School of Health and Rehabilitation

I qualified from Withington Hospital School of Physiotherapy, Manchester. After working in the NHS for 14 years, specialising in Neurological Rehabilitation and Stroke, I took up one of the first Lecturer/Practitioner in Physiotherapy posts, which involved working as a clinical specialist in stroke in the NHS and a lecturer at Keele University on a 50:50 basis. I subsequently gained a Research Fellowhsip from Research into Ageing and completed my PhD at in the School of Postgraduate Medicine at Keele University on the topic of upper limb recovery after stroke. In 2003 I became employed as a full-time Lecturer and continue in this role at Keele University.

My research interests are around a) evaluating complex therapeutic interventions for stroke, with a particular empahsis on interventions for the hemiplegic upper limb and its recovery; and b) life after stroke and the psychosocial effects of upper limb dysfunction.

I currently supervise 3 PhD students at Keele, 2 of whom are researching into aspects of upper limb recovery after stroke, and a 3rd who is researching into cognitive training for people with Parkinson's.

I teach on both the Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes in the School of Health and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health.  I also supervise Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught and Postgraduate Research student research and projects.  My specialty area is neurology and neurological rehabilitation.