Baroness Jolly has been President of RoSPA since November 2019.
A Liberal Democrat life peer, she was introduced to the House of Lords in January 2011 and made her maiden speech – on health issues – within a week.
She is currently health spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords. Previous roles have included: co-chairman of the Health and Social Care Team in the coalition; government whip with responsibilities for health, defence, culture, media and sport, and equalities; and defence spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.
Baroness Jolly spent a large part of her professional life in the southwest of England. She taught maths for more than 15 years, and was a pioneer in information technology and computing in schools.
In 1997, she was appointed as non-executive director for an NHS trust for mental health and learning disability, and then an NHS primary care trust, finally chairing the North and East Cornwall NHS Primary Care Trust Board prior to the last NHS reorganisation in 2006. She was a Lay Inspector for the Commission for Health Improvement.
In 2016, she took the role of Chairman of Hft, a charity providing services to more than 2,500 adults with learning disability. She is also a trustee of ORUK.