Donna Ockenden FRSA, Hon D.Litt, Hon D.Sci is a nurse, and a midwife. She has more than 35 years’ experience within a variety of health settings both in the UK and internationally. In 2017 Donna was appointed by the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, to chair the Independent review into Maternity Services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, the final report of which was published on March 30^th 2022.

Donna has been a champion of patient safety in women’s and children’s health and maternity services from the very beginning of her career. Patient safety and family voices are at the heart of everything she does. Donna has also been committed to compassion and excellence in bereavement care since the very first days of her career as a student midwife in Portsmouth.

Donna and her team work alongside a number of charities who are committed to ensuring the best and safest outcomes for mothers and their babies and that they receive safe care during the whole of their maternity journey and postnatal period. She is a proud to be an Ambassador for SANDS and an honorary president of Baby Lifeline, the mother and baby charity funded 39 years ago by Judy Ledger following the personal tragedy of losing three premature babies.

In May 2022, Donna was appointed as the Chair of the Independent review into Maternity Services at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust by the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP. The review officially started on the 1^st September 2022. Donna leads a multi- professional team of more than 90 midwives and doctors for the independent maternity review at Nottingham university Hospitals NHS Trust. Her leadership will ensure that family and staff voices will be heard, listened to and acted upon as the review progresses.

In July 2023 Donna became patron of the MASIC Foundation, a charity that supports birth injured mothers and raises awareness of the life changing effects of an Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injury. At the same time she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of West London for her services to patient safety.

Throughout every aspect of her life, Donna believes in “be the best you can…” and does all she can to ensure this happens on daily basis.