Who we are
Ged Byrne - Director
Ged Byrne was appointed Director of the UHSM Academy in 2009. As Hospital Dean for Clinical Studies since 2004, he passionately believes in personalised learning.
He is a breast surgeon and was appointed senior lecturer and consultant surgeon in Manchester in 2001. During his eclectic training in Glasgow, India and the West Midlands he developed a keen interest in postgraduate surgical teaching and was secretary and president of the Association of Surgeons in Training. He combines clinical practice as a surgeon and responsibility for delivery of the undergraduate curriculum to 450 Manchester medical students.
Ged is best known as the director and co-founder of the Universities Medical Assessment Partnership (UMAP) - a partner-funded collaboration of 15 medical schools which develops high quality assessment items for medical examinations.
Jill Johnson - Associate Director
Jill was appointed to the position of Associate Director for UHSM Academy in June 2010. Although born in Urmston, she has spent most of her life on the Wirral in Merseyside. She has a clinical professional background as a Radiotherapy Radiographer. She trained at Clatterbridge Centre For Oncology on the Wirral, and worked her way up through the ranks to become Manager of the Radiotherapy Department. As manager and later as The Allied Health Professions Network Lead for Cheshire and Merseyside, she was very closely involved with education and training and workforce planning for her profession and service area. These and other roles including General Manager in Liverpool and Assistant Director at NHS NW in Manchester have given her a broad experience of the NHS.
She has further continued her own education by attaining several further qualifications including an MBA in Healthcare Services. She is passionate about ensuring access to education and training for all colleagues, whatever their band or role.
Toli Onon - Director of Postgraduate Med
ical Education
Toli Onon has developed in her role as director of postgraduate medical education at the UHSM Academy alongside that of consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at UHSM, where she has worked for the past five years. She completed her medical training at Manchester University Medical School.
Since then she has demonstrated her commitment to delivering high-quality adult education and training to both medical and nursing undergraduates and postgraduate trainees. She particularly enjoyed undertaking the newly-developed Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education at the University of Manchester.
Toli is very aware of the many recent political and social changes which have impacted on doctors in training and the crucial importance of teaching, ultimately, to the delivery of the best-possible patient care.
Marylyn Dickinson - Undergraduate Manager
Marylyn has been involved in seeing the UHSM Academy develop from a concept to a reality. She has a special interest in ensuring students and staff are supported in their learning and in encouraging them to work as part of a team. She is especially keen to see development of the inter-professional learning opportunities for all staff and students at UHSM and to enhance links with our local community. She started out life as a medical secretary and went on to do a degree in Healthcare Management and Youth Studies.
She has worked in a range of settings including a building design company and a BUPA hospital before branching off into medical education at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Before joining the UHSM Academy in March 2008, she spent seven years as Head of Undergraduate Medical Education at Central Manchester Foundation Trust, but she has been involved in medical education for 19 years.
She is active in the development of the global health link and in promoting new ways of working to enhance the student and staff learning experiences, patient safety and team building. She is also leading the projects to refurbish a former England Cricket team bus to create a Clinical Skills bus and also to extend the ERC-based simulation unit to form a high-tech suite.
Louise Kitchener - Head of Learning and Development
After graduating from Manchester University in Politics, Louise Kitchener took up a place on Tesco's graduate human resources scheme, which saw her doing everything from making doughnuts to training senior managers. Jobs in the field of learning and development followed at BP Oil and Barclays Bank's wealth division, which took her to China, Singapore, Japan, Russia and the USA.
She is used to working with people at all levels in a company. She is keen to ensure the provision of the best-possible learning and development opportunities for all the UHSM's employees, in order to maximise the chances of delivering excellent patient care. Key aspects of her work include clinical leadership and E-learning within an inter-professional framework.