Meet your educators

Meet your Educators

We, your Educators on this course, will be present during the next five weeks of the course, following and joining in the discussions from time to time and sharing our expertise with you. On this journey together, we will be helping each other to learn. We will also be looking at your feedback, which will serve to improve the course.

At the end of each week, we provide a written summary of the week’s learning. We will also email you with a round-up of the week’s learning. We are looking forward to learning with you.

Jillian Hastings Ward

Lead Educator

Jillian Hastings Ward MBE is a patient advocate from the UK. She was a founding member of the Participant Panel at Genomics England (2016), and chaired it from 2017 until her term concluded in summer 2024. She helped to design and establish the NHS Genomic Medicine Service ‘People and Communities Forum’, which brings together patient voices and the senior leaders of the GMS. She sits on the UK National Health Service (NHS) Rare Diseases Advisory Group. Jillian has presented rare disease patient perspectives to scientific and medical colleagues around the world, as a conference speaker, facilitator, writer, and co-author of a book of poetry, Helix of Love.

Jillian’s son is profoundly disabled and was the first patient to be diagnosed by the NHS with a GRIN1 genetic disorder. Jillian subsequently helped to set up the CureGRIN Foundation, and is now a founding board member of charity GRI-UK. She was previously a civil servant and chartered town planner.

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillian-h-37503b2/

Jillian Banfield

Educator

Jillian Banfield is the Lead for Patient Partnership in CIHR’s Institute of Genetics. She works to build the Institute’s program around patient partnership in research.

Jillian is passionate about connecting patients with opportunities to influence health research. Jillian has lived with arthritis since she was 14 months old and brings this lived experience of chronic illness and disability to her work. Prior to her work in clinical research, Jillian obtained a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Waterloo.

In her spare time, Jillian advocates for cycling as a means of transportation. She is a co-organiser of Kidical Mass events in Halifax, Canada. She is also an amateur bird watcher and sewist.

Ai Ling Sim-Devadas

Educator

Ai Ling Sim-Devadas is a patient advocate and breast cancer survivor. She leads Patient and Public Involvement at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

She is passionate about growing patient engagement in Singapore’s healthcare landscape and works with all stakeholders to deepen partnerships with patients in medical research and education.

In advocating the patient’s perspective, she is the Founding co-chair (2018-2022) and now the Patient Mentor at the SingHealth Patient Advocacy Network, Singapore’s first Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC), a member of the Agency for Care Effectiveness (ACE) Consumer Panel, a member of the PRECISE Consumer Panel and a board member of the Alliance of Patient Organizations Singapore (APOS). Globally, she serves on the International PPI Network (IPPIN) as the first Asian Planning Group member to bring patient and public involvement perspectives from this region.

Michelle Bishop

Educator

Dr Michelle Bishop is the Associate Director, Learning and Training at Wellcome Connecting Science. She leads a team of 25+ people that develop and deliver genomic training and learning events for researchers and healthcare professionals that aim to educate, inspire, and transform careers. The team delivers events online, on the Wellcome Genome Campus, or in regional training hubs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Previously Michelle was the Education Lead for Health Education England’s Genomics Education Programme.

Through her 12+ years working in the NHS she influenced and shaped national education and training policy for healthcare professionals. Her accomplishments include: authoring 50+ genomics education resources; developing and implementing specialist genomics NHS training curricula and competency frameworks; and providing educational and clinical expertise to national projects as part of England’s transformational adoption of genomic medicine. She is a trained genetic counsellor and holds a PhD in the field of genetics education.

Dusanka Nikolic

Education Developer

Dusanka brings a background in both Computer Science and Education to her current role as Senior Education Developer at Wellcome Connecting Science (WCS). She leads the research-informed design and development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) within the WCS digital learning programme. In this role, she coordinates, leads, and co-leads multidisciplinary teams of experts, developers, and educators, offering pedagogical leadership and mentorship throughout the course development process.

In her spare time, Dusanka likes to go on long walks with her Parson Russell Terrier. Her other interests include reading and languages.