Professor of Community and Public Health, University of Lincoln; Visiting Professor, University of West Indies

Laura qualified as a nurse graduate in 1986 and is currently Professor of Community and Public Health Nursing at The University of Lincoln and visiting professor at The University of the West Indies. She was editor of Nurse Researcher Journal for 4 years and is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s commission for the review of Nursing and Midwifery.

Laura has received various national research awards around sexual health and ethnicity including the 1998 Mary Seacole Nursing Leadership Award, the 2002 Smith and Nephew Nursing Research Fellowship and the 2004 Florence Nightingale Travel Fellowship. She has previously sat on Independent Advisory Group to the UK government on Black and minority ethnic issues relating to sexual health and HIV which informed the development of the national strategy fro sexual health and HIv for England.

She is a member of INVOLVE, a national organisation ensuring effective user involvement in research. She has worked closely with several health, education and care organisations around the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic communities. Laura continues to work as a community Mentor with Black and minority ethnic communities and is married with three children. Her family are from Dominica in the West Indies.