Executive Chief Nurse and Director of Quality

Professor Yorke was appointed as Executive Chief Nurse and Director of Quality in April 2020. She continues to hold the inaugural joint Chair in Cancer Nursing with the University of Manchester and The Christie, commencing May 2015.

In 2016, she founded Christie Patient Centred Research (CPCR) and continues to lead this multi-professional group of Christie researchers and students. During that time she also developed the bespoke Christie Clinical Academic Pathway (CCAP) supporting combined clinical and research pathways for cancer nurses and allied health professionals. She is Deputy Chair of Supportive and Palliative Care research at University of Manchester. She has secured research grants over £6M as a lead investigator and £20M as a co-investigator.

Professor Yorke has particular expertise in the development and utilisation of Patient Reported Outcome - and Experience - Measures (PROMS/PREMS). She is internationally recognised as an expert in PROM work; her work includes symptom specific and quality of life measures that have been translated into more than 30 different languages. She chairs The Christie ePROM group, leading the implementation of electronic PROMs into routine clinical care.

In 1991, Professor Yorke graduated from the University of Western Sydney and began her clinical nursing career as an intensive care nurse; she worked in Sydney, London and Saudi Arabia. Prior to relocating to the UK in 2004 she was Nurse Consultant for heart and lung transplantation at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.

Since moving to the UK she completed her PhD and has held numerous academic and leadership roles at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Foundation Trust, Imperial College London and University of Salford. She is also Conjoint Professor at University of Newcastle, Australia.

Professor Yorke holds numerous leadership roles including Chair of Lung Cancer Nurses UK research group, outgoing Chair for the British Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society nursing groups, and previous Chair of the American Thoracic Society nursing group. She is dedicated to the clinical-academic development of nurses and allied health professionals to benefit patient care and the wider health care setting.