Meet the Council of Governors
Click on the tabs below to see our current governors:
Public Governors
Calder and Ryburn Valleys
Katherine Pygott
Elected July 2024
Katherine has lived near Ripponden for over 30 years, experiencing the many ways in which the NHS has responded positively to challenges from changes in community needs, as well as government policy.
Katherine is now retired, finishing her career as Director of a large Civil Engineering consultancy. She has been a school Governor of a primary school and of a large secondary school and was also a member of the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.
Katherine is keen to use her professional experience to help inform the Trust's approach to sustainability, and to promote community engagement. She wants to help shape how the Trust develops to meet the future needs of its diverse communities and to deliver the best possible care for the people it serves.
Vacancy
Huddersfield Central
Robert Markless
Elected July 2021 and re-elected July 2024
Robert was previously a Governor at Kingston Hospital. He also had experience on the Board of the local Health Authority and as Vice-Chair of Kingston Primary Care Trust as well as in the voluntary sector, which he sees as an important partner in supporting patients.
At CHFT Robert has been a Governor Observer on the Trust’s Finance & Performance Committee. He has made presentations to community forums about the role of a Governor, and has made several visits to wards under the Observe and Act programme.
Robert volunteers at HRI, bringing his dog Daisy into the hospital to meet patients, their families and staff as a “Pets as Therapy” dog.
As a governor, Robert aims to use his knowledge and experience to help CHFT to achieve its mission to always put patients first regardless of their background.
Sheila Taylor
Elected July 2024
Sheila is passionate about her local NHS services and also about helping in the local community wherever she has lived: Parish Councillor in South Cambridgeshire, District and Division Commissioner for Guides in both Cambridgeshire and Warrington, and currently Secretary for the Huddersfield Branch of the National Health Service Retirement Fellowship.
Sheila has worked at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and at HRI from where she retired in 2010.
Sheila believes that working together brings a greater understanding between the Trust and its users and that it is vital that the voice of the patient is heard, understood and any comments etc taken on board.
South Huddersfield
Isaac Dziya
Elected July 2021 and re-elected July 2024
Isaac has experience of partnership working and has participated in robust governance frameworks relating to flood risk management and assurance leading to community resilience.
Isaac is passionate about making a difference and promoting equality across the health sector, and in the governor role, will work creatively and innovatively to drive change internally and externally.
Isaac brings experience in governance related issues to the role of governor, and he has navigated challenging fields to achieve a number of fellowships which he believes stand him in good stead in the role.
John Rushton
Elected July 2024
John's background is in IT. He was IT Manager at Rolls-Royce in Coventry until his late wife developed bladder cancer.
John has been involved with health services on a voluntary basis for over 20 years and helped set up a disability support group whilst at university in Coventry. He has been involved with the NHS "from both sides", as a patient and on a number of patient groups, and has been a Membership Councillor with Locala for 8 years.
He is currently a church steward at his local Methodist Church, involved in the day-to-day management and running of church and community events.
North Kirklees
Rabiya Ali
Elected July 2024
Rabiya has spent ten years working in recruitment to provide support to a range of organisations at Board level, including NHS Trusts, by finding and recruiting the best executive and non-executive leaders. She has also worked with other public facing organisations such as local authorities, central government departments and executive agencies as well as third sector and not for profit organisations.
Rabiya is keen to support the Trust to get the best from its Board, and to work with the Trust as a whole, to provide excellent services to our patients. She feels that her extensive professional experience, combined with her understanding of the needs of local residents, will enable her to help the Trust overcome the current financial and workforce challenges it faces.
Vacancy
Skircoat and Lower Calder Valley
Lorraine Wolfenden (Lead Governor)
Elected July 2023
Lorraine worked for the NHS for 40 years, in a variety of leadership roles, starting her career as a nurse at Calderdale School of Nursing. She has also worked in public health and has a Masters degree in the subject.
Lorraine retired from the experience of care team at NHS England at the end of March 2023, where she had worked for the previous 10 years. The role involved ensuring people using services (patients) are listened to and are involved in co-producing improvements to give them the best possible experience of care. This role gave her a passion for ensuring that patients and people using services have the best possible experience and that everyone’s voices are heard.
Vacancy
East Halifax and Bradford
Marta Kovacs
Elected July 2024
Marta is now retired, having been a Director, Advisor and Consultant, covering both large and smaller enterprises in UK and international markets. Her last position was heading up the Experience team at Medical Protection Society, so she has a good understanding of UK healthcare.
Martha has been a school governor and Parish Councillor, Guide Leader and swimming coach.
Marta is passionate about ensuring the patient voice is used to improve services and experiences, helping patient focused change to happen.
Howard Blagbrough
Elected July 2024
Howard has served for 18 years as a local councillor for Calderdale. Over the last 10 years he has served on the joint board for the reconfiguration of the Huddersfield and Halifax Hospitals and feels he has a lot to offer the role of governor.
Howard chairs the Adults Scrutiny Board and is a Director and Trustee of the Piece Hall in Halifax, a Director of the Brighouse Business Improvement District and Co-chair of the Brighouse Town Deal Board in charge of £19.1m for the regeneration of the town centre.
A very active member of the community, when Howard last counted, he had over 25 different roles!
North and Central Halifax
Kate Wileman
Elected July 2023
Kate was previously a governor at CHFT between January 2013 and September 2018.
Kate is retired and her former career was in education. She was a teacher and a university lecturer and set up and managed national and regional projects.
Kate is also a patient of CHFT and has made use of many of the different hospital services, some still ongoing.
