The Department of History with the Centre for the History of Medicine, are delighted to announce Patrick Vernon, OBE as new Associate Member.

Patrick was awarded an OBE in June 2012 as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours for contribution in tackling health inequalities for ethnic minority communities and is a current committee for Healthwatch England and the independent Commission on Policy and mental health. He was former Chief Executive of the Afiya Trust one of the leading race equality health charities in the country and has previously worked as a senior civil servant at the Department of Health and Local Government Association; Director of the Brent Health Action Zone (Brent Primary Care Trust), and Regional Director for MIND. Former member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for mental health, Equality and Diversity Council.

Patrick has also been a former Non-Executive Director of Camidoc (GP out of hour's service in North London) and a trustee for Social Action for Health in East London and a Councillor in Hackney where he has chaired Health Scrutiny and Public Health Peer Reviewer. He is also a former Non-Executive Director East London & the City Health Authority, and Independent Chair of Westminster Partnership for Race Equality where he played a key role with the Met Police and the Muslim community with the aftermath of 7/7 bombings in Westminster.

Patrick has been a Councillor since 2006 in the London Borough of Hackney where he served as the former Chair of Health Scrutiny and is a film maker and cultural historian and founder of Every Generation Media (http//.everygeneration.co.uk). In 2003 he launched '100 Great Black Britons' (www.100greatblackbritons.com), published in 2006 'When We Ruled', produced and co-directed in 2008 the film 'A Charmed Life'. Patrick is also one of the leading experts on African and Caribbean family genealogy.

The Centre is delighted to be working with Patrick and looks forward to future collaborations.