QNIS Council
The QNIS Council has up to fifteen Trustees who meet quarterly to provide governance and direction on strategic, legal, financial, and operational issues. As ambassadors of QNIS, our Trustees help uphold its mission while ensuring compliance with Scottish charity law.
They also take collective responsibility for Council decisions and contribute to a shared sense of purpose in delivering the aims and objectives of the QNIS Constitution.
Rhona Hotchkiss
A former prison governor, Rhona, a QNIS Associate Fellow, joined the QNIS Council in August 2019. She was the Scottish Government’s first Director of the Nursing and Midwifery Practice Development Unit. With 35 years of experience in the public sector in both health and criminal justice, firstly at practitioner level, then with the Scottish Government and laterally at Executive level, she has a good understanding of operational issues and governance arrangements from more than 20 years of senior level experience. Rhona has a longstanding relationship with QNIS having been involved with the organisation in several capacities.
Sarah Ballard-Smith
Sarah joined Council in 2025, having been the Scottish representative for the Florence Nightingale Foundation in the past.
She qualified in London in 1985 and spent her early career working in London, the Southeast, and Southwest. She held a variety of clinical, managerial, and educational roles culminating in two Executive Nurse Director posts in England.
She moved to Edinburgh in 2011 having married a Scotsman. She was the Nurse Director for the acute hospitals in NHS Lothian; her remit included midwifery, FNP, and the City of Edinburgh Health Visitors. For the past six years Sarah has been working part time/ad hoc, largely on governance-related projects.
She has been involved with charities since 1999, most recently an Edinburgh-based charity for unpaid carers.
Jan Beattie
An experienced professional advisor with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital and health care industry, Jan joined the QNIS Council in 2022. She is skilled in risk management, strategic planning, organisational development, and business process improvement, and has strong business development expertise, having graduated from the Institute of Healthcare Improvement in Boston, USA.
Hazel Borland
Hazel joined the QNIS Council in August 2022. She started in the NHS as a nursing auxiliary in 1984, going on to become a registered general nurse (RGN) in 1988. Hazel has held a number of clinical roles, most recently Nurse Director at both NHS Dumfries & Galloway and NHS Ayrshire & Arran, and Deputy Chief Executive at NHS Ayrshire & Arran. She was Interim Chief Executive for NHS Ayrshire & Arran, from June 2021–January 2022, leading the organisation through a challenging time for patients, staff and families. Hazel retired from her leadership role in Ayrshire & Arran in March 2022. She is passionate about the profession and still proud to be a nurse after all these years.
Hazel is a Health Foundation Fellow, has an MSc in Leadership (Quality Improvement) and is an Honorary Professor at the School of Health and Nursing at the University of the West of Scotland. She also became Deputy Chair of Ayrshire Hospice in August 2023.
Mike Connor
Mike became a member of the QNIS Council in 2023, bringing with him more than 35 years of experience in investment management. Throughout his career, he specialised in managing portfolios for a wide range of clients across the charitable, private, and public sectors.
Now retired, Mike offers valuable insight in his role at QNIS. His in-depth understanding of financial strategy makes him a key asset in liaising with our portfolio investment manager and supporting the work of the Finance and Risk Committee.
Ann Gow
Ann recently retired from her post as Nurse Director and Deputy Chief Executive at Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). She joined HIS in May 2017 as its first nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions (NMAHP) director. Before this she held various senior leadership posts as interim executive nurse director, associate nurse director for primary care, and IJB lead nurse in NHS Ayrshire and Arran before moving to Greater Glasgow and Clyde as chief nurse for regional services. She has worked for the Scottish Government contributing to the development of policy on early years and on public health nursing. Core to all of these roles has been a drive to improve the quality of care for those receiving services and a desire to improve experience for staff.
She spent two years as Chair of the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors, is an adviser to the RCN Foundations Grants Committee, judges the UK Nurse of the Year award and is a fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland.
She has a passion for child health, inequalities, and improving care for vulnerable people.
