Leadership and Management Fellow Scheme

Dr Alex Till MBChB MRCPsych MSc MBA

Alex is proud to lead the RCPsych Leadership and Management Fellow Scheme and support the next generation of medical leaders within psychiatry.

Dr Suhana Ahmed

Dr Suhana Ahmed is a Consultant Psychiatrist – dual-trained (Old Age and General Adult). She is currently working in an Old Age inpatient setting at South West London and St George’s NHS Trust. She is delighted to have been appointed Director of Medical Education at the Trust this year and continues as Supported Return to Training Champion.

She is heavily involved with the College: Finance officer at London division, executive member of Old Age Faculty and Startwell Lead.

She is interested in training, flexible working and supporting leadership and career progression in working parents. She has been a fellow with the award-winning organisation Leadersplus, has contributed to their podcast series and now runs a mental health workshop for their programme. She is passionate about the impact of and stigma surrounding postnatal depression having talked at RCPsych international Congress this year and had an article published about her experiences in the Independent recently.

She is a mummy to an eight-year-old boy and loves cats, reading and cake.

Dr Ross Runciman

Dr Ross Runciman is a trainee in General Adult and Old Age Psychiatry at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust where he is also the medical lead for quality improvement. He was the Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee chair 2019/2020. Ross was in the first cohort of RCPsych’s Leadership & Management Fellows Scheme, getting involved in setting up the alumni for this scheme thereafter.

Outside of work he is taken for walks by his dogs in the Cotswolds.

Dr Kapil Bakshi is a Fellow of Royal College of Psychiatrists and currently works as a consultant psychiatrist at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. Kapil trained as a Psychiatrist at London and East of England deanery and has a CCT in General Adult Psychiatry with an endorsement in substance misuse.

He has a Master’s degree in Leadership and Management from the University of Birmingham and was awarded the Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson award for Senior Healthcare Leadership by the NHS Leadership Academy. Throughout his career, Kapil has undertaken roles and responsibilities in both medical and education management such as Deputy Medical Director and College Tutor. He is an executive member of the RCPsych’s Eastern Division and contributes to the quality network with the CCQI.

Dr Stefan Ivantu M.D, MRCPsych -  ST6 General Adult Psychiatry, Oxford Health NHS 

Dr Sophie Behrman

Dr Sophie Behrman (BA, BMBCh, MRCPsych) is an ST7 trainee in General/Older Adult psychiatry in Oxford.  She was in the first cohort of RCPsych Leadership and Management Fellowship scheme and continues to enjoy participating in leadership and management projects locally and nationally.  Dr Behrman has worked with colleagues across specialties to set up and run Trainee4Trainee, a peer support scheme for junior doctors.  Dr Behrman established and runs Psyched Up for Medical School, a local scheme promoting work experience in psychiatry for students applying to medical school.   

Dr Emma Brandish

Dr Emma Brandish is about to complete Higher training in General Adult Psychiatry in Wessex. She has been appointed as Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist with sub specialty interest in addiction liaison in Southampton and will take up this post in early 2022. She completed a RCPsych leadership and management fellowship in 2019/20 where she undertook quality improvement work looking at substance use comorbidity. 

Dr Derek Tracy

Derek Tracy is the Medical Director of West London NHS Trust. He was previously the Clinical Director of a nationally innovative integrated directorate of adult social care, mental and physical health services in South East London. His clinical work has generally been in crisis care: his team produced some of the first qualitative and patient-centred research on Home Treatment Teams and designed and ran an award-winning digitised patient reported outcome measurement (PROM) programme that has been profiled by NHS England.

Derek is a Senior Lecturer at King’s and University College London, where he runs two MSc modules. He has published over one hundred peer-reviewed scientific papers and fifteen book chapters. His research interests include New Psychoactive Substances (‘legal highs’) and Derek is a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs that advises the Home Office on drug harms. In this role he is currently chairing an inquiry for the Home Secretary into the use of nootropics in student populations.

