Professor Dame Lesley Southgate is Professor of Medical Education at St George’s Hospital Medical School. She is a general practitioner and was active in patient care until she became President of the RCGP in 2000. From 1996-2004 she led the GMC President's programme to develop and implement the assessment methods for the GMC performance procedures for the medical profession.  She was a member of the Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board (PMETB) to November 2006 where she chaired the Statutory Committee on Assessment and its subcommittee on examinations in postgraduate training until January 2006. She is the principal author of the Board’s paper on principles for assessment, now a requirement for all postgraduate assessment programmes in the UK. These principles remain fundamental, following the incorporation of the PMETB into the UK GMC.

She is known internationally and nationally for her work on the assessment of competence and performance of physicians and in 2008 was awarded the prestigious Hubbard award by the US National Board of Medical Examiners for outstanding contribution to assessment of competence and performance of doctors in the international arena. Dame Lesley was elected a Board Member at large at the 2009 NBME annual meeting and now takes an active part in the work of the Board.

International work includes a connection with the Medical Academy of St Petersburg where she is a distinguished international professor and support for the Egyptian Board of Medical Specialties in the development of the certifying examinations for family medicine (MRCGP Int)

Professor Southgate led a project to introduce in-training workplace based assessment for the foundation programme for all UK trainees. This work was the basis for a national programme started in October 2005, in which 5,000 trainee doctors are presently enrolled. Major responsibilities have recently included the leadership of the RCGP recertification technical group for British GPs which developed and proposed the shape and content of the recertification for all 35,000 plus UK family doctors on the GMC specialist register.

Currently Dame Lesley has three principal roles

• Project lead for assessment for the DH programme, Modernising Scientific Careers.
• Lead for curriculum development in an EU programme to improve the quality of life for people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS in Libya. The work was suspended in February 2011
• President and Founder member of  the recently established European Board of Medical Assessors, (EBMA) a not for profit Foundation  based in Rome, to promote excellence in the assessment of clinical competence across the EU. The executive includes LS, Prof Cees van der Vleuten and Prof Walter Ricciardi.

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Dame Lesley was President of ASME until 2009 and was the Co-founder and inaugural Chairman of the Academy of Medical Educators established in 2007 to promote excellence in all aspects of Medical Education and Training. The Academy has elected its second  President, and Dame Lesley remains a member of the Council. Most recently she has become a Council member of the Royal Vet College with a particular remit to support clinical education.