Awarded by the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education to Dr. Jill Thislethwaite, MBBS, MMEd, PhD, FRCGP, FRACGP, Professor of Medical Education, University of Technology Sydney. The Pioneer Award recognizes an interprofessional practice and education pioneer individual or organization for the foundational role they have played in advancing the field.

After medical school in London (England), Dr. Thistlethwaite trained as a general practitioner (family physician) and worked full-time for 10 years in a semi-rural practice in Yorkshire.  It was in this practice that she realised the importance of working in collaboration with other health professionals before she had even heard the word interprofessional.  In 1996 she entered academia at Leeds University, helping expand community-based placements for medical students and co-developing the personal and professional development model which included interprofessional group work. During this time, she met Professor Hugh Barr of CAIPE, became more involved in IPE and took on an associate editorship role at the Journal of Interprofessional Care.  Dr. Thistlethwaite received her PhD in medical education from the University of Maastricht in 2004.

Dr. Thistlethwaite moved to Australia in 2003 and worked on a succession of grant funded IPE projects with colleagues from several Australian universities.  In 2014 she was honored to become a Fulbright senior scholar at the fledging National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education, hosted by the University of Minnesota, and returned there for a month in 2016.

Dr. Thistlethwaite was editor-in-chief of The Clinical Teacher from 2014-2020 and is a senior editor of JIC.  Her current role is clinical chair of the NSW hospital non specialist program with HETI (Health Education & Training Institute) and she has an honorary adjunct professor appointment at the University of Technology Sydney.

During her career, Dr. Thistlethwaite has published over 120 peer-reviewed and other papers, co-authored and co-edited several books and over 30 book chapters, focusing mainly on IPE/IPP as well as professionalism and communication skills.  She has been invited to speak and run workshops globally on IPE including in Sri Lanka, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada, USA, and Germany.

View the video below to hear an interview between National Center Founding Director Barbara Brandt and Pioneer Awardee Dr. Jill Thistlethwaite.