National Centre for Remote and Rural Medicine

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Leadership)

Professor Cathy Jackson was appointed as Pro Vice Chancellor Academic Leadership (interim) in September 2023. Prior to this she had been Executive Dean of the Faculty of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences and was the Founding Head of the Medical School joining UCLan in 2014 to set up the medical school at that time and led the team through to full accreditation of the program by the General Medical Council.

Find out more on the Vice-Chancellor's Group webpage.

Centre Manager, National Centre for Remote and Rural Medicine

Lizzie joined us in 2022. Previously Lizzie worked for the Field Studies Council (FSC) as the Centre Manager for the Blencathra Field Centre located in the Lake District National Park. She has worked in management and outdoor teaching roles for the FSC across a range of remote and rural locations in the UK having previously trained / worked as a Geography teacher in London.

Clinical Skills Work Based Facilitator – MBBS Programme

Joanne Pickering qualified as a nurse in 1988 from West Cumberland School Nursing, she has worked for North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust since then. Starting her career as a surgical nurse, then as Sister for the Surgical gastroenterology ward, and then to the Emergency Assessment Unit when it amalgamated Medical and Surgical emergencies into a single assessment unit.

At the start of the ‘Hospital at Night’ campaign Joanne moved into a site coordinator role and helped embed the Hospital at Night team roles. This led to the opportunity to develop her management skills and move into a Matron role which she has been in since 2006. In this time Joanne has worked in Medicine, Cardiology and since 2008 Emergency care. During this role Joanne worked with Dr Olu Orugun to commence the Advanced Practitioner unit and role within the hospital and latterly the development of the composite workforce, an innovative mix of Advanced Practitioner from multi-disciplinary backgrounds, Physicians Associate as well as Medical staff.

In 2018 Joanne embarked on the next learning phase of her career and commenced with UCLan as a Clinical Work Based Skills Facilitator with the first cohort of medical students at the West Cumberland Medical Education Centre.