Meet the Clinical Senior Leadership Team

Professor Jo Szram trained and worked in Cambridge, Peterborough, Leicester, Nottingham and London. She is a consultant respiratory physician specialising in occupational lung disease at Royal Brompton Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust and honorary senior clinical lecturer at the national heart and lung institute, imperial college London. She has been Postgraduate Dean for Kent, Surrey and Sussex since July 2022 and is currently co-chair of the UK’s Medical and Dental Recruitment Service (MDRS) Recruitment Group. She previously worked as a clinical advisor for the national NHS medical education reform programme, leading on the enhance (Enhancing Generalist Skills) and Flexible Portfolio Training (FPT) programmes. Jo was Chair of Medical Education Leaders UK from 2020-22 and was at the forefront of the rebranding initiative from NACT UK. Jo was Royal College of Physicians’ Linacre Fellow from 2020-22, a role focused on the development and leadership of the RCP’s network of college tutors and associate college tutors, linking their work to that of the Medical Students and Foundation Doctors network, Trainees and New Consultants Committees. Her work on the editorial board of the RCP’s Future Healthcare Journal provided the opportunity to influence the evolution of the publication as a way to empower all, particularly early career healthcare professionals, to demonstrate what they have learnt, and spread and share their knowledge widely.

I’m a Surrey GP, having climbed the ranks from KSS trainee through GP trainer, Training Programme Director, Associate Dean and Head of GP School to the Primary Care Dean and Deputy Postgraduate Dean roles I took over in February 2020. I qualified from Cambridge in 1997, gaining my CCT in GP in 2002, and going on to complete postgraduate studies in education with LSBU and University of Brighton.

I recently completed the prestigious ‘Nye Bevan’ NHS Leadership Academy programme in executive leadership. All aspiring GP trainers in KSS undertake the PGCert from our Masters programme ‘Strategic Leadership and Medical Education in Healthcare’ (SLAMEH) which we deliver in partnership with University of Kent, and with whom I hold my honorary chair.

I’m committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion across the education and primary care agendas and networks I can influence, my own research into the learning needs of international medical graduates contributing to the increasing focus across the medical education system on differential attainment, and the additional support we can offer to improve how colleagues can successfully integrate and progress in their careers.

In an increasingly multiprofessional working environment, I’m proud that primary care is leading the transition to genuine collaborative interprofessional learning and working, not least through the development of training hubs across the region.

I am an Intensivist and Anaesthetist at University Hospitals Sussex and associate post-graduate Dean for the Kent Surrey & Sussex Deanery. I have considerable experience in medical education having been a training programme director for ICM and head of school of anaesthesia and ICM for the region.

I am the lead dean for SRTT and LTFT in KSS deanery. Started the SRTT programme in KSS from its inception. In addition my other portfolios include developing doctors not in formal training pathways which includes SAS and LED doctors within KSS and supporting IMG doctors and leading the newly established IMG Tutors network.

I have been involved in clinical commissioning in the past and developing community services for the elderly .

Dr Michael Hobkirk trained and worked in London, Brisbane, the West Midlands, and Sussex. He is a Sussex Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and founded the Sustainable School Liaison Project, which received the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Psychiatric Team of the Year Award. From 2020 to 2025, he served as Director of Medical Education and Associate Medical Director at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Michael holds MSc degrees in Medical Education and Health Services Management and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

At the Royal College of Psychiatrists, his roles included Specialist Advisor for Leadership Development, where he authored strategic documents and contributed to perinatal mental health and sustainability initiatives. As College Lead for Training, he launched the RCPsych Leadership and Management Fellow Scheme.  Joining NHSE in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex as an Associate Dean in 2025, Michael brings a collaborative leadership approach, valuing diverse perspectives to drive innovation for patient care and medical education.

I graduated from Oxford in 1998 and then trained in Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and London, and am now a consultant obstetrician at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester. Having been clinical tutor in the Trust and training programme director in the KSS School of O+G, I was appointed as Associate Dean for KSS in 2022.

In a healthcare landscape of ever-increasing complexity I am proud to be able to contribute to ensuring that our trainees have the best training they can have, as well as supporting our educator workforce to deliver this excellent training. My portfolio as AD includes geographic responsibilities for part of Kent, support for specialty schools and educator development. I am also lead for the new enhancing generalist skills initiative in KSS which encourages participants to better understand complexity in patient care, teamworking and systems in the health and social care services, as well as supporting the skill of active reflection and personal wellbeing Click here to find out more about enhance in KSS

Dr Ruth Silverton has taken a less traditional path through her medical, academic and leadership career. Studying medicine as a graduate following a BSc in Biology and went on to pursue alternative certificates in foundation and core medical training in order to facilitate her own patient journey, and to work in education alongside clinical practice from an early stage. She has worked clinically in Nephrology for a decade, beginning in Yorkshire, moving to London and most recently in Cambridge where she specialises in Dialysis and Low Clearance. As an educationalist she has delivered undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, assessment and curriculum design for Hull York, UCL and Cambridge medical schools as well as lecturing on educational theory for the Health Professions Education Masters at UCL. She has led qualitative research studies in conjunction with NHSE and the Royal College of Physicians to inform national policy in the F3 phenomenon and most recently in the evaluation of the generalist skills programme. This portfolio career has provided vast experience in all forms of communication, self-management and matrix working, enabling her to progress into a senior role as Associate Dean in Kent, Surrey and Sussex where she continues to cultivate a transformational leadership style.

I graduated from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London and subsequently took my research training here and at the University of Washington, Seattle, funded by Wellcome Trust and British Heart Foundation Fellowships.

I was appointed Professor of Medical Education & Metabolic Medicine and Head of the Department of Medical Education at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Biochemistry at Brighton & Sussex University Hospital in 2012.

I have been Associate Dean at KSS since 2017. I work with colleagues in the region to deliver the cross disciplinary clinical academic programmes. I work with my colleagues in the Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education team to appoint and support Academic Foundation trainees. Nationally I serve on the Research Governance Group to review and approve Educational research projects.