Professor Brian Webster-Henderson OBE

Biography

Professor Brian Webster-Henderson is the Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Cumbria where he holds a strategic portfolio that covers learning and teaching, research and knowledge exchange and is the executive lead for equality, diversity, inclusion safeguarding and prevent.

Prior to joining the University of Cumbria in 2018, Brian held a number of senior academic leadership positions in the UK including Edinburgh Napier University, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen and University of Southampton and has been a Professor of Nursing since 2009.

Brian is both a mental health nurse and an adult nurse and has been a registered nurse for 39 years. He has worked in substance misuses community and in patient services, specialising in supporting those with alcohol dependency, and has also led and developed services in gastroenterology, hepatology and emergency medicine.

Brian has been leading on the creation of the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, a partnership with Imperial College London, which will open in 2025 as a joint venture, providing a graduate entry medicine programme with a focus on public, community and rural health which will be based in Carlisle, Cumbria.

Brian has an extensive national and international profile and previously held the post of Chair of the Council of Deans of Health UK (www.councilofdeans.org.uk) for 6 years. He has provided evidence to the Health Select Committee and a number of other national and strategic organisations in relation to workforce issues, education and innovative solutions to education, training and skills.

Brian has served as a governor of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust from 2019 – 2024, a Trustee of the Fells Academy Trust from 2023 – 2024 and was an Adjunct Professor at John Hopkins University from 2016 – 2022. He is currently a Trustee of the Cumbria Education Trust and a strategic advisor to the Executive Board of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust for education and research.

Brian was recognised as a Fellow of the Queens Nursing Institute in December 2022 and awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list of June 2024 for services to the NHS and education.