Jocelyn Cornwell originally trained as a medical sociologist in Cambridge and London. Her doctoral thesis, an ethnographic study, later published as Hard-Earned Lives: accounts of health and illness from East London (1984), is widely used in undergraduate and post-graduate education in the UK.

Previously, Jocelyn has worked in NHS management, in government and as a regulator. In the 1990s she was at the Audit Commission, directing value for money studies and published major national reports on: communication with patients in hospital; GP fund-holding; maternity services; anaesthesia services; and district nursing.

In 1999 she was seconded into the Department of Health to lead the team establishing the first national health inspectorate in England and Wales, the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI). Later, as Deputy Chief Executive at CHI (2000-2003), she was responsible for the design of the review methodologies, research and evaluation. In 2003-4, as Acting Chief Executive, she managed the transition from CHI to the Healthcare Commission.

Jocelyn chairs Connect UK: the communication disability network, a leading-edge charity working with people with aphasia and stroke in the UK, and is a trustee of the Mental Health Foundation.