At the Royal College of Psychiatrists Derek is an elected member of the executives of the academic, evolutionary psychiatry, and occupational health faculties. With regards to the last of these, he has a particular interest in NHS staff well-being; in 2020 he was co-opted as one of the medical leads to design and run the mental health team at the London Nightingale hospital, providing on-site support to ITU staff during the pandemic. He is the editor for public engagement at the British Journal of Psychiatry, writing its Kaleidoscope and Highlights columns, and running its social media output and trainee-engagement programme. 

Derek is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists; he was a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. In 2015 he was awarded the Institute of Psychiatry’s Teaching Excellence Award, and in 2019 the Royal College of Psychiatrist’s “Communicator of the Year” award.

He likes enthusiastic people, running, and the Stone Roses; he hates whinging, butter, and cats.

Dr Deepa Bagepalli Krishanan

Dr Deepa Bagepalli Krishanan is an academic ST5 trainee in East Midlands Deanery.

Deepa's interests include Quality improvement, leadership and medical education. Dr Bagepalli Krishanan is passionate about improving QI training and coaching doctors in leading QI projects. Deepa completed a two year Leadership fellowship in Health Education England East Midlands and Masters in Leadership for Health Professions from the Swansea University.

Deepa was part of the first cohort of RCPsych Leadership and Management fellowship scheme (2019/20). Dr Bagepalli Krishanan developed an interest in QI and leadership early in core psychiatry training and led several Trust level QI projects and set up QI training for doctors in the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in collaboration with Trainees improving Patient safety through QI (TIPSQI). As a part of this scheme, they have trained more than 150 doctors.

Dr Bagepalli Krishanan has completed the NHS improvement and ACT academy, Quality and Service improvement and redesign practitioner (QSIR) training programme.

As a Psychiatric Trainees Committee (PTC) Trent division representative, Deepa is involved in the RCPsych QI committee where she is involved in developing a QI Train the trainers programme. Dee[a is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer for Association of University Teachers of Psychiatry (AUTP). In this role, she has supported the AUTP team in organizing several National events/conferences and projects with an aim to promote the highest quality of undergraduate psychiatric education. 

Dr Ayesha Rahim

Dr Ayesha Rahim is a Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, Deputy Medical Director, and Chief Clinical Information Officer. She has worked in the NHS since 2003, and is the clinical lead for digital transformation in her organisation. Her specific interests are around clinical engagement in this arena, as well as equality, diversity and inclusion. She is a founding member of the Shuri network, which is a grass-roots organisation to support the visibility and participation of BAME women in the digital health space.

You can find her on Twitter @AyeshaRahimCCIO

Dr Ananta Dave

Dr Ananta Dave is Medical Director and Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist at Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT). She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and also holds a Master’s degree in Medical Ethics and Law.

Dr Nick Broughton

Dr Nick Broughton is a psychiatrist by background and has worked as a Consultant in Forensic Psychiatry from 2000.   Nick has worked in a wide variety of secure settings including a specialist remand service, an enhanced medium secure service for women, a remand prison and a young offenders’ institution. 

Dr Broughton joined Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust as Chief Executive in June 2020.  Prior to joining the Trust, Nick was the Chief Executive of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and was Medical Director of a large specialist mental health Trust in London for almost 6 years.   

Dr Subha Thiyagesh, Medical Director

Dr Subha Thiyagesh is a Medical Director and Responsible Officer at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and is also a Consultant in Older People’s Services. She was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine in the field of Dementia and the Nye Bevan NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership. She was also the winner of the Leader of the Year award in her Trust’s Excellence awards.

Dr Billy Boland

Dr Billy Boland  took over the role of Medical Director at South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust in March 2021. Billy brings a wealth of experience to the role. He previously worked as Deputy Medical Director at Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, where he was also a Consultant in community psychiatry.

Billy is an Honorary Senior Lecturer (Clinical) at the University of Hertfordshire. He was elected to the Royal College of Psychiatry General Adult Faculty Executive Committee in 2013 and took over as Chair in 2019.  Billy is also on the Advisory Board of the Money and Mental Health Policy Unit. Billy first trained as a Consultant Psychiatrist here at South West London and St. George’s Mental Health Trust and is delighted to be back as Medical Director.