Core Team

Victoria Rutter

Executive Director

MPharm PGDipClinPharm FFRPS MRPharmS

Victoria was appointed as the executive director of CPA in April 2016.

Originally a graduate of the London School of Pharmacy and a previous clinical pharmacist at Barts and the London NHS Trust, Victoria’s international career began when she relocated to Singapore in 2006.

During her ten years in Singapore, Victoria led a team of cardiac pharmacists and developed an extensive portfolio of clinical practice activities, with a special interest in evidence-based clinical service improvement, professional development, and post-graduate education.

Her passion to develop and inspire pharmacists to excel in the profession led Victoria to set up several collaborations between Singapore, the UK and Australia to develop Professional Development Frameworks and post-graduate training programmes for pharmacists in Singapore. Before joining CPA, she was employed to pioneer a post-graduate development programme for hospital pharmacists in a new government healthcare cluster.

As an active member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore, Victoria served three terms planning the scientific programme for the annual national pharmacy congress. She is widely recognized for her involvement in the pharmacy professional development arena at a global level, both by her publications and her presentations at numerous international conferences and events.

Victoria has partnering with the Executive Committee in heading up the leadership of the organization. She is working on organizational development, raising the profile of CPA and delivering on CPA’s strategic plan, which is currently focused on fundraising, membership and extending the projects and activities supported by the organization.

Tatiana Hardy

Senior Administrator

Tatiana has been the CPA’s Senior Administrator since the beginning of 2013, helping run the CPA’s office and assisting the Executive, Trustees and CPA Staff with day to day duties.

Sarah Cavanagh

International Partnerships Lead

Having been a CPA adviser since 2017, Sarah  joined the CPA as our International Partnerships Lead in August 2018 and has a wealth of NHS and Global Health experience.  Part of the UK Medicines Information (UKMI) Network and NHS England’s Specialist Pharmacy Service, she also heads up the East Anglia Regional Medicines Information team based at Ipswich Hospital, East Suffolk and North East Essex NHS Foundation Trust. Sarah has strong links with many Commonwealth countries including Ghana, Mozambique where she led the Ipswich –Beira hospitals, UK AID (THET) funded Health Partnership project, and India, through her work with Calcutta Rescue. She also the coordinates the Healthcare Information for All (HIFA)  working group for Prescribers and users of Information. She is leading on CPA work involving partnerships.

Diane Ashiru-Oredope

Global AMR Lead

Manjula Halai

Membership and Engagement Lead

Manjula is the Membership and Engagement Lead at the CPA. Manjula brings her extensive experience in programme management and healthcare communications to continue engagement across the Commonwealth. A pharmacist by background, Manjula is passionate about pharmacy progression and the value that pharmacists bring within their community as experts in medicine. Manjula leads on engaging pharmacy professionals to support a diverse collaborative network of pharmacists, organisations and institutions and other health-related groups to provide support to members across the Commonwealth.

Nikki DArcy

Project Manager

Nikki is an experienced project manager with molecular and microbiology research experience in hospitals, academia and biotech. She has a background in infectious disease research, working on malaria, TB, HIV and others, primarily to develop novel diagnostics. After a PhD in Infection Control and the microbiology of indoor environments, Nikki moved into the biotech sector, successfully starting up laboratory sites and implementing governance and diligence structures for two anti-infective drug discovery companies. She holds a position as Operations Director with a team developing a novel class of antibiotic, so is acutely aware of the need for strategies to combat AMR. Nikki has a passion for public health and is a STEM ambassador, hoping to inspire the next generation of scientists.

Kelly Alexander

Programme Co-ordinator

Kelly became part of the CPA team in 2020 to support the development of the Commonwealth Partnership for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) Toolkit.  With a background in hospital pharmacy and working in Antimicrobial Stewardship since 2004 she is passionate and committed to enabling the wider Pharmacy and health professions implement strategies to reduce antimicrobial resistance.  She is also committed to development of the Pharmacy Profession.  Kelly works for the CPA as a project co-ordinator, supporting Antimicrobial Stewardship and Continuing Professional Development projects.

