Emily McWhirter

1. When you were at Brighton & Hove High School, and what is your fondest memory of school?
I started in Upper 2, in the Junior School in 1978 and stayed till the end of Upper Sixth in 1986. I was the Head Girl in my last year. My fondest memories are definitely focused around the friends I made at school. We had a lot of fun. I also loved the plays, the trips and the big school events. Boughrood was a place of many happy memories, I went there 4 times. Weirdly, I also enjoyed the daily assemblies. One of my highlights was the public speaking competitions – I started learning some great public speaking skills by entering the annual competitions. It has really helped to learn this skill as I do a lot of public speaking now.

2. Who was your favourite teacher and why?
That’s hard to say – I was lucky to have had some fantastic teachers during my time at school. Miss Olejnik, the PE teacher was a massive favourite, though looking back I was so un-sporty, she must have despaired at my rather feeble efforts at hockey and netball. She was firm but so friendly, and easy to talk to. She got to know everyone and looked after us all.

Mrs Hancock was the Deputy Head when I was Head Girl. She and I had some great chats and she taught me to question decisions, and not to settle for something it it wasn’t right. Good advice for later!

3. What were the benefits of being in an all-girls school?
Actually, I would have enjoyed being in a co-ed school! Benefits were that we probably spoke up more freely and were less distracted but I think learning with boys would have added something interesting. I went into nursing afterwards, which was also very female dominated, so I have never really spent much time learning along side boys.

4. What did you want to be when you ‘grew-up’?
A midwife – I always wanted to do Nursing or Midwifery, and back then you could only do Midwifery after being a nurse so I had to do nurse training first. Failing that, I wanted to be an actress but my parents weren’t really in to that as a career.

5. What do you do now, and what are the most rewarding and challenging parts of your job?
I have had a crazy career with some amazing opportunities, I had a year at Harvard Business School, worked with the Chief Nurse at the WHO and contributed to a huge global health agenda. Now I run my own business supporting leadership development in health care around the World. The most rewarding parts are when you can see that your input has made a real difference to people. There are lots of challenges but always trying to be one step ahead is probably the biggest one – what will happen next – where should we invest our efforts, how can we move this mountain….or do we climb up or round it!

6. What are you most proud of so far?
My family – my 3 boys, their partners and my beautiful new grandson. There are many work moments I am proud of but nothing compares to seeing them happy and doing well

7. What was the best piece of advice you were given whilst at Brighton?
Make the most of the opportunities you are given. Give things a try.

8. What advice would you give to your 18 year old self?
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Live, laugh and love as much as you can. A-levels are not the only measure of success. I didn’t really enjoy the academic work much but learnt a lot about building relationships, leadership and how to be bold and brave!

Also, its ok to change career path – I’ve changed jobs a lot and whilst always in Nursing, they have been very different roles. Each move has enabled me to grow, learn more and bring experiences with me to a new area. We have to work for a long time, and actually having different careers brings a richer, fuller world of experience. I’m not sure I thought about this enough when I was 18. I just thought I’d be a midwife and stay in the same job forever.

9. What book, film or piece of music would you recommend to your younger self and to your fellow alumnae?

Book: Talking to Strangers: Malcolm Gladwell. It provides huge insight into what makes us trust others.

Film: My Best Friends Wedding. I’ve probably watched it over 100 times. I always wanted to be Julia Roberts!

Music: Wham, Last Christmas. (First kiss, say no more! )
Not the School Song – (I still remember all the words for that).

10. How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who loved others. Who spoke up, who was brave.

Prof. Emily McWhirter
Class of 1986
Global nursing leadership strategist / Board member, International Council of Nurses.

Emily’s website: https://www.emhealthconsulting.com