Our President and Vice-Presidents

Meet our President and Vice-Presidents – they bring a wealth of knowledge, medical and research experience on Scleroderma and Raynaud's:

Dame Carol Black

Professor Dame Carol Black DBE, FRCP, FMedSci is Principal of Newnham College Cambridge, Expert Adviser on Health and Work to NHS England and Public Health England, and Chairman of the Nuffield Trust for health policy. She chairs the Board of Think Ahead, the Government's new fast-stream training programme for Mental Health Social Workers, and the RSSB's Health and Wellbeing Policy Group. She is a member of the Welsh Government's Bevan Commission on health in Wales, of the board of UK Active, of the West Midlands Mental Health Commission, of the North East Combined Authority's Commission for Health and Social Care Integration, and of PwC's Health Industries Oversight Board. As Principal of Newnham she is on several committees in Cambridge University, for example the Advisory Board of the Centre for Science and Public Policy.

In November 2011 when National Director for Health and Work she completed as Co-Chair an independent review for the UK Government of sickness absence in Britain. The recommendations of this report are now being put in place, with for example a national Fit for Work Service. She is now finishing a further independent review for the Government, of addiction to drugs or alcohol, or obesity, and the benefits system.

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 February 2016 Dame Carol enjoyed the experience of being interviewed on BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs.

Professor. Christopher Denton PhD FRCP, Royal Free Hospital and UCL Division of Medicine, London, UK

Professor Denton studied medicine at Guy's Hospital in London and obtained a PhD from University College London and trained in connective tissue diseases in London. Following a Wellcome Trust Advanced Fellowship in molecular genetics at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA he was an Arthritis Research UK Senior Clinical Research Fellow 2000-2010. He has published extensively on laboratory and clinical aspects of connective tissue disease and pulmonary hypertension.

He leads a large clinical programme in scleroderma at the Royal Free Hospital and co-ordinates multidisciplinary care for more than 1400 patients. He was previously chair of the Heberden Scientific Committee of the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) and currently chairs the UK Scleroderma Study Group (UKSSG).

Professor. Ariane Herrick, University of Manchester

Ariane Herrick is Professor of Rheumatology, University of Manchester, and Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. She graduated from the University of Aberdeen, trained in general medicine at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and in rheumatology in Salford. Her main clinical and research interests are Raynaud's phenomenon, scleroderma-spectrum disorders, and assessment of the microvasculature (including capillaroscopy). She leads the Raynaud's and Scleroderma service at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, and is an active member of the UK Scleroderma Study Group.