Caroline Alexander CBE

Trustee

Caroline graduated as a nurse in 1987 from Edinburgh University (BSc/RGN) and has an MSc in Nursing Studies from South Bank University (2001). From 1987 to 1993 she specialised in nursing older people in Edinburgh and then in London at Guy’s Hospital as a ward sister. Caroline then worked for the Foundation of Nursing Studies for three years supporting nurses to use research in practice.

In 1998 Caroline returned to the NHS and worked in Tower Hamlets in a range of roles within older people’s services. In 2005, Caroline took up her first director post, as Director of Nursing and Therapies within Tower Hamlets PCT. With the clustering of PCTs in London in 2011, she took on the Director of Nursing and Quality within NHS East London and the City initially and then within NHS North East London when the clusters merged in 2012. Caroline was the Chief Nurse for NHS London for 6 months until she joined NHS England as Regional Chief Nurse for London in April 2013.   Caroline took up her current role of Chief Nurse for Barts Health in March 2016. She is delighted to have returned to the East End and to work at the trust at this important time.

Caroline was a 2008 Florence Nightingale Leadership Scholar. She was a Visiting Professor at City University until 2012 and is now a Visiting Professor at Bucks New University. Caroline was awarded Honorary Doctorates from City, University of London in 2017 and Middlesex University in 2018 and she is a Trustee of the Foundation of Nursing Studies.