Grace Thomas is an Emerita Reader in Midwifery at Cardiff University, having recently retired. A Midwife for over 36 years, Grace moved into academia after working across a variety of clinical and managerial roles, including as Consultant Midwife for 10 years. She was the LME at Cardiff University for many years and Chair of LME Wales, playing an active role in the UK LME Advisory Group, and was part of the Senior Leadership Team as the Head of Health Professions at the School of Healthcare Sciences.

Grace is the immediate past Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) for Midwifery Development at Cardiff University – one of only two WHOCCs globally which specifically focus on midwifery education, and the centre achieved its 3rd redesignation to work with the WHO EURO Region in 2024. Grace co-led the development of the Midwifery Assessment Tool for Education (MATE) as part of the WHOCC workplan. MATE is published on the WHO website (https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/358932 ) and utilised globally to support countries to self-assess their midwifery education development needs. Grace has experience of working in Oman and Namibia – leading a project funded by a Wales and Africa grant with the University of Namibia and Independent Midwives Association of Namibia.

Grace has presented extensively nationally and internationally and is a Trustee of the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust. In 2021 she was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) UK in recognition of her work, and won the Leadership category at the prestigious RCM Awards.

Grace is honoured to be appointed as Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

e-mail: thomassg4@cardiff.ac.uk

https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/cardiff-university-celebrates-prestigious-who-re-designation