Strong Leadership - Positive Change

Fermanagh South Tyrone

Professor Pat Cullen is the youngest of seven children and grew up in Co Tyrone. She is married with two children, and recently became a grandmother. Pat holds a degree in Nursing and a Master’s in management and qualified as a registered nurse in 1985 working in a range of community and clinical healthcare settings, before becoming a director of nursing. She has held senior roles within nursing, including Director of Nursing at the Public Health Agency and advisor to the Department of Health, before joining the Royal College of Nursing in 2016 and became the director of the College in NI in 2019. Proper pay and safe conditions for nursing staff has been top of the agenda for Pat and a key focus in her role as General Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing and representing over 500,000 nurses across these islands. Pat Cullen is an honorary professor of Queen’s University in Belfast and has been voted as one of the top 100 women in Westminster for the past two years as well as one of the top 50 most influential women.