Jenny Deere

HR Consultant & Advisor

Jenny is a professional, experienced Human Resources, Organisational Development and Learning and Development consultant. She has agreed to become a volunteer advisor and a paid consultant on specific projects, offering her knowledge, skills and expertise to support the continuing development of the CPA.
Jenny has extensive strategic and operational work experience, of over 30 years at executive, board and senior management level positions in public, commercial and not for profit sector organisations. She is very familiar with the work and ethos of the CPA, especially when as HR manager and consultant for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society she assisted us by offering credible, results- orientated, consultative and pragmatic approaches to the development of new approaches in the capability, capacity and enhancement of the CPA position in development of pharmacy and pharmacists across the Commonwealth.

Her career includes working as Director, Leadership and Learning at National Police College; Director HR for Metropolitan Police Service; HR Director of private equity company, Business Development Director for a charity. Her interim executive roles have included: Senior HR Manager for a professional body and HR, OD and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion consultant for regulatory bodies. She is an authoritative source of wide and deep understanding of business requirements and how behaviours, challenges, fears, conflicts can affect personal, professional and organisational success.

She describes herself as a people person and is passionate about working with individuals, teams and organisations to enhance their performance. Her strong personal ethical base, values of trust, honesty and respect of others will be an asset to the CPA and our ongoing work.

Jane Msumba

Communications Officer

Jane is a fourth and final year pharmacy student at the University of Nottingham- and she’s passionate about the profession not just in the UK but around the world. Jane’s enthusiasm, confidence and openness to different viewpoints has given her an interest in global health putting her in contact with fellow pharmacy students around the world, in Australia, the United States, India and Nigeria.

When she realised how few British-based pharmacy blogs there are, Jane decided to set up @mypharmdiary on Instagram to rectify this situation. She also shares short videos on Youtube to better share her experiences and knowledge as she studies to become a qualified pharmacist.

She has been featured by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as part of the #WEAREPHARMACY campaign, and by the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA) as part of #BlackHistoryMonth. Jane is very keen to pursue a career in global pharmacy and has also written an article for the BPSA about her interest in global pharmacy and the value pharmacists can bring to less developed regions in the world. She’s thankful to have had placements in differing regions of the world; Malawi, the Philippines, Tokyo and Rome to help broaden her understanding of pharmacy internationally and different cultures.

Jane is also passionate about the positive use of social media. Her work on the social media committee for the International Pharmaceutical Federation Students’ Association, and on the media team at the International Pharmaceutical Federation 2018 World Congress has helped her develop an array of transferable skills and she is now excited to learn more about CPA and work with us as Communications Officer.

Ayodeji Matuluko

Reporting and Technical Outcomes Officer

Ayodeji is a PhD Candidate in the Safeguarding Health through Infection Prevention (SHIP) research group within the School of Health and Life Sciences of Glasgow Caledonian University, where she is researching on the enhancement of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in hospitals.

She completed her Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) degree at the University of Lagos, Nigeria in 2012 and a MSc in Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy at the School of Pharmacy, University College London (UCL) in 2016.

Ayodeji’s over 7 years of experience as a Pharmacist has spanned a broad range of areas including community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, medical communications and public health. She started with CPA as a volunteer in October 2018 by contributing to the writing of a CPA article on the progress of AMR national action plans, and medicines legislation for antimicrobials in Commonwealth countries. She then continued with CPA as a Global AMR Intern on the CwPAMS programme aimed at building antimicrobial stewardship capacity in low resource settings, and is currently the CwPAMS Reporting and Technical Outcomes Officer.

Ayodeji is a member of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and serves on the Steering Committee of its Young Pharmacists Group (FIP-YPG) as the Chairperson of Projects for the year 2020. She is highly motivated to pursue a career in health services research and global health, with a focus on bridging the gap between evidence and implementation through the application of implementation science research methods.

