Meet your teachers
Our teaching methods are developed using practical evidence of what works best from medical education across the world.
We actively ensure we give our students the best teaching possible to enable them to succeed.
Our teaching is delivered by people who are clinicians and researchers of international renown – you'll be learning from and working alongside some of the leading experts in their fields.
Here are a few of our teaching staff
Dr Athanasios (Thanasi) Hassoulas
Reader in Medical Education and Director HIVE Teaching Innovation Unit, Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AdvanceHE)
I joined the School of Medicine in 2014 as Lecturer in Psychiatry, before being appointed as Director of the MSc Psychiatry programme between 2018 and 2023. I am currently Reader in Medical Education and Director of the HIVE Teaching Innovation Unit.
The School of Medicine has supported me in my journey as an academic, scholar and educator. It is my hope that I too can support as many students and colleagues as I can in realising their full potential.
I teach neuropsychology and behavioural medicine on the undergraduate medicine (MBBCh) programme, as well as on various postgraduate programmes. I supervise MSc and PhD students on research topics that I am passionate about, which include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and medical education.
I am dedicated to enhancing the student experience through innovative practices, embracing new technologies that prepare students for the future workplace. I have received numerous awards for my teaching, including the international Osmosis (by Elsevier) Raise the Line Faculty Award for services to educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.
I look forward to meeting and working with you, our next generation of fantastic medical professionals.
Professor Rhian Goodfellow
Clinical Reader and C21 Director
As an inherently chatty, inquisitive and perhaps some may say nosy individual, medicine was the ideal career choice for me and to date it has surpassed all expectations.
The privilege and thrill of listening to patients, making a diagnosis and subsequently being able to treat individuals continues to excite me and makes going to work every morning easy.
As a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Rheumatology, there is never time to become bored or complacent.
Every day brings a different challenge, from discussing cutting-edge bench-to-bedside medicine (combining basic science theory and clinical practice) and treating an elderly person's bad back to teaching and enthusing the next generation of doctors.
I could never imagine myself doing anything else.
Dr Sarju Patel
Interim Year 2 Director
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
As a medical educator with over 25 years of teaching and research experience, I play a key role in the design, delivery and assessment of your undergraduate medical curriculum.
Medical students have always been bright and inquisitive but clinical knowledge alone is not enough for success in today’s world; students also need to be able to communicate and engage with patients in meaningful way. In addition, I believe that creating inclusive learning environments are key to a student’s success and by providing inclusive, enabling and safe learning opportunities coupled with strong pastoral support, we can ensure our students fulfil their potential. I bring my beliefs and values to this task, working hard to empower fairness, respect, truthfulness and equality for my colleagues and for our students, for which I was selected as a Case Study in Cardiff University Celebrating Teaching Excellence Awards Education and Student Experience portfolio 2023.
I also have a passion for Widening Access, encouraging young people from all backgrounds to consider a career in Medicine; my leadership roles in this led to a Medic Star Award for Outstanding Contribution to Engagement Activities.
Personal development never stops, and when I teach, I learn. Small group sessions, where I can engage with my students, are just one of many reasons I love teaching.
Professor Marcus Coffey
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
I teach the subject of Pharmacology to our undergraduates on the Medicine (MBBCh) degree programme.
Understanding how drugs work is a vital component of training doctors to become safe prescribers. Although we only ever want the drugs we use to have a therapeutic effect, we also have to recognise that all medications have the potential to cause unwanted side effects, so our greater understanding drug actions can help to reduce the incidence of 'adverse drug reactions'.
To help our students learn about the drugs that can be considered across all the different medical specialities covered in the course, I use a range of teaching techniques that help explain the effects of drugs. This involves contextualising the use of drugs that target a specific system or tissue within the Human body, so I create teaching materials that cover everything from cardiology to immunology to psychiatry... and everything in between!
I have won a number of awards for my innovative approaches to teaching, and I have a particular interest in creating interactive and visually stimulating e-Learning Resources that Medical Students can use to enhance their knowledge of a particular subject area.
Professor Susan Wong
Professor of Experimental Diabetes and Metabolism
My teaching focuses on diabetes, which you probably already know is not just one condition. Working with people who have different types of diabetes is challenging but rewarding and I enjoy sharing these experiences with my students. What you will learn with me draws upon my clinical work with people who live with diabetes as well as my work as a clinical academic, researching the causes of Type 1 diabetes.
Knowledge is power in healthcare and a vital part of our work as doctors is to engage and educate the public to understand medical issues and scientific research. My students work with me to do this in different ways, including contributing to an exhibition at a hospital art gallery, celebrating the centenary of use of insulin.
I look forward to meeting you.
Professor Paul Frost
Director of Clinical Skills and Simulation & Honorary Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, Cardiff and Vale, UHB
As a consultant in intensive care medicine, I look after critically ill and injured patients. It’s a varied and fulfilling job involving the clinical management of every conceivable type of medical emergency.
There is little in medical practice that is more satisfying than rescuing a person from the brink of death and seeing them recover, to return to their homes and families.
Before taking up my current post at Cardiff University, I was fortunate enough to have spent 10 years in Australia and New Zealand working in major trauma centres, burns units, paediatric intensive care units and in the aeromedical retrieval of critically ill patients.
I understand only too well how anxious trainee doctors and medical students are about managing these very sick patients, but at Cardiff University we pride ourselves on teaching our students how to do this well.
It is my privilege, as director of clinical skills, to lead on this part of the curriculum.
Dr Naomi Stanton
Lecturer and GP
I graduated from Cardiff Medical school and completed my junior doctor training in Cardiff before moving on to train in the South Wales Valleys to become a GP. I returned to Cardiff University initially as an Academic Fellow and developed interests in teaching and research.
I am now a Senior Clinical Lecturer, with a focus on Health Inequalities. I develop teaching sessions and resources around health inequalities. This includes lifestyle medicine and sustainability and health. Realising that health and wellbeing influenced far more by our socioenvironment is essential when helping impove peoples' health alongside providing good clinical care and treatment. I contribute to clinical teaching and assessments for all years and lead on a Population Medicine Intercalated Degree Health Inequalities module and aim to raise the profile of health challenges among underserved groups within the population. As a Rhondda Valleys GP too, I really enjoy helping my students to put their learning into practice and showing off the amazing scenery while they get to experience unique challenges in this area.
I am the Director for Admissions and Recruitment at the School of Medicine and lead our Admissions Team to attract and retain the best applicants with the abilities, skills and attributes we are looking for to become doctors of the future. In this role I work with medical students and schools to do outreach activities to encourage pupils who might not yet realise that they can be great doctors someday.
Outside of work, I love travelling and experiencing different places and cultures, climbing, being outdoors and walking my dog in the Brecon Beacons or on Ogmore beach.
Good luck with your exams, if they are still ahead of you - and I hope to meet you here in September to welcome you to Cardiff University School of Medicine on the first step of your journey to becoming a doctor.
Professor Paul Morgan
Systems Immunity Research Institute and Dementia Research Institute
I am a Clinical Biochemist with a strong research record in Immunology.
I was formerly Dean and Head of the School from 2008 to 2013 but made the decision to step back allowing me to spend more time on research and clinical work. I then stepped back from my clinical role in 2018 and now have the great pleasure of being a full time researcher leading a team working on inflammation and brain inflammation in particular.
I enjoy teaching, particularly one-to-one and small groups, and have relished the challenges of the new curriculum. I have learned an enormous amount from interacting with students and come to realise that our students are the medical school - our most valuable resource and best source of advice on improving the course and student experience.
A modernised curriculum with more small group teaching, more patient contact and earlier finals.