Fiona Houlihan
Fiona joined the QNIS council in 2025. She spent many years working in acute and community paediatrics settings before moving into senior management positions in HSCPs and Specialist children's services.
Currently working in Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board as professional nurse lead, she supports the nursing services to deliver person-centred care, adopting realistic medicine and GIRFEC principles for children with health needs in the community aged 0-19 years.
She is an advocate for children with disabilities and strives to improve services using her academic knowledge gained during her career. Her passion is to make a difference for children living with exceptional health care needs and she developed a board protocol and health complex child coordination plan in 2021. She was awarded the title of Queen's Nurse after completing the leadership programme in 2022.
Carey Lunan
Carey joined the QNIS Council in July 2026.
She previously worked as an NHS GP for 20 years, mainly in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, including homeless services. She is the Chair of the Scottish Deep End Project, which comprises GPs working in the 100 general practices serving the most socio-economically deprived populations in Scotland. She is also a part-time Senior Medical Advisor to the Scottish Government on Health Inequalities. As Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Edinburgh University, Carey teaches on Inclusion Health and undertakes research on the ‘Inverse Care Law’.
She is a past Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Scotland and a passionate advocate for the role of general practice in tackling health inequalities, and in creating the conditions for compassionate, trauma-informed and sustainable healthcare.
Lisa Malcolmson
Lisa joined the QNIS Council in July 2026.
She is Regional Nurse Consultant for Perinatal Mental Health and Deputy Clinical Director for MHLD Specialisms within NHS Grampian.
A Queen’s Nurse and experienced mental health nurse leader, Lisa has spent more than two decades working across a range of specialist mental health services. Her current role focuses on improving outcomes for women, infants and families through compassionate, trauma-informed care and strengthening collaboration across the North of Scotland.
As a QNIS Trustee, Lisa is passionate about developing nursing leadership, supporting innovation and helping nurses create lasting improvements for the people and communities they serve.
Michael Stewart
Michael joined the QNIS Council in 2022. He is currently Head of Litigation at the NHS Central Legal Office. He advises NHS Boards on a range of litigation issues, including negligence claims, interventions under mental health legislation, consent, incapacity, family health practitioner discipline, GDPR issues, organisational duty of candour and end-of-life decision-making.
Michael spent a decade sitting on the Children’s Panel. His experience of governance issues was first developed as Chair of the Parent Council at the school attended by his children. Later, he became increasingly aware of the importance of effective governance while overseeing the delivery of legal services to Health Boards involved in Public Inquiries.
Jenny Wilson
Jenny is the Executive Nurse Director at NHS Ayrshire and Arran. She has previously held senior leadership roles within the organisation, including Assistant Director of Quality Improvement and Interim Deputy Nurse Director.
Jenny qualified as a registered nurse in 1996 and has developed a diverse clinical and strategic career across multiple healthcare settings, including Orthopaedics and Intensive Care. The majority of her career has been spent in Primary Care as a General Practice Nurse, a role she remains deeply proud of. Her work in this area has included extended responsibilities in community nursing, health protection, urgent care, and the management of long-term conditions.
She has also held national roles, including Professional Nurse Advisor with the Scottish Government and National Clinical Lead (Nursing) for Primary Care at Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
In her current role as Executive Nurse Director, Jenny is responsible for providing strategic leadership to the nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions workforce. She leads on quality improvement, patient safety, and public protection, ensuring that services are informed by the experiences of patients, carers, and staff.
Angie Wood
Angie, who joined the QNIS Council in 2022, spent many years working in mental health community settings before moving to management within the newly formed HSCPs. Working in Aberdeenshire, she brought together teams from both health and social care to deliver placed-based integrated teams, focused on improving outcomes for the people living in those communities. After 18 months as Interim Chief Officer in Aberdeenshire, Angie took up a role as Professional Advisor in Scottish Government before moving to her current Co-Director of Social Care and NCS Development role in November 2022.
Becoming a Trustee
QNIS Trustees work alongside staff to shape the future vision of our charity. If you are inspired to make a difference and would like to support our mission on a voluntary basis, you can check for any available opportunities.
Trustee opportunities