About
Research
Biography
Angela holds two principal roles within the School of Medicine. As Head of Medical School Admissions, she leads the admissions strategy and policy for the School of Medicine, with a focus on recruiting and selecting students based on academic excellence, motivation for a career in healthcare, and alignment with the values of St Mary’s, the NHS, and the General Medical Council. She also serves as Head of Clinical and Communication Skills, leading the development and delivery of the clinical and communication skills curriculum for medical students.
Background
Angela has over 25 years of evidence-based, research-led teaching experience in UK medical education. Prior to her appointment as Professor of Medical Education and Clinical Communication at St Mary’s, she was based at City St George’s, University of London, where she served as Head of Clinical Communication. In this role, she managed a team of 10 clinical academic lecturers responsible for designing, delivering, assessing, and evaluating the clinical communication curriculum across the MBBS four-year and five-year programmes.
She has held several senior leadership positions, including Associate Dean for Admissions (2014–2022) and Dean for Student Conduct and Compliance (2022–2025) at St George’s, University of London. Angela was also a member of Senate and played a leading role within the AI Accelerator and Change Committee as co-Chair of the Generative AI Upskilling Steering Group, supporting the ethical and effective use of generative AI across City St George’s.
Angela has extensive expertise in designing and delivering medical and healthcare education for a wide range of healthcare professionals and trainees across undergraduate medical schools and postgraduate deaneries. She is the lead educator for the FutureLearn MOOC, Developing Clinical Empathy: Making a Difference in Patient Care. This highly rated open-access course is used internationally and embedded within medical school curricula. This work led to collaborations with other healthcare programmes, including dentistry at Trinity College Dublin, where she served as a Visiting Professor.
Awards
Angela was recognised by Advance HE for her outstanding contribution to advancing clinical education and student partnership when she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2024.
In 2025, she received three Educational Excellence Awards from City St George’s in recognition of her sustained commitment to student partnership, her collaborative approach to meaningful curriculum enhancement through staff-student and multi-role collaboration, and her role as co-leader of the Academic Integrity Transformation Project, where she championed an inclusive and collegial approach to policy and practice enhancement.
Widening access
As Associate Dean for Admissions, Angela led significant strategic changes to widening access initiatives, resulting in the introduction of a values-based and contextual admissions policy. This work increased the number of students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups applying to and being selected for medicine and healthcare programmes.
Her expertise in admissions led to her election to the board of the MSC Selection Alliance and appointment as Co-chair of its MMI Expert Group. She also contributed as an author to the 2024 Medical Schools Council report, Fostering Potential. Her research and work on selection methodology and the use of Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs) led her to co-lead the development and pedagogical design of the FutureLearn MOOC, Healthcare Selection and Recruitment: Design and Deliver Effective Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), launched in May 2020. The course purposefully incorporated remote MMIs in response to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.
The MOOC attracted a broad international audience, creating a rich collaborative learning environment and enabling Angela to share her expertise nationally and internationally with practitioners and universities.
Angela also brings experience from working within the international partnership between St George’s Medical School and the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. In this role, she supported the recruitment of international student cohorts and oversaw admissions processes, governance, and quality assurance, working closely with the GMC to ensure approval and accreditation of the partnership.
She is deeply committed to values-based selection and to ensuring that graduates become compassionate, human-centred clinicians. Angela is proud to serve as the inaugural Head of Admissions and Head of Clinical and Communication Skills for the School of Medicine at St Mary’s.
Hobbies and interests
Angela is a natural collaborator who enjoys bringing people together across teams, both professionally and within her local community. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and attending live music events, particularly performances by punk and indie rock bands.
She is also a strong advocate for outdoor group exercise and regularly attends a 6am Bootcamp class to maintain both physical and mental wellbeing.
