Professor Yvonne Barnett

Strategic leadership experience in higher education

Professor Barnett has over 17 years’ experience of senior strategic leadership in the UK university sector. She is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin University with strategic leadership responsibilities for research and innovation; the ARU Doctoral School; and student employability.

Research interests

Professor Barnett has active research interests in the causes and mechanisms of cancer and ageing, and more recently in public health matters and has co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed original research papers. She has supervised, to successful completion, 21 PhD students. During her career she has secured over £35 million of funding from a range of regional, national and international bodies to support successful teaching, research and innovation initiatives.

Other leadership and appointments

Yvonne is currently Trustee and Council member of the Royal Society of Biology; Director of Medilink Midlands; Academic Adviser for Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Board member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, member of Harlow Growth Board, Co-Chair of the Ox-Cam ARC Universities Operational Group, Governor of ARU Peterborough and Immediate Past President of the Heads of University Centres for Biomedical Sciences. She is also a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Biomedical Science. In addition, she was Deputy Chair of the REF 2021 A03 Sub-Panel for Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy, chaired the current QAA national benchmark group for Biomedical Sciences and the UUK Gold Open Access Working Group on Good Practice Guidelines. She was a long-standing Non-Executive Director of BioCity Group Ltd, founding Director of the highly successful Doctoral Training Alliance in Applied Biosciences for Health. Yvonne was a Trustee of NESTA; and has been an active executive members of a number of other learned societies and regional innovation agencies and initiatives.