Professor Dame Carol Black DBE, FRCP, FMedSci is Principal of Newnham College Cambridge, Expert Adviser on Health and Work to the Department of Health England and to Public Health England, and Chairman of the Nuffield Trust for health policy. She is also a member of the Welsh Government’s Bevan Commission on health in Wales, Chair of the RSSB’s Health and Wellbeing Policy Group, and a member of PwC’s Health Industries Oversight Board .Professor Black is a past-President of the Royal College of Physicians, of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and of the British Lung Foundation. The Centre she established at the Royal Free Hospital in London is internationally renowned for research and treatment of connective tissue diseases such as scleroderma. She is a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, of the Work Foundation and of Uppingham School. In November 2013 she was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK in the BBC Woman’s Hour list.
Of the First 100 Years, she says:
The project charting the journey of women in the legal profession is important because it will document the great strides that have been made since the Sex Disqualification Act 1919, but will also, I hope, highlight the remaining challenges. The journey taken by women in Law is very similar to that taken by women in my own profession. I hope some comparisons are made. In medicine, for example, there is a strong rise in women entering the profession, with parity at entry achieved and merit accepted as the criterion for entry to the profession. Law has also achieved this. The challenge comes later in ensuring that women achieve leading positions at the top of their chosen career.
Dame Jenni, who has presented Woman’s Hour since 1987, received an OBE in 1999 for services to radio broadcasting, and was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2011. A feminist with an unabashed approach to seemingly difficult topics, Dame Jenni is a published author and patron of several charities including the Breast Cancer Campaign and Family Planning Association.