Board of Trustees

Dr Cathy Winfield
Chair

Cathy graduated from Manchester University with a nursing degree and spent most of her nursing career in primary care. She went on to manage community services, eventually becoming Director of Nursing in a Community Trust.

When Primary Care Groups (PCGs) were established, Cathy became Chief Executive of a PCG. She also worked part time on a PhD during this period, examining clinical decision making. With the advent of Primary Care Trusts in 2002, Cathy moved into the commissioning function and was Director of Commissioning in PCTs in Hampshire and Berkshire, then Chief Officer for the Berkshire West CCGs In 2017, she became lead for the Berkshire West Integrated Care System.

Cathy took up her current role of Community and Primary Care Commissioning Director with NHSE in 2020 where she is working on expanding the workforce in primary care and liaising with Health Education England to ensure the right training, development and support is in place. She is also contributing to the development of Integrated Care Systems.
Cathy has two children and lives in Hampshire. She enjoys walking, reading and film.

Chris Rowles
Deputy Chair

Chris comes to Education for Health from a 25 year background within learning solutions, and is now owner and director of Learn to Change Ltd, a people and organisational development company specialising in safety and health leadership, leadership and change, and team collaboration.

He began his career as a Royal Marine Commando, studied exercise science as a mature student then worked for the British Transport Police as their national training manager. More recently Chris has been Director Learning Solutions for a training and development organisation with charitable status, this role included international assignments, management of a team of learning professionals and a position on the management team.

He is an active cyclist, skier and runner, married with two children and lives in Warwickshire.

Aileen Muir
Board Member

Aileen established her strategic communications expertise across a range of settings, from academic publishing, arts capital developments and culture & broadcasting through to health, research and social services.

Aileen recently completed a 4-year contract with British Thoracic Society as its ‘Respiratory Futures’ Programme Director, a unique networking and knowledge-sharing platform for UK health professionals which has just been adopted formally by NHS England to help promote integrated care. Her current client portfolio also covers the arts & culture, adult education, advice & information services and social housing.

Aileen has also worked at a national level in the arts and broadcasting, applying her knowledge of income generation, development and policy relations to broker new partnerships and extend business opportunities.

Mike Attwood
Board Member

Mike has spent over 25 years as an NHS leader. He took on the leadership of the Total Place Programme for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire in December 2009 and from there was asked to lead the wider collaborative ‘better for less’ transformation programme across 15 public sector organisations on the patch.

Mike joined Coventry Primary Care Trust (PCT) as joint chief executive in June 2005 and was previously chief executive at Slough Teaching PCT from 2001 to 2005. At Coventry PCT, Mike took the organisation through financial turnaround and worked closely with Coventry City Council to establish a newly-funded, innovative Health Improvement Partnership, as well as agreement on plans for a major city centre health facility.

Mike is a leadership coach and public service organisational development consultant. Mike was a trustee of Sue Ryder from 2011 to 2019.

Paresh Samat
Board Member

Paresh is the Head of Finance with an independent fostering agency – The Children’s Family Trust based in Bromsgrove. He oversees finance, health & safety, IT, premises maintenance, and is the GDPR office for the Trust.

Paresh graduated from Aston University with BSc Hons in Managerial and Administrative Studies where he specialised in Finance and Company Law. He is also a qualified Practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors and a Life Time Member of the Institute. He has nearly 40 years of experience in senior financial managerial roles within a diverse range of industries including MoD, Jaguar Cars, Massey Ferguson, Wolters Kluwer, Red Hot World Buffet, and specialist and elderly care.

Interests include watching all sports (he is a lifelong supporter of Manchester United FC), gardening and reading autobiographies and crime novels. His main interest is WW1 and WW2, and has visited major battles sites and purchases war medals to research who, when, how and why they were awarded to the recipient.