Winnie Nambatya

Technical Advisor for Uganda

Ms Winnie Nambatya is a Lecturer of Clinical Pharmacy at Makerere University and maintains a practice and experiential site in the neural surgical ward at Mulago National Referral Hospital. She received her Master of Pharmacy degree from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and completed her internship training at Mulago National Referral Hospital. Ms Winnie Nambatya has several years of experience pharmacy practice and as a clinical faculty member at the College of Health Science- Makerere University. She is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda and has had considerable classroom and experimental teaching experience. She has authored publications, contributed to medicines therapeutic manuals and poster presentations. Additionally she has worked with the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda in creating the pharmaceutical care curriculum in the different internship centers. Ms Winnie Nambatya’s research interests are centered on outcomes of patients related to drug therapy.

Amy Chan

Professional Development and Research Lead

Dr Amy Chan joined us as our Professional Development and Research Lead in August 2018.  She has been a CPA adviser since the beginning of 2017, and has provided extensive support to our CPA projects through her research and evaluation skills, and experience in pharmacy practice and behavioural medicine.  She will lead on the CPA strand of work relating to the professional development and mentorship of pharmacists, and on research and evaluation of CPA projects.

Rabia Hussain

Senior Research Advisor

Dr. Rabia Hussain graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the University of Punjab, Pakistan, in 2010. She is a registered pharmacist and experienced academic. In 2020 she completed her Ph.D. in Pharmacy Practice from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia. Her Ph.D. research focusses on medication safety and pharmacovigilance in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). She has published in the journals, including Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, Journal of Public Health and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

In 2018, she was awarded a scholarship by the World Health Organization (WHO) to attend a Pharmaceutical Policy Course at the Utrecht University, Netherlands. She has also worked with the ReAct Asia Pacific in collaboration with Uppsala University, Sweden, on “improving the use of antibiotics.” Dr. Hussain is the Section Editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice (JoPPP) and Encyclopedia of Evidence in Pharmaceutical Public Health and Health Services Research in Pharmacy.

Gizem Gulpinar

Senior Research Advisor

Gizem Gülpınar is a full-time researcher in the field of social pharmacy at the Department of Pharmacy Management, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University in Turkey. She completed her Bachelor of Pharmacy degree at Ankara University in 2008. She completed her PhD in 2018 whose aim is to prove the effectiveness of a course designed for providing effective communication and counselling skills to the pharmacy students in Turkey. She conducted a scientific project at the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Policy at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom in 2020 as a postdoc researcher. She is also designing research projects to empower pharmacists to improve health and wellbeing throughout the Commonwealth as a member of the research team of Commonwealth Pharmacist Association.

Gizem is also interested in doing qualitative research exploring pharmacists’ professional identity, patient experiences of using pharmacy services, pharmacists’ attitudes on providing counselling services, designing education programs and pharmacy ethics.

Ayesha Iqbal

Senior Research Officer

Expertise and focus: Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Pharmacy, Pharmacovigilance, Drug Utilization Research, Health Economics, Pharmacy Education.

Ayesha Iqbal is from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province in northwest Pakistan. Currently a PhD student in the division of Pharmacy practice and Policy at University of Nottingham. Many developing countries have no strict guidelines for medication use, inappropriate prescribing and prescription medicine misuse, which has led to drug resistance, adverse drug reactions and results in a burden for healthcare budgets. Ayesha hopes to influence health policy in Pakistan and other developing countries and shift the role of pharmacy from purely a dispensing role to supporting clinical services. In particular, she is focusing on the increasing challenge of prescription opioid dependence due to misuse and lack of guidelines for dispensing and reviewing.

Following the completion of her studies in Nottingham, Ayesha intends to continue her efforts into pharmacy professional development and health policy reforms in developing countries according to country specific needs.

Omotayo Olaoye

Global AMR Intern

Omotayo Olaoye holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria and is also a graduate of the Global Health Focus (GHF). She currently serves as a Global AMR Intern with the Commonwealth Pharmacist’s Association, a National Service Personnel at the General Hospital, Katsina, Nigeria and a Trainer for the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation, representing pharmacy students and recent graduates in over 80 countries worldwide. She has served as the Assistant Editor and Financial Secretary of the Young Pharmacists Group, Nigeria and was a delegate at the World Health Students Symposium 2017. She is passionate about public health and research.

