04.02.2005
The University of Brighton will give honorary degrees to two citizens who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of health care education and sustainable development.
The citations will be made at ceremonies at the Brighton Dome on Friday, 11 February. The awards will be given to Professor Norma Brook and Sara Parkin OBE.
Professor
Norma Brook
Honorary Doctor of Science
Professor Norma Brook is a consultant in the education of physiotherapists and other health care professionals. She played a major role in the transition of the former Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine to the new Health Professions Council (which currently involves 13 health-related professions).
She has been President of the Health Professions Council since 2001 and in 2003 became a member of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, previously known as the Council for the Regulation of Healthcare Professionals.
Professor Brook led Physiotherapy Education at Sheffield Hallam University for 12 years and from 1996 to 2000 was Head of Sheffield Hallam's Division of Allied Health Professions.
Her own higher education qualifications were gained at the Leeds School of Physiotherapy and the Universities of Bradford and Nottingham. Her clinical appointments were at Leeds General Infirmary and her subsequent academic career has focused largely on Sheffield Hallam University.
Her role in physiotherapy education has included engagement with universities both in the UK and abroad as external examiner, reviewer and advisor, and she has published widely in her field.
Professor Brook's role with the statutory body for physiotherapy and the professions allied to medicine has been highly significant and relevant to the University of Brighton's academic work in these fields.
An active and influential member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy throughout her career, Professor Brook has chaired, or served on, several of its significant committees.
In 1994 she was awarded a Fellowship of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy for her major contribution to the furtherance of the profession.
Prior to the establishment of the new regulatory body, for several years she served as a member of, and chaired, the Physiotherapists Board of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine.
Sara
Parkin OBE
Honorary Doctor of Science
Sara Parkin is a leading figure in the sustainable development movement. Currently a founding director of Forum for the Future, a charity she set up with colleagues Jonathon Porritt and Paul Ekins, her involvement in the movement began in the 1960s. She was awarded an OBE for services to education and sustainable development in 2001.
Her involvement with the University of Brighton stems from the time the institution joined 18 other UK universities in the Forum's Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability, funded by all the UK Higher Education Funding Councils. Over the past three years, the partners have pioneered new practice in estates and governance, in learning and research, and in community relations. Sara also gave one of the University of Brighton's Millennium Lectures in 2000.
At Forum for the Future, Sara has set up and led its Leadership for Sustainable Development masters programme. Due to graduate its 100th student this year, the programme's alumni are now to be found making a difference in a wide range of sectors. She also leads on the Engineer of the 21st Century initiative.
After an early career in nursing and nursing research in Edinburgh and Leeds, Sara Parkin spent most of the 1970s and 1980s in active involvement with green politics. She led the UK Green Party to its famous 15 per cent vote in the 1989 European elections and played a pivotal role in the growth and co-ordination of the European Green parties. She stepped back from green party politics in 1992 to add to her advocacy role active engagement in change.
Until recently Sara was a Trustee of Friends of the Earth. She currently serves on the Board of the Environment Agency of England and Wales, the Natural Environment Research Council, and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of 21st Century Science and is Chair of the Real World Coalition of groups campaigning on the sustainable development agenda.
Photographs are available - please ring Charlotte Hopes on 01273 643226 or Pat Herbert on 07740 404470.
Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
