Alan Taman: CV
19 Northolt Grove, Great Barr, Birmingham B42 2JH, UK
Date of birth: 1957. Clean driving licence. Non-smoker.
Phone:
Website:
e-mails:
Facebook:
Twitter:
07870 757309
www.alantaman.co.uk
aptaman@aol.com
alan@alantaman.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/AlanTamanCopywriter
http://twitter.com/#!/Wordsmith19
Qualifications
University
Master of Arts (MA) in Health Journalism. University of Coventry.
Awarded September 2013. Grade: Distinction
Units passed include contemporary issues in health, media law and ethics, multiplatform journalism
practice, journalism themes and issues, and a research dissertation project on the ethics of public
relations in the NHS. This research will continue as a PhD (part time) from late 2014.
Bachelor of Science (BSc (Hons)), University of London King’s College.
Awarded September 1978. Grade: Third
Units passed include organic chemistry, intermediary metabolism, biochemical genetics, ecology,
microbiology, immunology, and experimental design.
IT, educational and secretarial
Educational
 City & Guilds 7307/8 Certificate in Teaching (FE). Awarded June 2000.
Level 4
 London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Private and Executive Secretary’s Diploma (LCCI PESD).
 Awarded July 1998. Grade: three units at distinction (meetings, communication, management theory),
two at credit (audio transcription, secretarial administration). Member, Institute of Qualified Private
Secretaries (IQPS), November 1998.
Level 3
 Desktop Publishing. Awarded June 1998.
 RSA Diploma in Text Processing (Dip RSA). Awarded June 1998. Elements: word processing part 2,
distinction; typewriting, distinction; document presentation part 2, distinction; audio transcription,
distinction; text processing part 1, distinction.
Level 2
 Spreadsheets. Awarded January 1999.
 Integrated Business Technology. Awarded August 1998.
 RSA Diploma in Text Processing. Awarded January 1998. Elements: mail merge, distinction; medical
word processing, distinction; word processing, distinction; typewriting, distinction; text processing
part 1, distinction.
Industry-level IT skills
 Adobe Indesign and Photoshop, full layout manipulation and editing for print media.
 Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher, Access. Wide experience, taught at FE level.
Alan Taman BSc(Hons), MA – aptaman@aol.com. 07870 757 309
Employment and education
Occupation since first degree (1978)
7%
8%
6%
6%
SMPJ - freelance
51%
22%
Health PR
Teaching
Secretarial
SMP - in house
Full-time student
(SMPJ = scientific or medical publishing and journalism; PR = public relations)
September 2013 to date: Agency work while waiting to begin PhD on public relations and health, and for
teaching opportunities at university (in journalism and public relations, University of Coventry). Ongoing.
Wrote three chapters (two on PR, one on interpreting medical research reports) for First, Do No Harm (Libri
Publishing, in press – due to be published May 2014), for journalists on health reporting. First book of its kind
to be published in UK. Co-organising major international conference of the same name, to be held at University
of Coventry in May (details: www.europeanhealthjournalism.com).
September 2012 – September 2013: Full-time MA in health journalism at University of Coventry. Graduated
with Distinction after researching ethics of NHS public relations. Advised to consider PhD.
January 2012 – September 2012: Agency work as a medical secretary while waiting to begin MA course.
(Chronic pain service, Birmingham Community Health Trust.)
January 2006 – January 2012: ‘Communications Editor’ at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Represented the
hospital as a spokesman to local and national media on many occasions, some of them live and as a crisis, with
little or no warning. Produced several hospital magazines, including the trust staff magazine, Grapevine, for
print and intranet. Authored hospital ethics policy on approaching the media. Helped set up and edit the
content of the hospital intranet. Responsible for checking and sending out global e-mails to all 2,500 staff. On
call for press, 1 in 3, which meant advising senior managers, writing statements or giving live interviews. Wrote
content and edited new website, which included feeds from Twitter and Facebook. Wrote comments for
hospital and interviewed patients. The post was made redundant and the financial settlement created the
opportunity to use this experience for postgraduate education.
