College governor wins Army Reservist award

Anita received the award at the Boots & Berets Awards 2025 Ceremony evening at the Nottingham Plaza Hotel last Thursday (September 11).

The award in recognition at her work within the Ministry of Defence linked also to the successful high-level professional career in the NHS.

ATTFE College is immensely proud of Anita winning the award.

She holds the senior rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps.

She holds a high-ranking position of Senior Officer 1 (SO1) as the Counter Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Capability Lead.

Her commitment to this is longstanding and she has been attached to the Medical Operational Support Unit(MOSU), 2 Medical Brigade for well over 30 years from 1992 to the present.

Anita combines this with a high level of commitment to her governor role at ATTFE College and her input is vital to the development of areas such as Uniformed Services and the Gold Award Armed Forces Covenant.

At the college she also supports oversight of the delivery of learning in disadvantaged local communities.

Liz Barrett, OBE, DL, Principal at ATTFE College said: “We are so gifted to have Anita with us as a Voluntary Governor, she is a remarkable lady”

Simon Martin, MBE who is Executive Leader for the college added: “She is a committed member of “Team ATTFE” and her work with Uniformed Services and support to the community is so indispensable.”

Her skills in medical defence development and operations, including her extensive deployment on NATO exercises (for example, Exercise Brilliant Jump in Poland in 2024) continue to make a significant contribution to Britain’s Armed Forces readiness on the modern battlefield.

Anita’s outstanding Reserve Forces service is combined with her successful high-level professional career in the procurement, management and business operations of the NHS over the past 5 years.

Anita is currently Procurement Programme Manager for NHS England’s New Hospitals Programme.

Other outstanding roles within the NHS have included being a Senior Operations Manager, Strategic Local and Performance Intelligence for the Covid-19 National Vaccination Programme and Group Transformation Director for the NHS Humber Health Partnership.

She has led several groundbreaking initiatives to integrate and align practices and standards between the Army’s MOSU and the NHS.

Using her specific experience in the field of trauma, she has pioneered significant improvements to the documentation of pre-hospital care for casualties including trauma charts, massive transfusion worksheets and surgical operation notes.

This has been undertaken in partnership with the Academic Department of Military Emergency Medicine which promotes emergency and pre-hospital research and education for doctors, paramedics and nurses.

In turn this has supported military trauma teams to ensure compliance with NHS standards of notation providing data and analysis to ongoing medical research.

Furthermore, Anita’s crossover military skills into the civic arena meant that she led on reviewing, revising and refining the Military Medical Plans for the recent King’s Coronation as well as 8 other recent formal Royal Events.

Anita is one remarkable lady in her advocacy of Army Reserve service, in the public arena and in Nottinghamshire as a leader and as a volunteer.