Liverpool 5G lead Ann Williams nominated for ‘Digital Leader of the Year’

Ann’s nomination is in the prestigious Digital Leader of the Year category, which is “for an individual whose actions in the past year have made them stand out as a Digital Leader in the transformation of their sector.” The Digital Leaders programme recognises the importance of leadership in driving forward digital transformation in the UK.

Ann brought her expertise in the Health and Social Care sector to both the DCMS-funded Liverpool 5G Health and Social Care Testbed in 2018, and the ongoing Liverpool 5G Create: Connecting Health & Social Care project.

Part of Ann’s role at Liverpool City Council is as the innovation network lead which looks at innovative ways of delivering care against a decreasing budget and increasing needs. Ann led the digitalisation Liverpool Domiciliary Care services and introduced a LoRaWAN network and IoT sensors into the current services delivered by a range of in-house and external care providers. Ann said of her work: “I have always been driven by a strong sense of social justice and working with the most marginalised in society heightens my awareness of inequalities in society, especially with the current financial challenges to household and public budgets, and the need to lessen the digital divide.”

Ann is also a member of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Food, a member of the Campylobacter group working on how to control Campylobacter in food supplies, the Vice Chair of the Liverpool Central Local Research Ethics Committee, a core member of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Public Health Advisory Group, and was recently appointed to the UK5G Advisory Board.