Alexandra Birch

Prior to joining Staffordshire University, I worked as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton within their Institute of Health's Midwifery Education Team. I first joined the higher education in 2019, working in the Post-Registration Education Team on continuing professional development programmes.

I am a registered midwife with expertise in the areas of leadership, service improvement and commissioning. Although my career is now full time in higher education, I still hold an honorary contract to work as a clinical midwife. I began my NHS career in 2007 when I studied for a BSc Midwifery (Hons) at the University of Wolverhampton, before achieving a first class honours degree in 2010 and then going on to study for a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health. I then secured a place on the prestigious NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme and completed a Masters in Leadership and Service Improvement in 2014 at the University of Manchester.

I have had various senior roles in the NHS including midwifery, service management in Palliative and End of Life Care, Emergency Department, General Paediatrics, Haematology and Oncology and in commissioning Primary Care, Maternity and Children's Services and Quality and Patient Safety. During my time at the Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups I led the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Maternity Transformation Programme to deliver the recommendations set out in the publication of the 2016 national maternity review, 'Better Births'. I have also been a Trustee/Director of a women's charity in Birmingham and I am currently the link governor for Safeguarding, Special Educational Need and Disabilities and Looked After Children for a grammar school in Walsall and a primary school in Staffordshire. My mix of roles and experience perfectly positions me to assist students in bringing to life the concepts of clinical practice, leadership and service improvement to ensure that theory is linked to practice and students go on to become high quality healthcare professionals of the future.