Qualifications and accreditations
- Advance HE: National Teaching Fellowship Award Winner (NTFA) 2024-25
- Trinity College Dublin School of Dental Science: Visiting Professor (2022-2023)
- Advance HE: Awarded Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) 2020
- Imperial College London: Postgraduate Certificate of Advanced Study in Learning and Teaching (CASLAT) 2004
- University of Southampton: MSc in Health Psychology (1998-1999)
- University College London: Affiliate Student: Departments of Pharmacology and Psychology (1996-1997)
- Smith College, Northampton, MA. USA: B. A. in Psychology with Neuroscience (1994-1998).
Membership of professional bodies
- Membership of The Association of National Teaching Fellows (ANTF)
- Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
- Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society (AFBPs)
- Chartered Health Psychologist (Division of Health Psychology, BPS)
- Registered Practitioner Psychologist, Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
- Member, The Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME)
- Member, The International Associate for Health Professions Education (AMEE)
- Board Member, Medical Schools Council Selection Alliance (MSCSA)
- Chair, MSCSA MMI Expert Group
- University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) Consortium Member
- Founding Member, UK Council for Clinical Communication Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education (UKCCC).
Research
Research profile
Publications
- Kumwenda, B., Kubacki, A., Lynch, B., & Dowell, J. The Predictive Validity of Multiple Mini Interviews for Medical School Performance and Postgraduate Training: A Multi-site and Multi-cohort Study. 2025. In progress
- Anishchuk, S., Mac Giolla, Phadraig C., Roche, C., Kubacki, A., Sullivan, D., & Howell, Y. ResiliDents: Development and Evaluation of Resilience in Dental Undergraduate Education. Eur J Dent Educ 2025;0:1-11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/eje.13094
- Medical Schools Council. Fostering Potential: 10 years on from Selecting for Excellence. London: Medical Schools Council. Dec 2024. Available at: https://www.medschools.ac.uk/
- Callwood A, Harris J, Gillam L, Roberts, S, Kubacki, A, Christidis, A, & Tiffin, P. Cross- sectional evaluation of an asynchronous multiple mini- interview (MMI) in selection to health professions training programmes with 10 principles for fairness built-in. BMJ Open 2023;0:e074440. doi:10.1136/ bmjopen-2023-074440
- Callwood, A., Gilliam, L., Christidis, A., Doulton, J., Harris, J., Coleman, M., Kubacki, A., Tiffin, P., Roberts, K., Tarmey, D., Dalton, D, & Valentin, V. Feasibility of an automated interview grounded in Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) methodology for selection into the health professions: an international multi-methods evaluation. BMJ Open 2022;12:e050394. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050394
- Anishchuk, S., Kubacki, A., Howell, Y., Van Harten, MT., Yarascavitch, C., & Mac Giolla, Phadraig C. Can a Virtual Learning Module Foster Empathy in Undergraduate Dental Students? Eur J Dent Educ 2022;00:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/eje.12783
- Apampa, A., Kubacki, A., Ojha, U., Xiang, J. Challenges in widening participation outreach: Is enough being done to tackle under-representation of low-income students in medicine? Adv Med Educ Pract 2019 Nov1;10:917-923. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S211895.
- Zibarras, L., Patterson, F., Holmes, J., Flaxman, C., & Kubacki, A. An exploration of applicant perceptions of asynchronous video MMIs in applicant selection. MedEd Publish; 2018 Vol 7 Issue 4. Paper No: 64. https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2018.0000285.1
- Joekes, K, Noble, LM, Kubacki, AM, Potts, HWW, & Lloyd, M. Does the inclusion of ‘professional development’ teaching improve medical students’ communication skills? BMC Med Educ. 2011; 11: 41.
- Nestel, D, Tierney, T, Kubacki, A, & Muir, E. Learning to talk with patients: feasibility of a volunteer simulated patient programme for first-year medical students. International Journal of Clinical Skills 2008; 2:2
- Nestel, D, Tierney, T & Kubacki, A. Creating authentic simulated patient roles: working with volunteers. Med Educ. 2008; 42(11): 1122.
- Noble LM, Kubacki A, Martin J, Lloyd M. The effect of professional skills training on patient-centredness and confidence in communicating with patients. Med Educ. 2007;41:432–40.