Tony Wilkinson
Elected July 2023
Tony served three terms as a public governor with South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
He has also undertaken voluntary roles with Healthwatch and other Care & NHS related organisations.
Tony always welcomes contact and can use his awareness of the many sectors of NHS & Social Care to get information he receives as a governor directed to the right place.
Tony is a retired pharmacist and wishes to use his lived role experiences to increase the quality and realistic quantity of services.
Lindley and the Valleys
Pam Robinson
Elected July 2023
Pam is now retired, having taught in several schools across Kirklees and at Huddersfield College. She worked alongside Minority Centres as part of her role at Huddersfield Technical College creating opportunities for flexible learning. Pam also worked as a verifier/moderator for City & Guilds and NCFE. Since retiring Pam has worked as a project leader for the IMWS (Batley) to run academic courses in the heart of the minority communities.
Running concurrently, she also worked for KC Handel (Netherlands) – monitoring Dutch students and the companies involved with their accommodation in the UK. Pam has been a Governor at a local school, whilst her grandchildren were attending.
Denise Dransfield
Elected July 2024
Denise is a retired teacher and she and her family have used CHFT for many years. She personally has a long term health condition and has been cared for wonderfully by a dedicated staff. She is looking forward to helping the Trust to continue to improve the services it provides.
Denise is passionate about hearing people’s experiences and suggestions on healthcare, and equally as passionate at feeding these through to completion and having had personal experience as a patient, she has observed, listened to and chatted with patients, and is keen to continue to do this in her govenor role. She intends to approach her role as a governor with enthusiasm and determination.
Rest of England
Vacancy
Staff Governors
Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), Health Care Scientists and Pharmacists
Jonathan Drury
Elected July 2023
Jonathan started in the NHS as an orthoptist and has recently qualified as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Ophthalmology, the first of its kind in the Trust.
His training has taught him to view patient care more holistically and compassionately and he is currently researching how spiritual practices can support patients coming to terms with visual loss.
As a staff governor he tries to see things through the eyes of the patient and use his experience to help make improvements whilst encouraging staff engagement in training and development opportunities to upskill the workforce.
Ancillary staff
Julie Pryce
Elected July 2024
Julie has worked for CHFT since 2005 as a Healthcare Assistant. She is also a union representative, an equality representative and a health and safety representative.
Julie believes in honesty, justice and truth and feels that everyone has the right to raise concerns that matter to them. She is keen to be the voice of colleagues in her staff group and to ensure that colleagues from different ethnic backgrounds are represented.
Julie has four children and six grandchildren, and enjoys watching movies in her spare time.
Doctors and Dentists
Vacancy
Administrative, Managerial and Clerical
Sarah Rothery
Elected July 2024
Sarah has 19 years' NHS experience and has worked in administration and management roles in three NHS sectors - Primary Care, Secondary Care and NHS Commissioning. She started her career as a Cancer Information Facilitator at Pinderfields Hospital in 2005 and currently works as the General Manager for Resilience, Acute Flow and Transformation at CHFT.
Sarah has a true appreciation for the diligent work undertaken by administration and management teams every day and during some particularly challenging times. She plans to be a pro-active governor who works to really hear the voices of administrative, clerical and managerial colleagues, enabling her to represent their views objectively at the heart of Trust decision making.
Nurses and Midwives
Emma Karim
Elected July 2023
Emma is a sister based on Ward 6 at HRI. She has always worked in elderly medicine and has a specialist interest in dementia care. She has previously been a parent governor at Hillside Primary school and has volunteered at the Alzheimer’s café in Moldgreen.
As a staff governor Emma wants to help to get staff engaged and involved with and informed about what is happening within the Trust.
Tom Ladlow
Elected July 2024
Tom started his career in 2011 as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department at Calderdale Royal Hospital. Between 2015 and 2019 Tom worked in hospitals in Leeds before moving back to CHFT in December 2022 to take on the role of Head Nurse for Urgent and Emergency Care.
As a governor Tom intends to advocate and support the nursing and midwifery workforce by ensuring that their voices are heard to help address any challenges that are impacting their wellbeing or ability to perform in their roles for our patients. He is committed to advocating for staff needs, enhancing patient care, and promoting a positive and inclusive workplace culture.
Appointed Governors
University of Huddersfield
Dr Sara Eastburn
Acting Head of Department of Allied Health Professions,
Sport and Exercise
Locala
Vacancy
Calderdale Council
Councillor Diana Tremayne
Healthwatch
Karen Huntley
Director
Calderdale and Huddersfield Solutions Ltd
Zain Naeem
Deputy Head of Clinical Engineering
Kirklees Council
Vacancy
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Julie Hall
Deputy Director of Corporate Governance
Associate Youth Governors
Izzy Swindells
Izzy is currently studying Film Studies A-level and BTEC Travel, Tourism and Event management at Huddersfield New College.
She also attends an astronomy class as part of enrichment opportunities at college.
In the future Izzy plans to go to university to study Events Management – and to work eventually in the events management field within the sporting or music industries.
She has worked in a local children’s bookshop and in her spare time, enjoys music, reading and Formula 1!
Chase Cockcroft
Chase Cockcroft
Chase is currently studying Health and Social Care at Kirklees College.
In the future Chase plans to go to university to study nursing – and then she hopes to become a Paediatric Nurse.
Chase has done some work experience at Linthwaite Clough Primary School, helping the children with craft activities, giving them support as necessary and tidying up after the activities. This gave her a good insight into what it is like working with children.
In her spare time, Chase likes to listen to music, and she enjoys walking and spending time with her family and friends.
If you would like to contact our governors, please e-mail:
