Barbara Stocking joined Oxfam GB as Director in May 2001. Previously, she was a member of the top management team of the National Health Service. In her eight years with the NHS, she worked as regional director and most recently as Director of the Modernisation Agency, charged with modernising the NHS.

Ms Stocking, who has a Masters degree in physiology, has broad experience of healthcare systems, policy and practice, including periods at the National Academy of Sciences in the USA and with the World Health Organisation in West Africa. Her interests have been in bringing about change and development in health care and now she brings those interests to Oxfam GB’s work in fighting poverty through humanitarian relief, development work and advocacy.

Barbara lives in Oxford with her husband who is a doctor in a young offenders’ institution and has two sons aged 15 and 18.