Our team
Please roll over our picture to discover our backgrounds!
Chairman - Professor John Cookson
Previously Director of Clinical Studies and Honorary Professor of Clinical Education at the Leicester Warwick Medical School, John Cookson's recent work, whilst based at Hull York Medical School, has focused on the professionalisation of medical education, ensuring high-quality student clinical placements, supporting junior medical staff training, and forging partnerships with the NHS. John's clinical research interest is respiratory disease, including studies into the prevalence of asthma and chronic bronchitis in Africa - he was one of the first to demonstrate the comparative rarity of asthma in African children.
John took up the position of Chairman in March 2010 to transition existing UMAP partners into the new Medical Schools Council Assessment Alliance (MSC AA) structure.
Director - Professor Ged Byrne
Ged was co-author of the successful FDTL-4 grant application which led to the start up of UMAP in January 2003. He is UMAP's Director and as such has sought and sustained links with internationally recognised figures in assessment. Ged represents UMAP in a variety of contexts including the Medical Assessment Partnership Board, chaired by Sir Neil Douglas, President of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. Ged graduated in Medicine from University of Manchester, and spent the larger part of his specialist training in surgery in Birmingham. Ged later started work as Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at University Hospital of South Manchester and Christie Hospitals NHS Trust. He became an Honorary Senior Lecturer, in Surgical Oncology at the University of Manchester and later became Hospital Dean at University Hospital of South Manchester. More recently Ged has created, and directs the work of the Healthcare Education Academy at University Hospital of South Manchester.
Ged has been UMAP's Director since its inception in 2003. More recently Ged has taken up the Chair of the Medical Schools Council Assessment Alliance (MSC AA) Operational Board.
Academic Coordinator - Andrea Owen
Andrea graduated with BSc Psychology from University of Leicester in 2000 and went on to complete a Masters course, leading to Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development status, in 2001. Andrea joined the university in 2002 as a Research Associate investigating learning opportunities in the busy outpatient environment. Andrea took up the post of Project Manager for UMAP when it began in 2003, creating an operational partnership and testing and implementing the collaborative processes for which it is now well known. Andrea has presented at a number of national and international conferences, has been a GMC visitor trainer, and is a specialist topic representative for MEDEV.
Andrea leads on the academic design of item generation and quality assurance processes in addition to various internal development projects. Andrea's interests are in the measurement of cognition relevant to foundation year clinical practice, a topic she is researching as part of a PhD.
Quality Assurance Officer - Gareth Booth
Gareth left Sixth Form College in 1990 with a BTEC National Diploma in Business and Finance. Gareth's various job roles in the private sector have brought him much experience of management, and data quality techniques, most notably in systems for security and audit. Since joining UMAP, Gareth has brought about extensions to the quality assurance regimen. He recently undertook a Level Two - City and Guilds/AMSPAR Award in Medical Terminology to further enhance the quality assurance process.
Gareth is UMAP's operational team lead. His role includes principal charge of in-house, distributed and tertiary level quality assurance, incorporating item editing for technical flaws.
General Administrator - Philippa Norris
Philippa graduated from Leeds University with a BA degree in Contemporary Arts Practice. Her previous roles in the private sector have brought her experience of small group team working in changeable service driven environments. During Philippa's time at UMAP she has been a key facilitator to various moves to online administration and contributed to an improved approach to internal and external collaborative liaison.
Philippa is lead administrator for communications and is responsible for the administrative coordination and liaison for our item writing event programme.
Information Systems Manager - Pascal Belouin
Pascal graduated in 2001 with DUT Informatique from the University of La Rochelle in France, and went on to complete a BSc in International Business & Information Technologies, and a MSc in Multimedia at Teesside University. Pascal also has a Masters in Human Computer Interaction from Lancaster University. Pascal's previous roles have brought him much experience of PHP, Zend Frameworks and most recently Ruby on Rails.
Pascal's role is centred around the translation of process requirements into iterative software development activity via a flexible, human centred approach. Pascal is the key contact for information management and ICT strategies.
Systems Developer & Tester - Anca Barbuc
Anca Barbuc completed her undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Ryerson University, Toronto. She specialized in 2009 in Bioheallth Informatics as part of an MSc at University of Manchester. Previous roles include software development, testing and training. In addition to her UMAP role, Anca is the primary contact for the UKCDR, a project set up originally in 2005 to appraise and report on the utility of existing commercial and academic assessment management packages against a set of shared academic functional standards.
Anca is heavily involved with process definition, user interface specifications, system development, testing, and migration but also takes a role in operational support and maintenance.
