PRIME Profile - Valerie Fleming

RN, RM, BDiv, MA (nursing), MA (law society and religion), PhD (soc sci), PhD/JCD (canon law)

Professor Valerie Fleming is a midwife and nurse who has worked globally in clinical and research positions. Currently she is Professor of Women’s Health, Liverpool John Moores University. She has a passion for improving the health of women through the provision of competent birth attendants. She also has a strong belief in promoting the rights of health professionals within systems which often do not permit this.

Valerie’s previous roles include professorships in midwifery in Glasgow Caledonian, University and Zurich University of Applied Sciences, the senior policy advisor (Chief Nurse) to the WHO European region and various clinical positions in India, New Zealand and the UK. Research has embraced a number of East African countries, as well as Latin America and Europe.

She led redevelopment of nursing and midwifery education in Kosovo after the 1999 war and in Palestine in 2005. In her role as Secretary General of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery, worked with colleagues in three of the other six WHO regions to develop a package of training materials for nurse educators in the African region.

Valerie has an enthusiasm for working with people from different cultures and backgrounds and through her initial work with the International Confederation of Midwives as mentor to one of five midwives chosen for the Young Midwifery leaders’ programme, has made lasting friendships in the Central American and African regions.

In her current role Valerie is working with colleagues in Pakistan and Kenya to extend the scope of practice of nurses and midwives.  In her spare time she uses her qualification as a canon lawyer to volunteer as an advocate for the Scottish Catholic Interdiocesan Tribunal.