Doctor of Science
A highly acclaimed champion of nursing, nurses and women’s health.
Cecilia Akrisie Anim trained as a midwife in Ghana in 1968, before moving to the UK and qualifying as a nurse in 1977.
She has been an active member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) for more than 40 years, serving on the RCN’s Council Executive Team, Membership and Representation Committee, International Committee, Ethics Committee, Awards Panel, Menopause Network Group and as an RCN Steward and a Health and Safety representative.
She was RCN President from 2014 to 2018 and has played a pivotal role in the successful promotion of nursing arts and sciences. She used her president's charity to support nursing training in Bangladesh through Impact UK, which is still ongoing. Throughout her career, Cecilia has tirelessly supported RCN members in three Central London NHS trusts as a staff-side representative, working in partnership with other unions.
A clinical nurse specialist in sexual and reproductive health at the Margaret Pyke Centre in London, Cecilia specialises in family planning and aspects of women’s health, with special interest in the menopause.
She has been awarded many times for her contributions as a nurse, including the RCN Certificate of Merit for outstanding service to members (2000),the NHS Long Service Award , the Bevan Award for Health and Wellbeing (2013) and the United Nations Award for Women of Excellence, for her commitment to the NHS (2015). She has also received several honorary doctorates including one from the University of Portsmouth (2018).
In 2017, Cecilia was awarded a CBE in recognition of her role as a nurse, contributions to women’s health and to her local community. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and was awarded the Chair’s Special Award for the Windrush Generation (2018). In 2019, she received a lifetime achievement award from the British Journal of Nursing. In 2021, she was awarded the Royal College of Nursing Fellowship (FRCN).
Active in her local community, Cecilia remains a governor of St Augustine’s Federated schools, where she served as Chair for over 15 years before federation of the schools, she is also a member of a parochial church council and of the deanery synod.
Cecilia is also the flower arranger, lay reader and intercessor within her local church.