Clinical Advisory Board

The Neuro ProActive Clinical Advisory Board represents some of the most highly regarded Clinicians, Academics and Patient advocates in the field of Neuroscience. Our CAB is entirely independent and not financially incentivised.

Prof. Avril Drummond PhD MSc FCROT

Avril Drummond is Professor of Healthcare Research at the University of Nottingham and an occupational therapist. She has worked clinically, in education and in research.  She has a longstanding clinical and academic interest in rehabilitation research and has published widely on clinical services and specific rehabilitation interventions: she has over 200 publications to date. 

Elizabeth Nightingale MSc BMus

Elizabeth is a qualified Music Therapist, registered Neurologic Music Therapy Fellow, qualified MATADOC assessor, NICU-MT, and a UK trainer in the Music Therapy Star – an evidence-based outcome measure. Elizabeth holds the role of Neuro Services Lead at Chiltern Music Therapy, leading on business development in the neurorehab and medicolegal sectors, coordinating the implementation of Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) provision with new clients/services, and supporting high quality provision for existing clients/services.

Elissa Benson

Elissa’s passion has been developed over many years since qualifying from Leeds School of Physiotherapy back in 1987. Varied roles in both acute and community settings, initially within the NHS and for the last ten years as a private practitioner, culminated in 2013 when she jointly established Neurorehabilitation Kent providing neurophysiotherapy services across South West Kent. 

Lisa Beaumont MCIM

Lisa survived a life-threatening brain haemorrhage and a secondary stroke in 2011, aged 44. She is a highly qualified, award winning marketing professional with more than 20 years experience and has two daughters.

In 2018, Lisa founded a peer support group for the charity Different Strokes in West Kent. She has used her lived-experience to assist in the development and ongoing improvement of Neuro ProActive. In her spare time, Lisa enjoys writing poetry and recommends the benefits of arts therapy to her peer support group members.

Dr Leanne Rowlands

Dr Leanne Rowlands is a senior lecturer in Psychology at Arden University. Her PhD was an innovative collaborative project between Bangor University and the North Wales Brain Injury Service, NHS Trust. The research involved the development of an evidence-based group intervention to address well-being and emotion regulation after acquired brain injury (ABI), as well as core areas of past-injury difficulties such as memory.