Our team

Lisa joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in September 2023 and became Chair of Trustees in July 2025.

Lisa has worked for the General Merchandise (GM) Business Unit within the Sainsbury’s commercial team for almost 6 years and holds the role of Director of Commercial Operations and Development. Within her role, Lisa is accountable for strategic development and value chain optimisation. She leads Sainsbury’s Asia operations, the Net Zero ‘Plan for Better’ environmental commitments and ensures GM sources and trades safely, legally and ethically. She’s also a Director for the Sainsburys Ireland business and a leadership coach.

Before joining Sainsbury’s, Lisa worked with other international retailers within the Seasonal, Home & Gifting categories, most recently Marks & Spencer, and has 25 years’ experience in the retail and supply sector.

Outside work, Lisa enjoys time with her teenage sons and dog alongside sunshine breaks and yoga.

Dr Jon Smith joined our Board of Trustees in January 2020 and is Deputy Chair of the Board.

Jon has PhD Molecular Biology, BSc (Hons) Biochemistry, MBChB (Leeds), MRCGP, PGCert Palliative Care, PGCert Primary Care Education.

He trained as a GP in North Yorkshire. His interests are palliative care and musculoskeletal medicine. With Dr O’Hare he recently became a trainer and runs the education of doctors and nurses within the practice. In his spare time he is slightly obsessed with skiing, runs and plays tennis. With a young family his specialist interests are rapidly becoming Lego and Bob the Builder.

Kim joined our board of trustees in October 2021 and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committee. Kim was born, raised, and has lived all her life in Leeds. She is married with a daughter and a son.

She is a qualified accountant and has worked for the NHS for almost 42 years. During this time Kim has held senior managerial positions in finance, planning and general management, mainly working in the hospitals in Leeds. For the past 4 years Kim has worked as the Finance lead for the formal collaboration between the six acute hospital trusts in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

Since 2009, Kim has been the Vice-chair of the Patient Access Schemes Expert Panel for the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Dr Eileen Burns joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in July 2022.

Eileen has been a Consultant Physician at LTHT since 1992.She has undertaken regional work regarding Long Term Conditions and advised the Strategic Health Authority and Department of Health on Older People’s Care.

Eileen has undertaken significant research, education and academic work in End of Life Care for Frail Older People (2020) and was the President of the British Geriatric Society (2026-2018). She is currently a National Specialty Advisor for Older People Centred Integrated Care.

Jackie joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in July 2022.

Jackie is currently Director of Nursing in Barnsley Hospital Foundation Trust. She has previously been a trustee for 5 years at Overgate Hospice in Halifax.

Jackie is an improvement facilitator at the Improvement Academy and is Chief Nurse for South Yorkshire Integrated Care System.

Brigid joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in July 2022.

Brigid retired as Chief Nurse to Barnsley CCG in 2018. She then worked as an Independent Consultant for a short while as well as being a Bank Nurse with St Gemma’s and Leeds Community Trust. She revalidated her nursing registration in May 2025.

Brigid was her father’s main carer in the last 3 years of his life until his death at St Gemma’s in 2023.

Brigid has significant clinical and palliative care experience, and was also Head of Patient Experience at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Brigid lives locally in Roundhay with her partner, their dog and cats. In addition to dog walking, she enjoys gardening, reading and spending time with friends.

Bassem joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in September 2023.

Bassem studied forensic science at university before deciding to pursue a career in commercial strategy. He started his career at Centrica, on their graduate program, and then spent several years in their various utility businesses, delivering customer-centric and value-driven growth strategies. Bassem now works for Sky as a Propositions lead, responsible for defining, launching and managing new broadband propositions.

Outside work, Bassem enjoys keeping fit, cycling and spending time with friends and family.

Mukesh joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in September 2023.

Mukesh is an accomplished business leader with over 30 years’ experience driving growth and innovation in the technology sector. As an Enterprise Growth Executive, he has expertise in helping businesses extract value from technology services and has a proven track record in areas like outsourcing, digital services, and Artificial Intelligence.

At IBM, Steria, Wipro, Atos, and Capgemini, Mukesh led high-performing sales teams and consistently exceeded revenue goals. He is now leveraging his extensive real-world experience to support small, medium enterprises and start-ups on their growth journeys.

