Professor Debra Humphris - leadership in health and education

Professor Debra Humphris took up post as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brighton in December 2015, having followed a far from conventional career path. Debra, who originally trained as a nurse, has focused, across her career, on changing the way we view, practice and deliver health care and education.

Professor Debra Humphris

After working for over 20 years in the NHS in local and regional roles she moved into Higher Education and helped shape the Health Care Evaluation Unit, a pre-curser to NICE. She was pivotal in the educational developments introduced to support and recognise the potential of Nurse Specialists in the delivery of Diabetes Care.

In the early 2000s, as the lead of the New Generation Project (NGP), she transformed curriculum across health, medical and social work programmes to bring students together to learn on an interprofessional basis. The work of the NGP gained international recognition across health care and education systems that were focused on improving interprofessional team work in practice.

Moving into leadership roles Debra has held posts as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Southampton and Vice-Provost (Education) at Imperial College. In both institutions, she led and enabled change and innovation to the curriculum and the wider student experience.

Blood sugar test being conducted on a patients finger

Inspiring others

At a national level Debra is actively involved in a range of bodies including chairing the Universities UK Student Policy Network, Universities and Colleges Employers Assocation, Clinical Academic Staff Advisory Group (CASAG) and the Board of the University Alliance.

As an openly LGBT senior leader in higher education, Debra continues to use her voice to make clear the importance of equality and diversity.