education in The Netherlands. Before starting his PhD Jim worked as a doctor in internal medicine.
Oliver Griffiths - Cohort Director
Oliver Griffiths is an F2 in Severn Deanery and aspires to train in community psychiatry. He is interested in all things mental health, especially mindfulness, trauma therapy and evidence-based lifestyle medicine.
He is the founder of the Birmingham Mindfulness Project, a mindfulness programme at Birmingham Med School. He is a co-founding trustee of Mind Health, an organisation working to empower medical students with tools to support their mental wellbeing.
Oliver is also passionate about medical leadership and leadership education: he is a Cohort Director with the Healthcare Leadership Academy; he recently co-founded the HLA Cafe; and he also runs the HLA-Medics.Academy
Impact Awards, a grant scheme for social enterprises in healthcare.