Our People
Emma Bates, Founder
The driving force behind Maria’s Movement, Emma is passionate about staff wellbeing, leadership development, research and innovation, preventative and integrated care, support for unpaid carers, and advancing End of Life Care (EoLC) services.
As a Staff & Patient Associate for the NHS Leadership Academy, Emma is committed to sharing her lived experience to foster growth and improvement across health and social care. She has spoken at several regional and national forums, including National Safeguarding Week 2024, and the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme.
Inspired by her mother and her personal experience, Emma and team officially launched Maria’s Movement at NHSConfedExpo 2025, with the ambition of sparking systemic change.
She finds balance through music, an active lifestyle, connecting with people and nature, and, of course, keeping her cupboard well-stocked with dark chocolate.
Liza Collins, MA FRSA, Co-founder
Liza is a healthcare culture strategist, executive leadership coach and fearless voice for culture change. Liza cofounded Maria’s Movement to place lived experience voices at the heart of leadership and culture. Maria’s story inspires her to call for a future where compassion, dignity and safety are not optional, but the foundation of healthcare itself.
With more than 35 years’ experience across the NHS and international health systems, Liza has led complex teams and delivered systemic transformation. Her commitment to relational leadership and human-centred care was forged on the NHS front line, where an unspoken rule — “treat every patient as your own family” — shaped her practice. Those values still drive her, whether she’s tackling strategy in the boardroom or guiding a struggling team.
Liza also serves as Chair of the Stop Hurt at Work Committee and is a Faculty Advisor to the Australian Institute of Healthcare Executives and a Member of the European Health Futures Forum. She is the author of The Physiology of Bullying (2025) and writes a monthly newspaper column, challenging the NHS to lead with humanity and compassion.
Liza believes the future of leadership is about power with, not power over. She equips leaders to build cultures of trust, healing and high performance — so patients, carers, staff and organisations can thrive together.
Andy Wilkins, Co-founder
Andy Wilkins is a healthcare systems innovator, strategist and international thought leader on the future of health. He co-founded Maria’s Movement to champion lived experience as a catalyst for systems transformation, leadership and culture change, inspired by Maria’s story and its call for compassion and dignity to become the non-negotiable, organising foundation of care.
With more than 25 years’ experience across health, business and innovation, Andy has advised governments, NHS leaders and international organisations on transforming health systems in the 21st Century to ones capable of truly enabling human and planetary flourishing.
He is the designer of Imperial College London’s flagship Leading Systemic Innovation in Healthcare executive education programme and is Founder of Future of Health, which supports Integrated Care Systems and health organisations to design and deliver whole-system transformation.
Andy’s practice is rooted in relational, human-centred care and systems leadership. Drawing on his Cells to Cities model — mapping health and wellbeing from biology to society — he helps leaders connect culture, compassion and systemic design to improve outcomes for patients, carers and staff alike.
He is a visiting Lecturer to UCL and serves as Imperial College Business School’s Expert in Healthcare and works closely with Acute Trusts and NHS Integrated Care Systems, including Suffolk and North East Essex, to support leaders in creating the conditions for innovation, transformation and long-term sustainability. He speaks internationally on AI, health futures and the deep cultural change needed to navigate today’s poly-crisis.
Andy believes that compassionate cultures are the key to flourishing health systems. He equips leaders to listen deeply, design wisely and act courageously so that patients, staff and communities can thrive together.