Professor of Palliative Care Lucy Ziegler joined our Board of Trustees as a member of our Clinical and Academic Governance Committee.

Lucy is Head of the Academic Unit of Palliative Care in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds and is the University’s nominated representative on the Board of Trustees. Lucy’s background is in psycho-oncology where her research focussed on improving the management of distress in patients with cancer. Since 2012 she has led a programme of research that aims to improve the quality of life of patients with advanced incurable disease through timely access to palliative care.

Outside work Lucy enjoys playing and watching sport and spending time with her four children.

Kim Halliday is a qualified accountant with over twenty years post-qualification experience and joins our Board and Finance and Investment Committee.

Kim has worked in the charity sector for the last five years leading Finance and IT teams in charities involved in policing, women in the criminal justice system and domestic abuse. The change in sector followed over ten years in banking and prior to that, a number of other finance roles including internal audit and change management, across various industries including insurance and utilities.

Kim has also served as a Director/Trustee for a small charity supporting older people in the community. Outside work Kim enjoys watching football and rugby league and is a keen supporter of both Leeds teams.

Anna joined St Gemma’s Board of Trustees as a member of the Finance and Investment Committee.

Anna studied Business Accounting and Finance at Newcastle University and qualified as a chartered accountant with professional services firm, PwC, spending time working in London, Leeds and Singapore focusing on external audit and mergers & acquisitions. She has over 15 years of experience working in a variety of different companies, most recently at Sky where she set up financial governance for a cost transformation project and led the finance budgeting and forecasting for customer services teams.

Anna lives locally in Moortown, Leeds with her husband and 2 young children.

Sarah is People Director at Morrisons and has over 25 years experience in HR. She has worked in a number of areas of the business, including leading the Morrisons Manufacturing People Team as People Director across 19 sites, before moving to lead Talent acquisition, development and inclusion for the whole business.  

Sarah started her career at the National Media Museum, and then spent 15 years in Direct Line/RBS Group holding a number of HR roles both business facing and centres of excellence. After working as head of people for the challenger brand First Direct bank, she changed industries from Financial Services in to food retail, joining Morrisons in 2016.

Sarah is passionate about fundraising, supporting Great Ormond Street and Leeds Children’s Hospital and is a regular participant in Race for Life raising money for Cancer Research. One of her favourite roles is as a Trustee of the Morrisons Foundation. 

Sarah lives in Leeds with her husband, three daughters, cat and dog.

The Rev. Dr Joseph D Cortis is a permanent deacon based at Leeds Cathedral and currently the Assistant Diocesan Director of Deacons (formation).

He had extensive experience as a general and mental health nurse and 25 years’ experience as an academic and researcher within the Faculty of Medicine and Health-University of Leeds. A former Chair of the Dewsbury and District Health Council, Chair of Governors of as Diocesan Secondary School and Chair of one of the Diocesan Academy Trusts.

He has current links as a Trustee for Catholic Care, Leeds Church Institute, Christians on Ageing and Growing Old Gracefully. He has been the founding coordinator of Caritas Leeds.

Marilyn is a solicitor who founded and built the largest family law firm in the UK, sold in February 2017. She has supported the Hospice since we cared for her father. In her retirement, Marilyn auctioned her designer work wardrobe in aid of the Hospice raising £15,000 towards our vital care.

Marilyn made a very generous and substantial donation towards The Cabin, a purpose-built space in the Hospice grounds to support children facing bereavement, in loving and eternal memory of her best friend and beloved grandmother Cissie Wilkin Morris. Marilyn (right) is pictured here at the opening of The Cabin.

Ed has a long association with St Gemma’s, having been a trustee of the Hospice for 12 years and former Vice Chairman of the Board.

Arif became involved with St Gemma’s after seeing the care given to a friend and served on our Board of Trustees for three years. He continues his involvement with the Hospice as a Patron.

Gerald became involved in the hospice movement, and St Gemma’s in particular, following an invitation to chair the Yorkshire Task Group on the Care of the Dying. Gerald joined our Board of Trustees, later becoming Chair of Trustees and, on retiring from those responsibilities, took on the honour of becoming a Patron of the Hospice. During that time, he was an Adviser on Cancer Care to the World Health Organisation and continues to have a strong interest in the work of St Gemma’s.

Henry became a Patron at the end of 2019.