New role to strengthen eye health education at Moorfields and UCL

• Moorfields Eye Hospital and its research partner the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology have appointed their first joint education lead.
• The new role will strengthen training and education opportunities for eye health professionals in the UK and abroad. 
• Professor Nora Ann Colton will take up the post in April 2018.

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and its joint research partner the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology are strengthening their training and education opportunities for eye health professionals with the creation of their first joint education lead role. Professor Nora Ann Colton has been appointed and will start in April 2018. She will join the trust board at Moorfields as the director of education and will be appointed as professor of global vision and eye health education at UCL.

In her new role, Professor Colton will lead on the implementation of Moorfields’ and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology’s ambitious education strategy to be centre stage in developing tomorrow’s eye care experts in support of world class eye care. She will oversee innovation of a wide portfolio of courses at Moorfields and UCL that are available to healthcare professionals from the UK and abroad. 

Professor Colton has over two decades of experience in higher education and is currently the deputy vice chancellor at the University of East London (UEL) where she has led on a number of initiatives to improve student engagement, contributing to a significant improvement in student satisfaction rates and graduate employability. She also established the undergraduate nursing programme at UEL and has a strong track record in overseeing the development of e-learning systems.

Moorfields Eye Charity will provide start-up funding for this new post for two years as part of its strategic aim to support education and training at Moorfields and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

Professor Nora Ann Colton said: “Moorfields and UCL are in a unique position to shape eye care education and drive high quality learning across healthcare professions. I look forward to joining both organisations and helping to improve access to multi-professional learning that can benefit people with eye conditions around the world.”
David Probert, chief executive at Moorfields Eye Hospital said: “Professor Colton will play an important role in driving forward our strategic ambition to innovate by sharing our knowledge and developing tomorrow’s experts. This will include strengthening training and education opportunities for eye health professionals in the UK and across the world.” 

Professor Andrew Dick, director of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology said: “Education is a key to our future in vision research and ophthalmology for UCL together with our clinical partner Moorfields. With the exceptional vision and experience Professor Colton brings for our future educational developments, we will rapidly move together to cement education as a key profile within our organisations.”

Robert Dufton, chief executive at Moorfields Eye Charity said: “Moorfields Eye Charity is pleased to support the appointment of Professor Colton to this key post. Support for education and training at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology is at the heart of our new strategy and we look forward to working with Professor Colton as she develops plans to share knowledge and inspire tomorrow’s experts.”