October 2005: Started writing ‘Ask Alan’ weekly column for the Birmingham Mail, a Q/A column on any aspect
of child health. First time any NHS Communications professional has run a column in the region while in post.
Popular. Free publicity for the Trust every week without fail for 4 years, until the paper’s format changed. Also
wrote several features for the Mail as trust spokesman.
January 2004 – January 2006: Press Officer for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Dealing with the press and
producing Grapevine. Writing press releases, advising staff, patients and families. Set up and managed trust
global e-mail system and first ever trust intranet. Advised senior management on need for website
development, and edited website content. Gave TV and radio interviews as hospital spokesman.
July 2003 – January 2004: Secretarial Team Manager, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, line managing a team of
15 medical secretaries.
January 2003 – July 2003: Left teaching to return to writing. Published articles on forensic science (for The
Lady, Police Review and Dogs Today) and on dogs (Dogs Today). Advised several outlets on forensic science of
Alan Taman BSc(Hons), MA – aptaman@aol.com. 07870 757 309
leading cases. Made ends meet with agency work as a medical secretary, ending up at Birmingham Children’s
Hospital, Cardiology.
1999 – 2002: College Lecturer, Sutton Coldfield FE College. Writer of then Lecturer in National Diploma in
Forensic Science: the first course of its kind in the country. Also taught IT skills (MS Office, DTP), science (‘A’
level), and secretarial and business administration (to level 3).
1998 – 1999: Agency work as a medical secretary, full time. Worked at all city-centre trusts in Birmingham, as
well as in Sutton Coldfield, Solihull, and Staffordshire. Specialities included cardiology, orthopaedics,
paediatrics, rheumatology, geriatrics, palliative care, anaesthetics, nursing management, urology.
1997 – 1998: Qualified as an executive PA, and in RSA Level 3 and 2 word processing, level 3 DTP. This was to
allow working while a single parent after the collapse of the freelance market in publishing in the mid-1990s.
1980 – 1997: Freelance editor and writer in health education, medicine and science (working for ButterworthHeinemann, OUP, among others). Included subediting, copy editing, proofreading, PR and broadcasting (eg
subeditor on Teachers’ Weekly, national spokesman for the Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons, 198490) as well as writing. Every medical specialty, from public information to postgraduate level. Books, journals,
leaflets, magazines, radio and TV interviews. Health education material for schools and the public. The 1990s
recession severely limited freelance opportunities in publishing and coincided with becoming a single parent.
1979-80: Subeditor, British Medical Journal, London. The best possible in-house training. Learned how to liaise
with the medical profession, and a great deal about medical politics. Learned the language of the print trade
when most of it was manual. Went freelance to avoid daily long-distance commute while family were young.
1978-79: Editorial Assistant, Pergamon Press, Oxford. Writing life-science abstracts.
1978: BSc(Hon) Biochemistry, King's College, London.
I did not want to spend my life in a lab or working for pharmaceutical companies – the commonest destinations
for biochemistry graduates then. I had wanted to be a journalist before becoming fascinated with science
(thanks mostly to Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man and an inspirational science teacher). I went into publishing.
Prior to that: 4 GCE ‘A’ levels (A,B,B,C), 11 GCE ‘O’ levels.
Referees
Dr John Lister
University of Coventry
Priory Street
Coventry CV1 5FB
Tel: 024 7688 7480
j.lister@coventry.ac.uk
Peter Tomlinson DL
Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands
(Formerly High Sherriff of the West Midlands, and
Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Birmingham
Children’s Hospital)
Tel: 01905 621670
peter@lineholt.eclipse.co.uk
Paul Nash
Senior Chaplain
Birmingham Children’s Hospital
Steelhouse Lane
Birmingham B4 6NH
Tel: 0121 333 8527
Paul.nash@bch.nhs.uk
Alan Taman BSc(Hons), MA – aptaman@aol.com. 07870 757 309