What’s your favourite book?
100 years of Solitude.
Who inspires you?
My family.
What’s your favourite slogan or mantra?
There is no I in team!
Tanya Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer, ASH Wales
ASH Wales is a public health charity engaged in a variety of projects including campaigning and lobbying for tobacco control public health policy, research, training, educational workshops, advocacy, and support.
Tanya has been instrumental in ensuring Wales has a strategy that addresses its major public health issue. Through continuous engagement and campaigning activities Tanya has really shaped the tobacco control agenda in Wales.
She recognises the importance of forming partnerships with like-minded organisations and was instrumental in building the Wales Tobacco Control Alliance (WTCA) into a formidable partnership and fostering relations with organisations not always associated with tobacco control.
Her collaborative approach means she works closely with colleagues in ASH England to lobby Welsh MPs and Peers on non-devolved tobacco control issues. Tanya has also been instrumental in raising the profile of the local health board tobacco forum groups and offering strategic support and advice from ASH Wales.
In 2010 Tanya secured funding to work with Swansea University to quantify the costs of treating smoking related illness to the NHS in Wales. The outcome of this research generated much media and political interest and the results have been widely publicised and quoted by leading Welsh Assembly Government officials, the First Minister, the Chief Medical Officer for Wales and Public Health Wales.
The new Wales Tobacco or Health Network launched in 2011 brings together health professionals, academics, community and business leaders, as well as national and local government officials. Under Tanya’s leadership ASH Wales has delivered successful international tobacco control conferences year on year bringing delegates from all over the world together.
Tanya has an inclusive style of leadership. She empowers people to take things forward. She is highly committed, aligns her own personal values with the organisation and is keen to grow the organisation’s sustainable, environmental and ethical policies.
Tanya has excellent communication and interpersonal skills and is extremely charismatic. She leads from the front. She is a determined character and has the stamina to overcome opposition and obstacles. Her dedication to the cause is unwavering.