A GLOBALLY recognised leader in Occupational Health education has been recognied by the University of Cumbria with an honouree doctorate.

Professor Anne Harriss is acknowledged nationally and globally as a leader within Occupational Health education.

Initially training as a nurse and later in occupational health, from the start of Anne’s career as an educator she has driven the education of occupational health nurses.   She has taught many of today’s Occupational Health Nurse leaders, encouraging many of them to make successful applications to become a Queen’s Nurse.

Professor Harriss has influenced the establishment of the National School of Occupational Health and the curriculum standards for occupational health nursing courses of statutory bodies such as the English National Board for Nursing and Midwifery and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. 

She has developed and led a public health project for communities in a rural part of South Africa for many years. Anne has also influenced the education of occupational health nurses in New Zealand and will be supporting the education of nurses in Sri Lanka.

An interest in mental health also saw Anne being the lead adviser in 2020 for the Society of Occupational Medicine and the Royal College of Nursing Foundation systematic review The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Nurses and Midwives in the United Kingdom.  

Anne is also a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists special interest group on mental health and work and represents the Society of Occupational Medicine on the Government business dialogue on workplace mental health.

Anne has delivered training to organisations as diverse as Formula 1, the military, higher education, NHS and third sector organisations. She has also been integral to the development of a plethora of Covid-19 resources supporting health professionals and employers produced by the Society of Occupational Medicine.

Anne is a Queen’s Nurse, Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, Principal and National Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

In 2020 Professor Harriss was elected President of the Society of Occupational Medicine – the only non-physician to be president in the society’s near 90-year history. With her presidency coinciding with the pandemic, her work nationally and internationally influenced a range of Covid related policies and interventions. 

Anne continues to represent the Royal College of Nursing on the development of specialist occupational health nursing education through the National School of Occupational Health and the Council for Work and Health and is Emeritus Professor at London South Bank University.