Well-being Week 2025: speaker biographies

Click on the speaker's name to read more about them.

Professional Lead at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

Benna Waites worked in Powys and south-west London before starting her current role in 2013.

Benna set up and leads the Leading People programme at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and is seconded to Quality, Safety and Improvement in the NHS Executive.

Benna’s particularly interested in the role psychological safety plays in improvement, and she’s currently doing a PhD in this area.

Benna’s experience includes:

• leading the Shared Lives workstream for the Whole Person Whole System Crisis Programme Board, an alternative to in-patient psychiatric admission. It was recognised in the 2021 World Health Organisation (WHO) best practice guidance
• setting up several service transformation initiatives including:
  • a peer mentor service
  • a perinatal mental health service
  • Hiraeth
  • a bespoke repatriation service
• supporting peer-supported open dialogue development in Gwent.

Leadership Development Officer at Social Care Wales

Bex brings 22 years of frontline social care leadership experience to the table.

Having been around the block when it comes to social care practice, she wouldn't have wanted a career in anything else.

Inspired by people with lived experience, her passion for making a difference shines through in everything she does.

Now, Bex focuses on working with the sector workforce to include compassionate leadership in their practice and organisations.

An interesting fact about Bex is that she used to play both football and netball for the Welsh squad! She also has a degree in Deaf Studies and can use British Sign Language.

When she was younger, Bex dreamed of joining the Royal Air Force, but her eyesight had other plans.

This twist of fate led her to an incredible career in social care, where she’s been able to make a real difference ever since!

Training Manager at RCS Wellbeing for Work

Claire started her career in France, then Coventry working for Peugeot. She then moved to Manchester then Liverpool to work for Royal & Sun Alliance insurance.

Claire ran her own business in north Wales for 10 years hosting music classes for babies, and she now leads the Workplace Wellbeing Team at RCS.

Claire’s most rewarding experience was working with babies and toddlers, using language, music, dance and play to support their confidence and development.

She also finds it very rewarding training Wellbeing Champions and watching their confidence and skills grow into their new role.

Claire speaks four languages and was a gymnastics coach for many years. Her hobbies include going to the gym and circuit training, cooking, and running with her dog.

Chartered Counselling Psychologist at Cortecs Cerebrol Ltd

Helen’s career over the last 30 years has focused on using psychological theories and research to achieve real world impact.

The Mental health and wellbeing toolkit programme was developed from this perspective and is one of Helen’s proudest achievements.

Throughout her career, Helen’s seen how time in nature benefits people’s mental health and well-being. With this in mind, she and her family moved to a derelict small holding on the edge of Cardiff with the dream of creating a mental health and well-being haven.

Five years later, and they’re finally able to share one of her well-being boosters –spending time with their six gentle alpacas – in their spring 2025 programmes at their well-being centre.

Workplace Health Adviser at Healthy Working Wales

Pauline’s worked in health for over 30 years. Before joining Healthy Working Wales 13 years ago. Pauline’s varied career has included working as an Environmental Health Officer inspecting food premises and working an advisory role for a hospitality company, before becoming a consultant and lecturer.

Pauline enjoys helping organisations think creatively about health and how they can improve employee health in the workplace. She also finds it rewarding to collaborate with other organisations.

For example, working with the team at Construction Futures Wales delivering mental health construction awareness events with partners such as MIND and Time to Change, which encouraged men to talk about mental health.

Pauline enjoys travelling, spending time with her family, and keeping fit through yoga, Ceroc dancing and tennis.

Well-being Trainer at RCS Wellbeing for Work

Sara worked in the third sector for 15 years. In that time, she had the privilege of supporting individuals through roles in supported accommodation, criminal justice, substance misuse, homelessness, and domestic abuse services.

Sara then spent over 10 years focused on training, development employability and Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) training.

It was during that time that her passion for policy grew from helping leaders apply policy effectively. It taught Sara that good policy design, clear communication, and real engagement are essential to success.

The Covid-19 pandemic led Sara to reflect on where her true passion lies – and she realised it’s always been in mental health and well-being.

Working with businesses over the years, and supporting leaders to use ILM training at work, has shown her that supporting people’s mental health is key to thriving teams and stronger organisations.

Since gaining a Level 5 Diploma in Understanding Mental Health and Wellbeing and accrediting her experience four years ago, mental health and well-being has been Sara’s focus as a student advisor and well-being trainer.

Employer Support Manager at Social Care Wales

Sophie worked in our Fitness to Practise team for 11 years before starting her current role two-and-a-half years ago.

As Employer Support Manager, Sophie’s work focuses on working with adult social care employers, which has involved setting up a new employer support service.

Sophie’s found the work inspiring, especially seeing how dedicated social care managers and workers are, going above and beyond for the people they work with.

The employer support roadshows have been a rewarding part of Sophie’s role, – she enjoys being in the room with employers sharing their experiences, what has worked well and to hear how best to support them.

Outside of work, Sophie enjoys watching live music, travelling and baking. She also enjoys cross-stitch, and has five projects on the go (and hopes to finish at least one of them before well-being week starts!).

Co-Director at Canopi

Thomas is a Consultant Anaesthetist at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Cardiff University.

He has a clinical interest in anaesthesia for maxillofacial surgery and major trauma resuscitation.

Thomas is passionate about human factors, research in communication and how our emotional competence relates to personal and team performance, the patient and our self-care.

He lectures on the subject internationally, and also works as Co-Director of Canopi, a self-referral mental health support service for all NHS and Social Care staff working in Wales.

Training and Assessment Manager at Wrexham County Borough Council

Tracey’s career has always been supporting individuals in the social care sector. Her journey started with an apprenticeship, and over the years, she worked my way up to managing a care home.

Despite facing challenges with dyslexia, Tracey was determined to continue her education, which led her to complete a degree in teaching. This fuelled her passion for learning and teaching others.

Currently, Tracey works in a team which helps learners develop their qualifications in social care, supporting them to reach their full potential.

Tracey’s commitment to improving the quality of care and supporting others through education is at the core of her professional values.

Outside of work, Tracey loves walking and especially enjoy coastal walks with her husband. She’s also a big fan of Lego and has completed a two-foot Disney castle.