Sheila Brown

Email: [email protected]

Sheila is a senior lecturer in health sciences at Bangor University and is an experienced nurse, midwife and academic.

Sheila has held all operational roles within the midwifery programme and was the lead midwife for education (LME), from 2016 to 2022. During her time as LME, significant improvements were made to the midwifery programme and to overall student satisfaction. Sheila led on the development, approval, and validation of the most recent midwifery programme at Bangor University which commenced in September 2022.

Sheila's journey as a health care professional started in British Columbia, in Canada, where she trained as a nurse in the Fraser Valley qualifying in 1993. Her main area of nursing expertise was in perinatal nursing. She then lived and worked in Australia for two years and completed a MSc (Midwifery) at the Unviersity of Wollongong in NSW. Sheila has worked in 5 different countries during her career, including in the Arctic in Canada and in Central Australia. She also volunteered in West Africa as a nurse.

Sheila grew up in Scotland, lived overseas for 17 years, and moved back to the UK, to live in Wales in 2004. She completed a shortened Midwifery programme at Bangor University in 2007, and worked as a  midwife clinically in North Wales until 2015 when she moved into full-time midwifery education.

Sheila is passionate about her contribution to the optimisation of midwifery and maternity care through the provision of high quality health and midwifery education. 

Sheila completed a Master of Research at the University of Manchester in 2013.

Her research project was "Women's Experiences of Cervical Ripening on an Antenatal Ward". This was a self funded project. 

Sheila is a PhD student. Phase 1 of her PhD studies is a realist synthesis exploring what works to support student midwives to become accountable, autonomous, professional midwives. Phase 2 of her PhD project is exploring educators' views of implementing theories from Phase 1. 

Sheila teaches on all topics relating to midwifery at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and also contributes to interprofessional learning.

Her particular areas of expertise are supporting women to breastfeed, community midwifery, labour and birth, professional practice, and quality assurance of midwifery education.

Sheila supervises masters students on MSc pathways within the school of health sciences.

Sheila is a volunteer for the charity Blood Bikes Wales, along with her husband who is a volunteer rider.