Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu is an Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London. In 1979 she set up the first ever UK sickle cell/thalassaemia nurse counselling service, based in Brent. She then became a senior lecturer in Community Genetic Counselling at the University College London's Institute of Child Health. Prior to retirement in 2007, she was Dean of the School of Adult Nursing Studies & Professor of Nursing at University of West London (UWL) & also established the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice.

She was Vice-Chairperson of the successful Appeal for the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue that was unveiled in June 2016 & is now Life Patron of the Mary Seacole Trust. Elizabeth is also Patron of the Sickle Cell Society & the Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association UK & is Vice-President of Unite/Community Practitioners/Health Visitors Association (CPHVA). In 2018 Elizabeth was listed as one of the top 70 influential nurses and midwives between 1948 and 2018. In 2020 she was included in the top 100 Greatest Black Britons & as one of the 50 most influential BAME people in health. Elizabeth appeared in May 2020 as a guest on the BBC Desert Island Discs radio programme. In November 2020 she was included in the BBC 100 Women 2020 list.