Dr Lade Smith CBE

Dr Shubulade (Lade) Smith CBE is the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Lade is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London. 

Lade graduated in Medicine from Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London, where she won prizes in Psychological Medicine. After training in psychiatry at the Maudsley, she undertook a Research Fellowship in antipsychotic side effects, supervised by Professor Sir Robin Murray.  She subsequently set up a joint medication review/physical health clinic, a “one stop shop” aimed at health promotion and management of physical problems in people with SMI, for which she was nominated a BMA Pioneer for innovation in psychiatry. Having trained in General Psychiatry and worked in Forensic Psychiatry, she is now the Lead for the Acute Forensic Pathway of the South London Partnership and Clinical Director of the Forensic Services at SLaM.

In 2019, Lade was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Forensic Intensive Psychiatric care and was awarded Psychiatrist of the Year by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Lade was co-organiser of the RCPsych International Congress from 2019–23 – this has gone from strength to strength and now attracts 3000 delegates from all over the world.

Lade is the former Clinical and Strategic Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, providing medical leadership for the team developing mental health policy and guidelines. 

Lade has specialist expertise in mental health inequality and sat on the core working group of the Independent Mental Health Act Review, chaired by Professor Sir Simon Wessely. She was responsible for some of the key recommendations, including recommendations aimed at improving outcomes for Black people with mental health problems, which have now been taken up by the government. Between 2020–23, she was joint Presidential Lead for Race and Equality at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Last year, she featured in HSJ’s list of 100 influential “Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic” leaders. 

Lade is a Trustee of National Mind. She is also a Trustee of the Bethlem Art Gallery. 

She enjoys walking along the Thames, theatre, cinema, reading and Zumba.