Nicola has held a leadership role in social care innovation for 15 years, working in the third and independent sectors, with older populations and those with long term conditions, and closely with colleagues across health, housing, public sector, academia, and industry.
She is passionate about designing for happiness and ethical futures and puts people at the heart of new product and service development. She has led on 3 national Tests of Change and a CivTech 4.0 Accelerator Challenge, where technology and digital innovation were enablers of increased independence for older populations and people with long term conditions. Her current focus is on creating the conditions for ethical and rights-based models of care, enabled by future workforce skills, data driven innovation, and emergent technologies.
Nicola has a national remit for Digital, Data, and Technology (DDaT) with Scottish Care, the representative body for the Independent Social Care Sector in Scotland and represents the Independent Sector within the Digital Social Care TEC programme of Scottish Government.