Our Principal

Professor Pamela Gillies BSc PGCE MEd MMedSci PhD FRSA FFPH AcSS Hon FRCPS (Glasg)

Professor Gillies was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in March 2006. Since becoming the academic and chief executive head of the University, Professor Gillies and her team have set out a new vision for Glasgow Caledonian University ensuring it is one of the most distinctive universities in the UK – a University for the professions with a commitment to the common good.

She is a Governor of the Board of Trustees of the British Council, supporting the educational and cultural work of the British Council in the UK and internationally, is a Trustee of the Saltire Foundation to promote international business related fellowships and internships for Scotland’s brightest students, and is a member of the Board of CBI Scotland, the first Scottish Vice-Chancellor to be elected to this role.

Following an invitation by Jim Murphy MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, Professor Gillies is Chair of the Glasgow Task Force, which was established in January 2010 to examine the welfare challenges within the city with a particular focus on generational poverty and benefit reliance.  The Task Force has just published its report Welfare and Benefits Challenges in the City.

She is also Chair of the Glasgow Health Commission, which has recently published its first report. A joint initiative involving Glasgow City Council, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, the Commission is tasked with drawing together thinking on sustainable health improvement in Glasgow and making recommendations for the City’s partners to reduce health inequalities in immediate and longer term.

Professor Gillies is also:

• A member of the Scottish Enterprise West Regional Advisory Board, which plays a key role in Scottish Enterprise’s industry strategy by identifying and shaping potential projects that will help meet the needs of the country’s key industries and improve Scotland’s overall economic performance.
• Convener of the Universities Scotland Health Committee and a member of Executive Committee and the Funding Policy Group.
• A Trustee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.
• Part of the Universities UK Research Policy Committee, and the Prime Minister’s Initiative Advisory Group.
• A member of the Scottish Poverty and Truth Commission.
  

First in her family to attend university, Professor Gillies graduated from Aberdeen University with a BSc in Physiology, a PGCE and a Masters in Education and Philosophy. She subsequently trained in community health at the University of Nottingham, graduating with an MMedSci and a PhD in Epidemiology. She spent six years in Sheffield evaluating health promotion initiatives before returning to Nottingham in 1984 to take up a Lectureship in Public Health Medicine, eventually rising to be appointed a Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham in 2001.

During her career, Professor Gillies has worked in San Francisco on an Abbott Fellowship for AIDS Research (1988), in Geneva as a member of the World Health Organisation’s Global Programme on AIDS (1989-90), at Harvard University as a Harkness Fellow and Visiting Professor in Health and Human Rights (1992-3), and in London on a seconded post as the first Executive Director of Research at the Health Education Authority for England (1996-99).

In 2005, Professor Gillies was elected as an Academician of the Academy for Social Sciences. She was elected as a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 2002, and became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow in 2007. During her career, she has researched and written widely on cross-cultural perspectives on HIV/AIDS, sexuality and health, partnership responses to health improvement and community development responses to inequalities in health focussing on the potential of social action for health. She is currently active in a Gates Foundation funded research project in Kolkata, India, to prevent HIV transmission in sex workers and their families.

Professor Gillies is a keen member of the Scottish Lawn Tennis Association, Glamis Castle Musicale, the Royal Horticultural Society, Friends of Covent Garden and Women Directors on UK Boards.