Wei Ping Khor

Global AMR Intern

Wei Ping started his career as a clinical pharmacist at Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah, Malaysia in 2011. Throughout his career, he has developed special interest on infectious diseases and recognised the global threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). His perseverance and passion towards combating AMR has led him to become a pioneer member to establish antimicrobial stewardship programme at his hospital in 2014. Since then, he has been actively giving numerous talks on antimicrobial stewardship as well as helped to kickstart the stewardship programme in other institutions around his region. Currently, he is pursuing his master degree (MSc Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy) at University College London and serves as a Global AMR Intern with the Commonwealth Pharmacist’s Association.

Roisin McMenamin

Global AMR Intern

Registering as a pharmacist in 2013, Roisin worked as a resident pharmacist at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust during which time she completed her clinical diploma with University College London. Roisin has always had a keen interest in education and training and is currently a teacher practitioner with the University of East Anglia. She splits her time working within the East of England pre-registration pharmacy programme team and at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital as a specialist elderly medicine pharmacist. Roisin is passionate about antimicrobial stewardship and currently serves as a Global AMR Intern with the Commonwealth Pharmacist’s Association.

Awele Briella Onwuegbuzie

CPA Intern

Awele Briella Onwuegbuzie holds a master’s degree in Clinical Neurology from The University of Sheffield and a bachelor’s in Medical Biochemistry from University of Swansea. She has always been interested in scientific learning, research, content creation and medical communications and is passionate about Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Commonwealth currently serving as an Intern for the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association.

Meghna Joshi-Von Heyden

Strategic Development Advisor

Meghna is passionate about improving access to healthcare and reducing health inequalities.  With a background in clinical pharmacy, Meghna has worked on a number of national policy programmes across the UK that improve patient journeys, health literacy and safe use of medicines. During her time in Singapore, Meghna joined the Ministry of Health Holdings; implementing policy to digitise Singapore’s health services for better use of medicines and health outcomes. Meghna is currently specialising in Global Health Policy and brings her extensive experience in strategy and programme management to support CPA initiatives across the Commonwealth.

Chloe Tuck

Health Policy Advisor

Chloe combines her experience in project management and passion for global health inequalities research to advise the CPA on global health policy. Chloe has project managed the inception of the CPA’s Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship programme, which shared and applied knowledge between the UK and four African countries. She has a Masters in Biochemistry from Oxford University. Her research with the Wellcome Trust at the University of Sheffield takes systems-wide approaches to understand how decision-making can support policies for greater global health equity.

Nadia Bukhari

BPharm, PGDip Pharm Prac, PGDiP Teaching & Learning in Higher Ed., FHEA, FRPharmS

Senior Teaching Fellow & Preregistration Co-ordinator, UCL School of Pharmacy, London

Nadia leads the pre-registration programme for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and has written many books to support pre-registration pharmacists in their qualifying exams and is a great advocate of continual profession development. Nadia is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and she is committed to education & training for the pharmacy profession.

Nadia has been awarded the status of Fellow of the Royal pharmaceutical society for her excellence and contributions to the pharmacy profession. She is currently studying for her PhD around leadership in pharmacy and is a great advocate for women in leadership.

Working with the CPA, Nadia will help input into CPD platforms and training programmes that the CPA would like to develop in order to support pharmacists in the Commonwealth develop their clinical skills.

Oksana Pyzik

MPharm Teaching & Learning in Higher Ed.

Teaching Fellow
Department of Practice and Policy, UCL School of Pharmacy, London

With a background in global health Oksana is heading up the UCL  ‘Fight the Fakes’ campaign to tackle ‘fake’ medicines. Oksana has also partnered with the United Nations for the Global Partnership for Youth in the Post- 2015 Development Agenda (GPY 2015) to lobby local and national government to prioritise youth in the development agenda.

