Skip to main contentSkip to footer
Four students walk through campus
Brighton & Sussex Medical School

Inspirational women: Caroline hopper

BSMS > About BSMS > Working here > Inclusivity > Inspirational women: Caroline Hopper

Inspirational women: Caroline Hopper

Caroline Hopper profile photo black and white

Meet Caroline Hopper, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Commissioning.

I have lived happily with my family in Brighton and Hove for the last 30 years. Before that, I lived mainly in London and its outskirts.

My childhood was very much of two halves, the 1960s were relatively comfortable for my family, but that all changed in the 1970s with my parents' break up and we faced considerable turbulence and financial hardship. I was the eldest of four children and had paid jobs from the age of 14. I was the first in my family to go to university and I am passionate about the opportunities that it can bring for young people, particularly those who don’t necessarily see university as aimed at them.

When I was growing up, I was interested in a lot of things. I did dance and drama at school and university and was always keen on politics and current affairs. However, the first job I wanted to do was nursing. I might have done that, but the teachers at my school encouraged me to apply to university so instead, I decided to study for an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Literature at the University of East Anglia. What attracted me to philosophy is that it teaches you how to think and analyse and put together an argument. I'd always loved reading and literature so it was a bonus to have that in the course as well. I use a lot of what I learned in my degree in my career today and in my life. The philosophy aspect of my degree really stretched me academically in terms of how I think about things and how I look at evidence.

After completing my undergraduate degree, I immediately went on to study for a postgraduate degree in Social Policy. The course was based at the London School of Economics (LSE) and was very innovative for the 1980s. It was half academic study and half practical, allowing us to visit a wide range of public institutions. It was a brilliant course for a young person because it gave me the opportunity to be a fly on the wall and look around these different places. I also worked for a Women’s Aid charity and a health trade union as part of the course. These formative experiences led me to the broad world of social and public policy.

After that I did research at LSE and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and then worked in women’s health and childcare policy and funding at the Greater London Council. I also had spells in the voluntary sector followed by working on pensioners’ welfare and rights, and on HIV and AIDS policy and service development at the height of that pandemic. I then spent 15 years in the NHS in London, Surrey and Sussex with a wide range of general management roles mainly at a director level, meanwhile studying for a Master of Business Administration (MBA).

By the early 2000s, my husband and I had three young children and I wanted a professional role that was closer to home and that would allow me to work flexibly as a working mum and be with my children as much as possible. I went to work at the University of Sussex, teaching and supervising students on various social policy and international business courses, both undergraduate and postgraduate. It was then, 13 years ago, that I joined the Department of Medical Education (DME) at BSMS.

I am a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the DME Dissertation Panel (2021/22 and 2022/23). I teach modules in the Healthcare Leadership course at BSMS, which is predominantly undertaken by junior doctors, nurses and other health professionals who want to learn about leadership and change management and quality improvement in order to develop their own skill set in that area.

My role on the Dissertation Panel, however focuses on working with students across the whole of DME on their dissertation planning and study. The panel meets once a month and we review all the dissertation proposals, offering feedback and making suggestions before granting approval. I find this an incredibly rewarding role as it is great to support students to achieve their best. Dissertations tend to be on a subject that the students really care about so it's a worthwhile bridge of bringing together their academic endeavour and their professional development. It is a privilege to be a part of their learning.

What I enjoy most about my role is working directly with students and colleagues to give our students a valuable academic experience. I am still genuinely thrilled when the students I supervise achieve their awards.

One of my biggest professional achievements was in the 1990s, I led a large change management programme across health and social care to change and reprovide services for people with long-term mental health problems, and those with learning disabilities. It was very complex, strategically and operationally and took a number of years. What spurred me on was that these vulnerable service users would receive more personalised and dignified care and that staff would be able to care for them on a more human scale.

Next year I will have been working for 40 years, so of course, there have been many challenges along the way as well as highlights. When I worked in the NHS it was always a challenge to keep stakeholders on board when running a big project. It was really important to have that buy-in from whomever the stakeholders were, be that doctors/nurses, local government, parents or carers, and politicians. But what I learnt was to be really clear about what the parameters of the changes were to take people with us. A significant personal challenge for me was being diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. I was very fortunate that it was detected early and that my treatment was successful.

My future career plans are to carry on supporting students in their achievements and playing a positive part in their development.

My main pleasure is spending time with family and friends, especially being with our three grown-up children who are at various stages of university education and independence! They are my joy. I also enjoy exercise, the arts and gardening as diversions.

I am inspired by so many people. The first I would pick currently is Marcus Rashford, the young premier league footballer for his campaigning work on child food poverty and free school meals. Football is often in the media for negative reasons and he has used his fame and social reach for good. The other person is the scientist Dame Prof Sarah Gilbert, for her extraordinary work on the Covid vaccine and because we were at the same university at the same time – but sadly our paths did not cross.

The best piece of advice I would give my younger self would be, preparation and persistence can get you a long way. I am also a firm believer that how you do things is as important as what you do.

To young women starting out in their careers, I would say give your careers as much energy as you can early on. As you get older other things come into play. It might be your childcare responsibilities or caring for older parents, so do put the time in when life might be a bit more straightforward if you can. Also, you will probably have several phases to your career and maybe change careers completely over your working life, so building transferrable skills is useful and can give you options. Developing a set of skills that can apply to more than one setting can give you more flexibility for where you want to work and even where you want to live. In terms of behaviour, as my Granny used to say “do as you would be done by” – consideration of others is a strength, not a weakness! Finally, observe how people you admire handle tricky or complex situations and learn from what they say and do.