Ex-mental nurse lands top academic post

A FORMER mental nurse at Warrington’s Winwick Hospital has been appointed as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Chester.
The appointment caps a rich and diverse career for Professor Mike Thomas in which he has pioneered treatment for people with eating disorders, held management posts in industry and the public sector, practised as a mental health nurse and served in the armed forces.
From August 1, Prof Thomas will be the member of the senior management team, charged with working directly and strategically with the deans and senior managers from the university’s seven academic faculties.
He will also retain some of his existing responsibilities as executive dean of Health and Social Care.
Prof Thomas joined the Royal Navy immediately after leaving school and served as a communications and tactical operator on HM submarines. After five years’ service he took a management role in an engineering company before training to become a mental health nurse at Winwick Hospital.
Later qualifying as a nurse tutor, Prof Thomas moved into higher education in 1993 as a senior lecturer at the University of Salford.
He later held senior posts at the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education and Leeds Metropolitan University
Prof Thomas’s research interests include the holistic treatment of people with chronic and enduring eating disorders.
Prof Tim Wheeler, Chester University’s Vice-Chancellor, said: “Professor Thomas is widely renowned as a researcher, teacher and clinician.”