Our Board of Trustees

Joel Marks is the Chair of Healthworks.

He co-founded commercial insurance broker Cheviot Insured with Charlie Hoult in 2012. Previous to this, Joel, a chartered accountant, worked at Insight Investment and was a UK Equity fund manager with Scottish Widows, where he looked after £17 billion of pension fund money. This equated to approximately 1.5% of the UK equity market.

Joel sits on the Investment Committee of The Sage Gateshead, overseeing their endowment fund, and he is a trustee of The RGS Educational Trust, which leads the bursary campaign for RGS and oversees their endowment fund.

In his spare time, Joel is also an amateur poultry farmer.

Tricia Cresswell became a trustee in February 2018 and is currently Vice Chair.

Her professional background is in public health medicine; she has recently retired after 36 years working for the NHS and Public Health England.  Tricia worked first as a General Practitioner in North Tyneside and subsequently as Director of Public Health in Newcastle and North Tyneside, then in Durham and Chester-le-Street, and finally in County Durham and Darlington.  Latterly, she worked as a Deputy Medical Director for the North East Strategic Health Authority and as a Consultant in Health Protection for Public Health England.  She has experience in tackling inequalities in health at policy, strategic, and operational levels and has particular interests in social justice, health equity, and women’s and children’s rights.

Since retirement, she has completed an MA in Creative Writing and is engaged in a number of writing projects.  She is also a trustee of the Newcastle Parks and Allotments Trust and the Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

Debra has over 25 years of experience working with communities and in neighbourhoods across Newcastle. She has worked in both the voluntary and charitable sectors and for Newcastle City Council. She brings a wealth of experience gained through her work in Family Support, Community Development, and more recently in her current role with Connected Voice in Newcastle, where she supports voluntary and charitable organisations in the City.

Debra says, “I’m passionate about giving people the skills they need to take positive action for themselves. I have always followed the work of Healthworks as an organisation because I think the way they approach health improvement, by working alongside people and communities, is impressive and, importantly, it works! The future is exciting for Healthworks, and I am proud to be part of it.”

Jonathan is an internationally experienced marketer, growth hacker, and digital specialist.  He has a successful record of developing and delivering digital transformation and rapid organisational growth through multi-channel campaigns on multi-million pound budgets.

Jonathan is currently serving as Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, as a Board Trustee of several community-focused charities, and as Digital Marketing Director at Newcastle University.

He brings over 15 years’ multi-sector experience, including Higher Education, Hospitality, E-Commerce, and Gaming and Events.

Michelle is a registered, qualified adult nurse and a specialist public health nurse, and currently works as a senior nurse covering the North East and North Cumbria in the NHS England Nursing and Quality Team.

She has specialised in public health, workforce development, workforce wellbeing, and more recently, health and social care governance and quality.

She brings 17 years of experience working in the NHS, Public Health England (now known as UKHSA), and Health Education England, as well as the voluntary sector. She has also previously worked for the Open University as a practice tutor on nursing programmes and has contributed to nursing textbooks

She has an MSc in healthcare leadership and has undertaken coaching and mentor training with the Institute of Leadership and Management. She is a mentor for the Social Mobility Foundation

She has particular interests in social mobility, health inequalities and education, and the development of the health and social care workforce.

Charlie became a Trustee in February 2022 and is Chair of the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee.

Charlie started her career qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser with KPMG in London, and has held various senior tax roles both in-house and in practice.

Before joining KPMG, Charlie graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Biology with French from the University of St Andrews, specialising in biomedical sciences and public health, and has maintained a keen interest in these areas.

Charlie brings a broad range of financial and commercial experience to her role as a Trustee at Healthworks Newcastle.

Claire is a veterinary surgeon and data scientist with a background in academic research in public health, healthy ageing, policy research health inequalities.

Having many years’ experience of working in frontline veterinary medicine, academia, and the NHS,  Claire brings professional insight into public health, data science, and health inequalities to the board.

Tom is a chartered accountant having trained with Moore Stephens in London and has since spent time in audit at KPMG and various senior finance and financial control roles in businesses around the North East.

Tom has a keen interest in healthcare and brings broad commercial financial and controls experience to his role as a trustee.