Professor Paula Holt

Professor Paula Holt has enjoyed a 40-year career in nursing and is registered as both an adult and mental health nurse in the UK. Paula is qualified as a community mental health nurse and have practiced as a therapist, including cognitive behavioural and cognitive analytic therapies. As a practitioner she has worked primarily in mental health, in acute and dementia services in the English national health service, as an army officer leading mental health services in the British Army – in England, Germany and Scotland as well as serving with the UN and NATO on operations in Bosnia during the war between 1993 and 1997. In the Armed Forces Paula developed expertise in preventing and treating psychological trauma. She has worked within the criminal justice system delivering arrest referral, court diversion and probation mental health assessment services. Paula has a degree in psychology which she studied with the Open University, and has a Masters degree in Health Psychology and a Doctorate in education. The masters dissertation evaluated court mandated treatment and rehabilitation of long term drug using offenders as an alternative to prison custody, and the doctoral thesis examined the assessment experience of student nurses in order to support their success.

Paula was in higher education for over 20 years teaching, researching and developing programmes of study, with a specific interest in widening access to education in the field of nursing, and influencing curricula to support student achievement. She left higher education as a Pro-vice chancellor, and currently works as an adviser for the UK regulator of Nursing and Midwifery. Paula is committed to having impact and influence in the fields of education, social mobility, mental health, and veteran support.