Meet the Team

Leigh Simmonds

Leigh Simmonds nee Urwin grew up in the North East. Attended medical school at St George's Hospital Medical School, London and then worked in numerous places often named "Newcastle": Newcastle- under -Lyme and Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia before returning to her beloved Newcastle -upon -Tyne to train in Emergency Medicine.She spent one house-officer job in Darlington Memorial Hospital and two years as a specialist registrar in EM in University Hospital North Durham. She developed an interest in simulation while doing her Masters in Medical Education and developed the simulation for shadowing and the Foundation simulation programs. She confesses to being terrible with eponymous names and the names of educational theories. Her strengths are she gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and she's direct. Her weaknesses are she gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and she's direct! She loves her job but thinks life would be so much better if everyone was just a little bit nicer to each other.

Derek Randles

My name is Dr Derek Randles, Clinical Lead in Simulation at CDDFT. I am also a consultant Anaesthetist at the University Hospital of North Durham. My interests are in integrating interprofessional learning in simulation and Human Factors and Safety Science. When not in work I'm often found walking a large dog or on a bike. Everybody welcome.

John Lewandowski

I am new to the Trust having worked at North Tees and Hartlepool for much of my 28 years in the NHS. I have worked in various roles within Critical Care. These roles include Unit Management, leading the development of the first Critical Care Outreach services, providing an educational framework for staff as Clinical Educator and providing robust a valid and reliable robust approach to data management. Across these roles I have spent many years contributing to or leading on a large range of Trust Policies, Protocols and guidelines.

Craig Dores

I have previsouly served in the British army as a combat medic for the last 20 years provided pre emergency care to sick and injured service personel.

I now start my new role as the simulation tecnnician for the simualtion centre at Bishop Aukland Hopsital.

Brandon Tribley

Hey I'm Brandon and I'm the digital support technician at the Simulation centre. I will work closely with faculty to help insure simulations run smoothly.