Fiona Ellwood is a dental nurse and is the patron and executive director of the Society of British Dental Nurses (SBDN) and also chairs the National Oral Health Group. She was lately senior lecturer and external examiner at the University of Chester. She acts as a key opinion leader and is an advisor for oral health education and preventative programs across the dental arena, as well as infection control and professional practice. She is a former President of BADN, an examiner for NEBDN .
Fiona is a trained mentor and has fostered and developed a mentoring culture in several areas both within and outside of dentistry. Her mentoring work has been far reaching and includes supporting a scheme to help dental colleagues when working with underperforming dentists.
She recently completed an MSc PG Cert in Public Health and has enrolled on her PhD programme looking closer at education. Fiona is the QA & Enhancement Lead at Leamington Spa Orthodontics Centre and an honorary non-clinical lecturer at University of Warwick and a subject expert at the University of Bangor. Fiona is also a member of the Human Factors Advisory Board.

She is the founder of Dental Mentoring Network and a member of Dental Mentors UK. She has received an honorary Fellowship from the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners (UK) (the first DCP to do so), a Fellow of the Faculty of Dental Trainers at the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh and Fellow of Institute of Administrators and Managers. More recently she became a member of the Interim Education Advisors Board RCS Edinburgh and a trustee of Dentaid, as well as becoming the vice president of British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT). Fiona is also part of the East Midlands LDN and the gerodontology MCN group.

Fiona was awarded British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2019.