Consortium Partners

Professor Rowan Bailey

Rowan Bailey is Professor of Culture, People and Place at the University of Huddersfield and Director of the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture (CEADA). Rowan leads the National Creative Health Hub alongside Nicola Stenberg and Liz Towns-Andrews, bringing together research, policy and practice to strengthen the creative health in places. As Project Lead for the West Yorkshire Creative Health System (funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority), Rowan works with cultural, health and community partners to develop capabilities-led approaches to health and wellbeing. Her work focuses on creative health mapping, evaluation frameworks and place-based cultural policy developments.  

Relevant Links   

• Rowan's Pure Profile

• Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture

• Creative Health Hub

Research Projects  

• Place-based Cultural Development in Kirklees

• Cultures Of _

• Post Office Cultures (AHRC)

• West Yorkshire Creative Health System and The National Creative Health Hub LinkedIn page  

• Arts and Humanities Imprint

Contact:  

• Rowan's LinkedIn page

• Rowan's Email

Professor Liz Towns-Andrews OBE

Liz is a chemist and X-ray crystallographer with extensive experience of working at the academic-industry-public sector interface. She was Director of Innovation for the Science & Technology Facilities Research Council before joining the University of Huddersfield and led the development of the National Science and Innovation Campuses.  Liz is 3M Professor of Innovation and was Director of Research and Enterprise for the University until 2020. She received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion for establishing the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre and received an OBE in 2020 for services to Business, to Enterprise and to Public and Private Sector Collaboration. Liz is currently the Regional and Business lead for the National Health Innovation Campus within which Creative Health forms a key strategic activity.

Dr Nic Stenberg

Nic is School Director for Executive Education at the University of Huddersfield, where she oversees a portfolio of programmes that support management and leadership development.   Alongside this, Nic co-leads the recently launched Compassionate Leadership Hub , which champions compassionate leadership within West Yorkshire. 

Nic’s research focuses on wellbeing within organisations and communities.  Over the past few years, she has worked on several wellbeing-related projects around physical activity, sleep management, resilience coaching and creative health.   

As the university lead for Creative Health workforce development, Nic is working with partners to build skills, training pathways and cross-sector collaboration to strengthen and sustain the creative health workforce.

Email Nic

Nic's LinkedIn page

Dr Stacey Durham

Stacey is a Research Fellow with the National Creative Health Hub and Place-Based Coordinator for Wakefield within the West Yorkshire Creative Health system development programme. Her work focuses on mobilising cross-sector collaboration, including supporting the co-design and delivery of workshops that bring together stakeholders to shape the future of Creative Health across the region. Her previous research explored creativity and its role in supporting mental health, particularly for young people experiencing difficulty in engaging in formal services, drawing on participatory and narrative methodologies. She has a background in psychology and in theatre performance. Stacey also maintains a creative practice as a classical and contemporary dance coach, supporting young people to express themselves through movement in community settings.

Nikki Hill

Nikki Hill is Programme Manager for the West Yorkshire Creative Health System, supporting the coordination and delivery of a region wide, partnership led approach to creative health. She also holds a parallel role as Programme Manager for the Huddersfield Health Innovation Incubator, based at the University of Huddersfield’s National Health Innovation Campus, where she works closely with public, private and third sector partners to enable health and wellbeing innovation. Nikki has managed complex, multi partner innovation and knowledge exchange programmes for a number of years and brings extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, governance and delivery. She is a trained coach and mentor and holds the Chartered Management Institute Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Leadership and Management. 

Nikki's LinkedIn profile

Huddersfield Health Innovation

 

Collette Brauns

Consortium Lead for Bradford

Collette is a systems leader at NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board with 17 years’ experience delivering transformation across complex health and care systems. She specialises in preventative approaches to health and wellbeing and leads on obesity and weight management for Bradford District and Craven, with expertise in social prescribing and community health development. Collette co‑founded and leads Living Well, the place‑based obesity and wellbeing programme, and is the strategic lead for Creative Health in Bradford and Craven, working in partnership with Bradford Culture Company. She is also the consortia lead for the West Yorkshire Creative Health system. 

Estelle Cooper

Place-based coordinator Bradford.

David McQuillan

Consortium Lead for Calderdale

Fran Coard

Place-based coordinator for Leeds  

 Fran Coard is Creative Development Manager at the Leeds Arts Health and Wellbeing Network, leading work to grow and sustain creative health across the city.  

Her career began in 2003 as a mental health befriender, helping people access activities for wellbeing. She has since worked across frontline and senior roles in mental health across Yorkshire, including operational management of multiple teams. During this time, she championed artistic and creative approaches, including an applied theatre project for men at risk of suicide, which reshaped her understanding of co‑production, service delivery and creative health.  

