Ms Vanessa Carter

Nationality – South Africa

Vanessa became an AMR patient advocate in 2013 after surviving a serious car accident and 10-year facial reconstruction that resulted in 3 years of ongoing resistant infections (MRSA). She is a patient advisor to several organisations including CIDRAP (USA) and the WHO Strategic Technical Advisory Group on AMR (STAG-AMR), The Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Prescribing, Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection, UK (APRHAI) as well as a civil society champion at the Africa CDC. Vanessa is also currently serving as Chair for the WHO Taskforce of AMR Survivors.

She has won awards for her advocacy including a Woman of Stature (WOS) Woman of the Year Award, FINDdx Voices for Diagnostics Award, and Antibiotic Guardian Award in the Community Communications category organised by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

She further was awarded an e-Patient Scholarship at Stanford University Medicine X, 2017 in the USA.

With a professional background in marketing, Vanessa has also lectured on various topics including effective communication in relation to AMR and completed infodemic training by the WHO in 2020.

In addition, she has strongly advocated the importance of patient and public involvement and engagement. Originally from South Africa, she now resides in the UK and works globally.

In 2022, alongside seven founding trustees, Vanessa established  The AMR Narrative which is a UK Registered Charity focusing on awareness raising, advocacy capacity development and community building for AMR with its primary audience being patients and the public. She currently serves as the Executive Director.