Meet the women of Nuffield Health - Paula Moore

International Women’s Day (8th March) is a chance for people all over the world to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, increasing visibility and raising awareness about gender inequality across the world.

In the lead up to the day, we have interviewed some of the inspirational women we have working at Nuffield Health to discuss the challenges women face today and the women that inspired them. 


Name and role

Paula Moore, Regional Flagship Lead for the North, Scotland, the Midlands and South West

What do you do at Nuffield Health?

“As a Regional Flagship Lead, I support sites in Scotland, North, Midlands and part of the South West to engage, embed and deliver our flagship programmes. The main part of my role is to enable sites to operationally deliver each programme, resulting in maximising our social impact and benefiting as many lives as possible.  I am also involved in the strategic evolution of the programmes, setting up future flagships and part of our regional teams to drive our purpose; to build a healthier nation.”  

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

“International Women’s Day is important to empower women, to remind us we are equal, we are awesome, and we can achieve whatever we want. I think marking the day is a strong reminder to celebrate how far we have come, but also to remind us how far we still have to go. Without going into it too much, a lot of changes to support women are recent. We must not forget that there is more work to do to catch up with modern living and the challenges that brings. Women championing women enables progress to be accelerated.” 

What do you think is the biggest challenge for women today and what has been your biggest challenge?

“Women these days are playing multiple roles, and this is taking its toll on all areas of women’s lives. As a sole-parenting career-driven woman, I feel the demands and it can be really hard at times. Despite having a strong network around me, it can be testing. It is important that women find balance and ways to manage the pressures and don’t feel they must be everything to everyone all the time. For me, continuously working on myself and finding what works has been key. Having guilt-free time to myself and creating space to make sure I am aligned to my values and desires is super important. Learning to say no was a mission for me in the last couple of years. I used to feel I had to say yes, or I was letting people down. Now, I am good at saying no and not feeling guilty about it.”

Which woman has inspired you and why?

“Undoubtedly, my response is J.K. Rowling. Truly inspiring in so many ways. Having the courage to leave a toxic relationship oversees and come back with her daughter to the UK with nothing but her dreams. I am in awe of her tenacious attitude to write such brilliance under extreme pressures of being a sole-parenting mother. J.K. Rowling is a true example of how all women can achieve their dreams. By tuning in and listening to her passion to write Harry Potter books. Using her own story as her personal power and trusting that the desire to write was enough. Her resilience is an example to us all. Just because you hear “no” multiple times (in her case from publishers), you can still succeed.  Her now humble gratitude of what she has is a reminder to us all of true happiness.” 

Last updated Wednesday 4 March 2020

First published on Monday 2 March 2020