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Warwick Medical School Dean Professor Yvonne Carter to retire

Dean of Warwick Medical School and University of Warwick Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Regional Engagement Professor Yvonne Carter is to take early retirement.

Professor Carter, who has been with the University for six years, will step down at the end of the month due to ill health.

She joined Warwick Medical School in 2003 as Vice-Dean and a year later she became the third ever female Dean of a medical school in the UK.

Under her leadership Warwick Medical School has quickly developed into an innovative centre for research and education.

The School, originally established as a partnership with Leicester Medical School, has grown rapidly. Yvonne successfully led the School through the demanding General Medical Council quality assurance process and following this the Privy Council granted independent medical degree awarding status to Warwick in 2007. 

During Yvonne’s tenure as Dean Warwick Medical School  was assessed as part of the Research Assessment Exercise for the first time in 2008 and was ranked amongst the top ten  medical schools in the UK for the quality of its Health Services Research. 

With a medical career spanning more than 25 years, Professor Carter has held many national roles in education and research. During her time at Warwick, Professor Carter was named the Confederation of British Industry’s First Woman of Science in 2006 and appointed  Deputy Lieutenant for the County of the West Midlands in 2008. In the same year she was awarded a Coventry City Council Good Citizen Award and in 2009 she received a CBE for services to Medical Education, building on the OBE she received for services to health services research in 2000. 

For 20 years, Yvonne has also worked as a practising GP with deprived inner city communities in Liverpool, Birmingham, East London and, until 2007, in Coventry. She has also been an Honorary Consultant in Primary Care at Coventry Teaching PCT and a Non-Executive Director and Vice Chair at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. 

Professor Yvonne Carter said: “This has been such a difficult decision. I really have enjoyed working at the University and relished my role at Warwick Medical School. I have felt privileged to hold the role of Dean, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Vice Chair of the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust.

“It has been a pleasure to work with such tremendously committed colleagues, not just at Warwick but across the NHS locally as well, and such talented and committed medical students. I hope the University and Warwick Medical School will continue to go from strength to strength.”  

University of Warwick Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift said:  “Yvonne is a much-valued and highly-respected member of the Warwick community, we will be very sad to see her retire. She has proved herself to be a dynamic and inspirational leader for the Medical School, and an invaluable asset to the University’s senior management team. It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside her.” 

Notes to editors

For more information please contact Kelly Parkes-Harrison, Communications Officer, k.e.parkes@warwick.ac.uk, 02476 574255, 07824 540863