Our Organisation

Nicky is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Mission, where she leads the organisation’s strategic direction and oversees the design and delivery of its work. Since establishing the Mission, she has played a central role in shaping its national and international portfolio, growing its reach and national impact, and building relationships with every UK neuro-oncology centre. Under her leadership, the Mission has launched the Adult and Paediatric Centres of Excellence, two academies, several fellowship programmes, and a novel therapeutics accelerator. She led the organisation’s transition into a Community Interest Company, with funding and backing from twelve leading charities and the NIHR and Chief Scientist Office.
Prior to founding the Mission, Nicky worked as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman, advising clients across financial services and public policy. She holds a PhD in Physiology from the University of Oxford.

As Chief Operating Officer, Camille leads the Mission’s operations, overseeing teams, systems and processes to ensure programmes run effectively and achieve their intended impact. She works closely with the CEO to translate strategy into action across the organisation and to ensure it operates smoothly and efficiently.

Camille started her career working in addictions research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences. For five years, she worked in NHS addiction treatment services, running clinical trials to test novel psychosocial interventions for cocaine use disorders. After leaving academia, she joined Impact Hub King’s Cross running business development programmes for social enterprises, helping entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses with a purpose.

Tom provides strategic oversight across the Mission’s programme portfolio, ensuring it operates as a single, coordinated, high-performing system. He works closely with programme teams and senior leadership, moving seamlessly between strategic oversight and hands-on delivery support. Alongside this, he works with the CEO to identify candidates for adapting the Mission model to other rare cancers, in line with the National Cancer Plan. Tom has worked in cancer services and strategy for over fifteen years, starting at the Royal Free Hospital before developing Integrated Cancer Systems at NHS London SHA. He then spent ten years at Cancer Research UK, where he established the Cancer Intelligence Influencing function to support NHS commissioning of cancer services across all UK nations, before serving as DHSC Cancer Research Lead and NIHR Cancer Portfolio Lead, and working as GRAIL Bio’s interface with the NHS

As Head of Service Development and Policy, Andy oversees the delivery of the Mission’s service improvement programmes, the Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence, and associated policy activities. As well as responsibility for the day-to-day running of the adult Centre of Excellence process, he supports successful delivery of the paediatric Centre of Excellence process. Beyond this, he works closely with the Mission’s senior leadership, clinical partners and charity funders to shape the overall strategic direction of the Mission’s data collection and analysis, service development and policy functions.
Andy previously worked as Research Associate for TJBCM during his MSc, before joining the team permanently as Programme Manager for the adult Centre of Excellence programme. Prior to returning to the team full time, Andy worked in health policy consulting across a range of cancer sites and rare diseases. Andy holds an MSc in Global Health, Social Justice and Public Policy from King’s College London, where he focussed on rare diseases policy, and a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, where he focussed on the neuroscience of memory and addiction. He was Cambridge Neuroscience scholar 2020.

As Head of Workforce Development, Bryony oversees the delivery of the Mission’s workforce development strategy. As well as responsibility for the day-to-day running of the adult Academy, she supports the successful delivery of the paediatric Academy. Beyond this, she works closely with the Mission’s CEO, senior leadership team, charity funders and neuro-oncology community to shape the strategic direction of workforce development, secure funding for education and wider workforce initiatives, and develop strategic partnerships that advance the Mission’s priorities.
Bryony previously worked as a Research Associate for TJBCM between her PhD and postdoctoral research, supporting analysis of the Centre of Excellence designation dataset, before joining the team permanently to help build the Mission’s workforce development programme. Bryony holds an MRes from Imperial College London, a PhD in Disease Ecology from the University of Liverpool in partnership with the Zoological Society of London and a postdoctoral position sponsored by the Environment Agency, where her research focused on applying quantitative and interdisciplinary approaches to complex disease and environmental challenges.

As Programme Manager, Beccy is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Paediatric Centre of Excellence Programme. Her responsibilities include running the national assessment process and providing ongoing support to hospitals to further develop their services.

Beccy started out her career as a Biology teacher, working in a variety of State, Grammar and Independent Schools over 7 years. Throughout her time teaching she took on a number of leadership roles, working to develop PSHE programmes and becoming both a Pastoral Lead and a Head of Department. She then chose to return to scientific research by completing an MRes in Green Materials at Imperial College London before working in laboratories exploring protein production and veterinary therapeutic molecules. As well as her PGCE and MRes, Beccy holds a BSc in Biology from Oxford Brookes where she focused on genetic control of evolution and development.

As Senior Programme Manager for the Paediatric Academy, Laura is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Tessa Jowell Paediatric Academy.

Having started her career in the private sector, Laura moved to the not-for-profit sector in 2011. She spent the next ten years at the National Cancer Research Institute, managing the team leading on operations and governance of the Clinical Research Groups and the Clinical Trials Unit Groups. During this time she developed a particular interest in childhood and TYA cancers and the difference that can be made for these patients by collaborative working across specialisms and like-minded organisations.

More recently Laura spent two years in the research team at Blood Cancer UK as their Impact & Partnerships Lead, engaging with the research community to continuously monitor and report on the funded research portfolio, ensuring that the impact of the research can be easily identified and shared, as well as managing research partnerships with others across the sector to increase impact and leverage more funding into blood cancer research.

