Steering Group
Our Steering Group
The NoSPHN Steering Group guides the work of NoSPHN. The group meets each month including an extended business meeting every quarter – all meetings are conducted virtually. NoSPHN is accountable to the Chief Executives of each of the North of Scotland Boards through the North of Scotland planning arrangements.
Membership of the Group:
- Directors of Public Health (DsPH) for each of the 6 North of Scotland Health Boards
- Leads and Members of the active working groups of NoSPHN
- NoSPHN Programme Manager
The Chair (Lead) of the Steering Group is rotated every 2-3 years between each of the North NHS Boards.
The aim of NosPHN is to bring people working in public health across North of Scotland together to plan and deliver activities, projects and programmes at the regional level to improve population health, where it makes sense and adds value to do this.
- To support the North of Scotland Directors of Public Health to develop a shared regional vision for public health
- Undertake pieces of work to deliver on regional priorities
- Connect public health practitioners and specialists to share knowledge, exchange information and co-ordinate public health activity
- Promote and support remote, rural and island sensitive practice to improve population health
Our Steering Group Members
Dr Susan Laidlaw
Director of Public Health, NHS Shetland
NoSPHN Chair
Susan qualified from University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1991, working in Scotland, North East England and Portsmouth until 1998, primarily in Mental Health Services. She then moved into Public Health Medicine, initially training in Sunderland and at Newcastle University before moving to Shetland in 2002, becoming a consultant five years later and then Director of Public Health in 2022. Susan is also the Realistic Medicine Lead for NHS Shetland.
Colum Dorkan
Director of Public Health NHS Wester Isles
Colum Dorkan is the DPH for the Western Isles. In addition to Public Health, his portfolio includes Health Intelligence, Information Technology, and Information Governance. He started his career as a dentist and worked in a variety of clinical settings, before moving into Public Health. Prior to joining NHS Western Isles, he worked as a Consultant in Public Health in the Channel Islands.
Jennifer Davies
Director of Public Health
NHS Highland
Jennifer trained as an Allied Health Professional before starting a career in Public Health. She took up the Deputy Director of Public Health role, within NHS Highland, in February 2025 before moving into the Director of Public Health role in July 2025. Prior to coming to NHS Highland, she was the Acting Executive Director of Public Health at Swansea Bay Health Board in South Wales where she had also been the Deputy Director of Public Health since 2022.
Prior to that Jennifer worked at Public Health Wales, having come from Bupa where she was the Head of Public Health & Behavioural Science.
A significant amount of Jennifer’s Public Health career was spent working in Southampton and the South East of England, which included a variety of different senior Public Health roles in the NHS, local authorities and the academic sector.
Her professional interests include the wider determinants of health; health inequities; behavioural science; and systems working and approaches.
TBC
Director of Public Health, NHS Tayside
Awaiting appointment
Dr Louise Wilson
Director of Public Health, NHS Orkney
Louise initially trained in paediatric medicine and worked internationally in America, Australia and New Zealand before returning to Scotland to work as a consultant in paediatric intensive care. She then trained in public health medicine and is now the Director of Public Health with NHS Orkney. She is an executive member of the European Rural and Isolated Practitioners Association and enjoys working and living by the sea.
TBC
Director of Public Health, NHS Grampian
TBC – Programme Manager