Cowley started a career in Eastbourne as a health visitor and practice teacher.
After completing doctoral studies, she joined the faculty of King's College London leading the University's programme in health visiting and district nursing programme.
[1] During her career she served on a number of editorial boards, and was the author of paper and books including Community Public Health in Policy and Practice (Elsevier, 2008) and, with Marion Frost, The Principles of Health Visiting: Opening the door to public health (2006).
She was raised to Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) for services to health visiting in the 2013 New Year Honours.
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