Professor Alison Carr

As Dean, Alison provides leadership of staff in the School delivering: the Undergraduate MBBS Programme, Physician Associate Programmes, Vision Sciences, Audiology Programmes and a large suite of Postgraduate Programmes, supported by the Head of Dentistry, Dental and Dental Therapy Degrees. Our students are on campuses in Preston, Burnley and Whitehaven in Cumbria.

Alison gained Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London in 1985. She gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education (Distinction) in 2002 and a Masters in Clinical Science in 2004 from the University of Plymouth.
Alison was formerly the Associate Dean for Clinical Education in the College of Medicine in Qatar University (2016- 2022). Here, she was responsible for leading the design and introduction of the Clinical Programme of their new Medical College.

Alison brings experience of all aspects of medical education and a track record of establishing new organisations in healthcare education. Alison has held a number of senior education leadership roles in England over the last 20 years in undergraduate medicine, postgraduate medicine and in developing national policy: Director of Postgraduate Education for Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and Medical Director for the new Postgraduate Diploma in Physician Associate Studies (2012- 2016), Senior Clinical Advisor to the Medical Education and Training Programme of the Department of Health in London (2008- 2013) and in NHS England (2013- 2014); Deputy Postgraduate Dean in the new South West Peninsula Postgraduate Deanery (2005-8), Director of Phase 2 curriculum for PCMD (2002-5), Foundation Programme Director in Plymouth (2004-5), Education Director for the South West School of Anaesthesia (2001-5) and College Tutor in Plymouth (1999- 2002).

As Senior Clinical Advisor to the Medical Education and Training Programme of the Department of Health in London (2008- 2013), Alison advised the Civil Service on government initiatives and led the development of national standardised selection into Specialty Training across the Medical Specialties in England.

Alison was a faculty member of the international “Leadership in innovations in healthcare and education” programme of the Harvard Macy Institute in Boston, Massachusetts from 2009-2021. Alison has substantial experience of medical career planning, supportive for medical students embarking on their new careers. She led the National Statistical Evaluation of Selection into Specialty Training in England from (2010- 2021) and was Co-Chair of the UK Career Planning Group for Medicine (2012-4).

As well as her educational roles, Alison has worked in the NHS for over thirty years, in Plymouth NHS Teaching Trust as a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist (1997- 2016) and most recently in Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool as an Honorary Consultant. She gained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 1992. She was awarded a Silver Merit Award in 2014 in the NHS and recently an Honorary Membership of the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.

Alison’s research interests in Anaesthesia are the prevention of postoperative vomiting in children and methods of optimising pain relief in children perioperatively; and in medical education, in selection and assessment. She chaired the Guidelines Committee on the prevention and treatment of postoperative vomiting in children for the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland which developed the clinical guidelines used in clinical practice internationally (2009-2016).