Professor Valerie Jenkins is the Deputy Director in Sussex Health Outcomes, Research & Education in Cancer. She originally trained as a nurse in Wales, working in Oncology at Velindre Hospital in Cardiff and then completed her BSc (1986-1989) and DPhil (1993-1996) in Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex. Her doctorate in neuropsychology was entitled 'Novel Word Association Priming in Amnesic Patients.'

She has worked with Professor Dame Lesley Fallowfield’s group for the last 30 years, first at University College London and then when the research unit transferred to the University of Sussex.