Dr Carole Parsons EDI Academic Lead and Racial Equity Champion

I studied pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, and completed my pre-registration training in hospital and community pharmacy practice. I joined the register of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland in 2003 and then returned to the School of Pharmacy to undertake a PhD in the area of biomaterials and drug delivery. I was then appointed as a full-time teaching fellow in the School of Pharmacy in 2006 before being appointed to a lectureship in pharmacy practice in 2009. My research interests focus on prescribing and use of medicines in advanced disease as patients approach the end of life.  I have a particular interest in medicines optimisation for people who are in the advanced stages of dementia and in older people with frailty and receiving palliative care.

I am part of a Faculty-wide group of EDI Academic Leads which has offered training to academic staff to assist in integrating diversity into the curricula. I have also been involved in developing and delivering Active Bystander training to undergraduate students in the Schools of Pharmacy and Nursing and Midwifery. I am one of the School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Leads and Racial Equity Champions and am involved in the upcoming institutional application for an Advance HE Race Equality Charter Award.

Outside the workplace, I am married and have two children, an 11-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. I relax by singing in a choir and spending time outdoors with my husband and children.