Fran has always been into the arts, culture, music, and nature, and feels fortunate to live in Yorkshire with so much on her doorstep. Her favourite place is Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  

Pip Goff

Consortium Lead for Leeds  

Pip leads Forum Central’s work within the Leeds and West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, currently  busy with Neighbourhood Health, prevention and linking in with the changes in health and local authority and the emerging Provider Collaborative 

Forum Central, working closely with Leeds Older People's Forum and Voluntary Action Leeds as part of the DoingGoodLeeds Infrastructure Partnership, represents and advocates on behalf of the VCSE sector for health and care in Leeds across strategic boards and meetings. This  includes the Health and Wellbeing Board; Integrated Care Board and emerging Provider Partnership where the Third Sector is an equal partner in the Leeds Health and Care Partnership. Forum Central plays an active role in TSL – the policy and assembly body for the Third Sector in Leeds and works closely with Leeds and West Yorkshire VCSE infrastructure partners including the VCS Alliance, Nova,  VAL and also with funders such as Leeds Community Foundation 

Pip is committed to addressing health inequalities; building and developing relationships and asset-based approaches. She has extensive experience of partnership working, system change and third sector innovation and a strong understanding of funding, health outcomes and social value. 

An OT by trade, working initially the NHS and Local Authority, Pip has spent the last 30 years working in and with a range of different third sector organisations where she endeavours to champion creative, practical and and community led solutions for the health and care system in order to enable individuals and communities to lead healthier happier lives.

See Pip's LinkedIn profile. 

Gavin Clayton

Consortium Lead for Kirklees  

CEO at hoot creative arts since April 2019.  

 Previous roles include: Executive Director of ‘Arts & Minds’ in Cambridge, contributing significant research into arts based social prescribing in partnership with LSE and University of Cambridge Museums; co-founder of the Public Engagement Foundation (later became AESOP); Clore Fellow for Arts & Health; Arts & Disabilities Information Officer for Cambridgeshire; founding Director of Milton Keynes General Hospital Arts charity; adjunct lecturer at University of Florida School of Arts, Arts in Medicine MA.   

Gavin worked alongside national colleagues from 2007 to establish the sector support structures for Creative Health including the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing.   

Gavin grew up as a child carer and lives with a long term auto immune disease.  

Jamie Nalson

Consortium Partner for Kirklees.

Richard Smith

Consortium Partner for Kirklees

Jenny Rogers

Consortium Lead for Wakefield

Jenny is Development Manager Cultural Investment & Partnerships at Wakefield Council. Within her role she leads creative skills, cultural grants, and public art, as well as creative sector support and development including the district’s creative health network via Creative Wakefield. She has led creative health activity such as projects for migrant communities and people living with dementia and has worked in live events, heritage, theatre, festivals, galleries, museums and music. Jenny has also held roles in charities and an NGO supporting child poverty and education initiatives. She supports creative health activity in Wakefield district with grant funding, commissions and sector development interventions. Jenny has expertise in programme management, community engagement and partnership working.

Network, project or programme links related to Creative Health: The Creative Wakefield Network has over 1,100 members. We exist to support the development and growth of Wakefield creative sector by showcasing opportunities and forging connections between members and wider cultural landscape in the region. Over the last two years we have partnered with the National Creative Health Hub at UoH to support an emergent community of practice around Creative Health. We have explored local capabilities and the regional/national climate influencing local delivery and policy in a series of collaborative workshops, and have now turned out energies towards a joint commitment to working together as a community of practice longer term.  

Jim Farmery

Consortium partner - Funding and Commissioning Strategy

Jim Farmery is a strategic partnerships and communications leader working across the creative industries, regional economic development, and innovation ecosystems. At xplor, he leads engagement with organisations and research partners, helping to connect industry, academia, and government with the facility while building awareness of the centre across the sector and the wider region. His work combines stakeholder engagement and partnership development with a focus on creating opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and growth.   

Jim brings more than three decades of experience in partnerships, communications, and programme delivery. His expertise spans external affairs, regional economic development, strategic engagement, and cross-sector collaboration. His career has included leadership roles within both the public and private sectors, including regional development work at Yorkshire Forward, national sector programmes with Creative England, and senior positions with organisations such as Sainsbury’s, Pace, and Terayon. 

At xplor, Jim plays a key role in developing industry relationships, research partnerships, and strategic collaborations that support the centre’s long-term impact. Alongside his work at xplor, he serves as Director of External Affairs at Production Park, where he leads external relations and partnership activity across one of Europe’s leading live events production destinations. He also contributes to the wider UK creative sector through board-level roles and industry networks.   

His work focuses on bringing together organisations, talent, and ideas to create lasting opportunities for innovation across the creative industries.