Professor Sir Terence Stephenson is one of the United Kingdom’s most eminent leaders in paediatrics, medical education, and healthcare governance, with a distinguished career at the highest levels of academic medicine, clinical practice, and national health policy. He is currently Nuffield Professor of Child Health at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, and an honorary consultant in paediatrics at UCL Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London.
Widely recognised for his outstanding contributions to child health and medical leadership, Professor Sir Terence Stephenson has played a central role in shaping healthcare standards, medical regulation, and national health policy in the United Kingdom. Over the course of his career, he has held several of the country’s most influential leadership positions, including serving as Chair of the Health Research Authority for England, Chair of NHS Providers, and Vice-Chair of the newly merged NHS Providers & NHS Confederation organisation. His earlier appointments as Chair of the UK General Medical Council, Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health further reflect the breadth of his impact across the medical profession.
He has also held senior academic and institutional positions as Dean of the Medical School and Professor of Child Health at the University of Nottingham, and as Non-Executive Director of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Over the course of his career, he has worked closely with five UK Secretaries of State for Health across governments of three different political parties.
Knighted in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to healthcare and children’s health services, Professor Sir Terence Stephenson is also a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator and an Honorary Fellow of eleven national Colleges and Academies in the UK and abroad.
A highly accomplished academic, his research has focused on the physiology of early life and acute and chronic paediatric illness. He has authored or co-authored over 330 peer-reviewed publications, commentaries, and book chapters, contributed to seven textbooks, and secured more than £15 million in competitively awarded research funding.