As a Senior Analyst, Eloise is involved in supporting the Brain Tumour Research Novel Therapeutics Accelerator (BTR-NTA), where she assists the day-to-day management of the programme, working closely with a multidisciplinary international group of experts who review and provide guidance on the translation and development of novel treatments. She is also involved in the development of a clinical trial support service for brain tumour treatments.

Eloise previously worked as a Research Associate for TJBCM during her MSci, where she was involved in analysing data collected in the adult and paediatric Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence programmes. Eloise holds an MSci in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Bristol.

As Programme Manager for Clinical Training and Research at the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, Lauren builds and leads Fellowship programmes that strengthen the UK’s neuro-oncology workforce and accelerate research in brain cancer. Her role focuses on building capacity and capability in clinical and research training environments to drive measurable improvements in outcomes for people affected by brain tumours.

Lauren joined the Mission with a background in clinical neuroscience and a strong interest in clinical neurology and translational research. She holds an MSc in Clinical Neuroscience from King’s College London and a BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience from the University of Exeter.

Professor Richard Gilbertson is the 44th Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and the Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and co-leads the CRUK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence. His laboratory research is focused on understanding the link between normal development and the origins of cancer, particularly brain tumours.

Richard trained as a paediatric oncologist in the UK where he earned his MBBS and PhD degrees, becoming a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1995. He moved to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA in 2000 where he served as the Co-Leader of the Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program and founding Director of the Molecular Clinical Trials Core before being appointed as the Comprehensive Cancer Center Director, Executive Vice President, and Lillian R Cannon Endowed Chair in 2011. In 2014 he was appointed as the Scientific Director of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, before moving back home to England in 2015.

Richard is the Chair of the TJBCM and is responsible for providing leadership and guidance on the strategic direction of the Mission.

Katie became a Professor of Neuromuscular Genetics at the Institute of Genetic Medicine in 2001, establishing and leading the Neuromuscular Team, a top ranking group in the Faculty of Medical Sciences. She established the National Service for Rare Neuromuscular Diseases, supporting patients with rare inherited neuromuscular diseases across the UK and internationally. Katie co-led a 2007 bid for an EU funded Network of Excellence TREAT-NMD and was involved in rare disease policy development via leadership of a number of EU Joint Actions. She was the Vice Chair of the European Union Committee of Experts on Rare Diseases 2010-2013 and the founding co-ordinator of the neuromuscular European Reference Network EURO-NMD.

Katie retired early in May 2018 following the death of her husband, Professor Jimmy Steele CBE, from a glioblastoma. Katie had previous experience of brain cancer when her father passed away from complications of a pituitary adenoma in 1976. Katie is the Vice-Chair of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission and uses her extensive experience to provide day-to-day strategic advice on Mission programmes.

James is one of the UK’s leading policy advisors. He has operated at the highest levels of government, including as a Minister at the Department for Health & Social Care, Director of the No.10 Policy Unit, and as an advisor to DHSC Ministers during the COVID-19 crisis. As Minister his responsibilities included implementing the Life Science Industrial Strategy, delivering a new pricing scheme with the pharmaceutical industry, chairing the National Genomics Board, and driving the digital transformation of the NHS.

In 2021 James became co-founder and Senior Partner of Newmarket Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to improving access to health innovation by providing strategic advice and technical support to the healthcare, life sciences and health tech sectors. He chairs the Cambridge University Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre and is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College, where he chairs the Data, Health & Wealth programme, and a non-executive director of both Health Data Research UK and the Albion Development VCT plc.  Outside of health, James chairs the Repairing our Social Fabric programme at the think tank Onward, and is a Member of the House of Lords.

Jess Mills is the daughter of the late Baroness Tessa Jowell and serves as a special advisor to the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission (TJBCM). As co-founder, she helped establish the Mission in response to her mother’s call for national action to improve brain tumour research, treatment and care. Jess brings extensive experience in public campaigning and social impact, which she now channels into improving patient access to innovative therapies and ensuring that every individual – regardless of where they live – receives compassionate, world-class care. Her work is rooted in her family’s experience and the commitment set out in her mother’s final speech, which continues to guide the Mission’s aims and values.

Beyond her role in the Mission, Jess is also CEO of the Tessa Jowell Foundation, a charitable organisation and key funder of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission as well as other programmes in line with Dame Tessa Jowell’s legacy.

Nicky is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Mission, where she leads the organisation’s strategic direction and oversees the design and delivery of its work. Since establishing the Mission, she has played a central role in shaping its national and international portfolio, growing its reach and national impact, and building relationships with every UK neuro-oncology centre. Under her leadership, the Mission has launched the Adult and Paediatric Centres of Excellence, two academies, several fellowship programmes, and a novel therapeutics accelerator. She led the organisation’s transition into a Community Interest Company, with funding and backing from twelve leading charities and the NIHR and Chief Scientist Office.
Prior to founding the Mission, Nicky worked as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman, advising clients across financial services and public policy. She holds a PhD in Physiology from the University of Oxford.