As a Fellow at University College London (UCL) School of Pharmacy, Oksana is also leading the UCL Global Citizenship Programme on Infectious Diseases and will be sharing her expertise in education, policy and regulation to support many of our member organisations in their efforts to safeguard public health.

Trudi Hilton

BPharm MSc MRPharmS

Pharmacist Consultant in Resource Poor Settings

Trudi has a wealth of experience interacting with the incredible health care professionals working in very difficult situations, including disaster-relief areas. These challenging settings have allowed Trudi to learn a lot about the requirements in resource-poor settings, which she has used to help train others and build capacity according to need.

Trudi has great links with many Commonwealth countries and expertise in developing sustainable supplies of medicines to lower income countries. She will be able to use her knowledge and skills to help us support Commonwealth countries get access to essential medicines and strengthen quality supply chains.

In 2015 Trudi received a Special Recognition Award from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for innovation in developing the field of humanitarian pharmacy practice.

Libby McCourt

Elizabeth (Libby) McCourt graduated from her Bachelor of Pharmacy in 2012, and a Graduate Certificate of International Public Health in 2014. She is a PhD Candidate at the Queensland University of Technology and works as a Clinical Pharmacist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Brisbane, Queensland.

Libby’s research explores ways in which pharmacist’s preparedness for disasters and emergencies may be enhanced. In March 2017, Libby was deployed to Mackay in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie where she saw firsthand the challenges that health professionals and patients face during times of crisis.

Libby’s research interests lie in disaster preparedness, public health, and pharmacy practice in resource poor settings. Libby has volunteered within health sectors in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and the Solomon Islands.

Kaitlyn Watson

B. Pharmacy (Hons), PhD, GradCertAppPharmPrac

Dr Kaitlyn Watson completed a PhD at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) investigating pharmacists’ roles in disasters. Dr Watson teaches into the School of Clinical Sciences at QUT both in the pharmacy discipline and in interprofessional health units. Kaitlyn is a registered pharmacist and works as a Senior Pharmacist at Greenslopes Private Hospital.

Kaitlyn’s research interests are in disaster management, pharmacy practice, and public health welfare. In May 2019, Kaitlyn presented her PhD findings at the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Management (WADEM) Congress. Kaitlyn has supervised projects investigating the impacts of disasters on medication supply, pharmacy services, and opioid replacement programs.

Hayley Wickens

BPharm(Hons) Cert Clin Pharm MSc PhD MRPharmS FFRPS

Consultant Pharmacist, Anti-infectives; Educator

Hayley is a microbiology specialist pharmacist with a background in both clinical practice and
research, and a passion for education. She has a track record of successful funding applications and
peer-reviewed publications, and will bring these skills to CPA. She has worked internationally for
many years, representing the UK on international projects, as an invited speaker at conferences, and
most recently devising and delivering a training programme in antimicrobial stewardship for
pharmacists from across the Caribbean.

Hayley is a co-author of the RPS Faculty Expert Practice Curriculum in Infection and Antimicrobial
Stewardship (2014), and leads on the accreditation/credentialing workstream for the UKCPA
Pharmacy Infection Network. She has been an advisor to the NHS Benchmarking Network,
Department of Health/Public Health England projects, NHS consultant pharmacist accreditation
panels and an adjudicator for UKCPA and RPS awards. She is also a member of the RPS Expert
Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Stewardship, and an RPS media spokesperson.

Beth Ward

BPharm MSc MFRPSII MRPharmS

Beth is the Head of Professional Development at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Great Britain. She graduated from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, and has extensive clinical experience in both hospital and community settings in Australia and the UK. She is a recognised leader in education and professional development evidenced by her authorship of the RPS Roadmap to Advanced Practice, and RPS Professional Development Curriculum, and her instrumental role in the development of professional development programmes for all stages of pharmacy practice in the UK. She has also supported other nations including Singapore, Australia, Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago in implementing professional development programmes locally. Beth will use her skills to help us in developing our education strategy, to ensure access to and development of education for the pharmacy workforce across the commonwealth.