Dr Amanda Burls

Amanda is a Public Health Physician, with special interest in Evidence-Based Health Care and Public and Patient involvement in Health Care and Health Research. She is an experienced teacher and has worked for the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) from its inception in 1993 and has been a senior fellow of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine since 1996 where she coordinates and facilitates the Spanish-speaking groups and runs plenary sessions on teaching EBHC.

From 1997 to 2008, Amanda founded and directed the West Midlands Health Technology Assessment Collaboration at the University of Birmingham which produced systematic reviews and economic evaluations to inform national and regional UK NHS policy decisions, such as the NICE appraisal process. She set up the Oxford International Programme in Evidence-Based Health Care which includes Certificate, Diploma, MSc and Doctoral Programmes as well as standalone modules.

She was also Director of Post-Graduate Programmes in Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC), at the University of Oxford where she ran and taught on the MSc in EBHC and supervised DPhil in EBHC students. She received several awards for teaching excellence during this period, including one awarded by the students themselves.

Jonathan West

Jon has 18 years’ experience in public health roles across England and Wales and a track record of facilitating critical appraisal skills learning for multi-agency audiences across the UK. In current and previous roles, as Public Health Information Analyst and Advanced Public Health Practitioner Jon has developed excellent knowledge and skills in the analysis and application of research evidence in public health.

Jon leads work on Behaviour Change and Public Information for Public Health Wales, and contributes to other national work. Jon also has significant experience of working in local public health teams.

Dr Alison HillDr Alison Hill

Alison has been involved in teaching and training of evidence-based healthcare and critical appraisal skills for over 25 years.

Alison currently undertakes specialist public health work, and is also an experienced executive coach and mentor, working mainly in the charitable sector.

Until July 2014 she was Public Health England’s Deputy Chief Knowledge Officer. In this role she oversaw the creation of a wide range of knowledge products and programmes within the directorate, including local authority health profiles and the NHS Atlas of Healthcare Variation. Previously she was managing director of Solutions for Public Health, an NHS business unit, providing highly specialised public health evidence and intelligence services to the NHS and local government. Dr Hill led the organisation for 14 years, developing it into a £7 million business, with 80 staff. She was director of public health in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes for 10 years.

Jan Yates

Jan is a senior Consultant in Public Health with experience at Director level. Highly motivated and action oriented. A sound, politically astute leader and effective team player. Able to deliver high quality, efficient health and care outcomes and provide professional support for effective decisions.

Exceptional teaching skills with experience in coaching, mentoring and supporting staff through personal and organisational development. Jan’s career history includes several years teaching followed by Public Health training and time as a Director of Public Health and in various regional and national level positions.

Dominic Hurst

Dominic is a clinical academic working at Queen Mary University of London where he runs evidence-based dentistry teaching across the 5-year BDS programme. Dominic writes regularly for the EBD Journal and has a keen interest in quality improvement in primary dental care.

His research has focused on how dental teams draw on multiple sources of knowledge to inform their clinical practice. He is completing a DPhil in Evidence-Based Healthcare at the University of Oxford.

Josie Sandercock

Josie trained with the Medical Research Council working on cancer clinical trials, then worked with the West Midlands Health Technology Assessment Collaboration on technology assessment reports for NICE and the local health authority, and evidence reviews for other public sector organisations.

Now self-employed providing statistical consultancy and training, primarily for the public sector.

Peter Bradley

Prof. Peter Bradley has worked with CASP for over 15 years.  He has been a Director of Public Health for over 11 years and now works as Director Knowledge and Intelligence in Public Health England. He has honorary posts in University of Swansea, Cambridge and Cardiff.

After medical training he first worked in child health and general practice, then academic and service public health in England, Wales and Norway.  He has a particular interest in the use of evidence and intelligence to drive public health practice.

Petros Mylonas

Petros is a Clinical Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry at Cardiff University, School of Dentistry. His PhD was on erosive toothwear from King’s College London Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, and his MMedEd from Warwick Medical School focused on e-learning and curriculum development. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority, and a Member of the Royal Colleges of Glasgow (MFDS RCPS) and of England (MJDF RCS). Petros teaches all aspects of restorative dentistry and dental biomaterials to undergraduate BDS and Dental Hygiene and Therapy students. He also conducts research into erosive toothwear and treats patients at StR-level. He is currently the module lead for ‘2nd BDS – Preparing for Patients’ and is supervising several research projects on erosive toothwear and dental biomaterials.

Derick Yates

Derick Yates has been in his current role as an Evidence-Based Practice tutor at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust for over 15 years. During that time, he has trained clinicians, nurses, midwives and students from all backgrounds and at all levels of experience in information skills, particularly focusing on the first two steps of evidence-based practice, i.e. writing clinical questions and searching for information.

Derick also leads the literature-search service providing literature searches to inform evidence-based practice and research and has been a co-author on several systematic reviews published in peer-reviewed journals or presented at conferences, and has been acknowledged (and gone unacknowledged) for providing literature searches for dozens of journal articles down the years.

Derick is a keen cyclist, vegetable grower, regular gig- and concert-goer, music and sports fan and a collector of obscure and cult films and an inventor of cocktails; he is owned by an 11-month-old Labrador-German Shepherd-cross puppy called Maia.

Sarah Franks

Sarah is a final year Orthodontic registrar at Birmingham Dental Hospital; undertaking a Masters (by research) at the University of Birmingham, investigating patient perceptions of facial deformity. As an undergraduate Sarah showed an interest in research, publishing the results of a local population Cephalometric Analysis, which lead to the award of The Sands Cox John Rippin Memorial Prize. Sarah has always shown a keen enthusiasm for representing her peers, having been the President of the Birmingham University Dental Student Society for 2 terms, as well as previously holding the position of President of the British Dental Student Association. She continues this interest in her current role on the Wesleyan Junior Advisory Board.

Derick is a keen cyclist, vegetable grower, regular gig- and concert-goer, music and sports fan and a collector of obscure and cult films and an inventor of cocktails; he is owned by an 11-month-old Labrador-German Shepherd-cross puppy called Maia.