UKSRG Committee Members

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Prof. Justin Roe MBE – President

Justin is a Consultant and Professional Lead for Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (RM) in London. In addition to his clinical work, he leads on multidisciplinary rehabilitation service provision to people receiving treatment from head and neck, lung cancers and neuro-oncology services at the Marsden. He also leads the laryngology/ airway reconstruction service at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He is a Professor of Practice in Speech and Swallowing Rehabilitation in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London. Justin has published extensively and contributed to key policy and position papers, acting as an expert adviser to several national organisations. He was the Allied Health Professions Council Member for the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists and is currently SLT Council Member for the British Laryngological Association. He was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in 2018 and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 Queen’s New Year’s Honours in recognition of his contribution to the SLT profession.

Dr. David Smithard – Past President and treasurer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Smithard is a clinician researcher based in the Southeast of Greater London. He qualified form the London Hospital Medical College in 1986. He obtained his MD in Dysphagia following stroke from London University in 1997. He has been published papers in peer reviewed journals as well as numerous presentations to Learned Societies (British Geriatric Society, European Society of Swallowing Disorders, UK Swallowing Research Group, Dysphagia Research Society, Society of Acute Medicine). He continues to conduct research into Dysphagia Rehabilitation focussing on sarcopenia, frailty and dysphagia and dysphagia post stroke. David is immediate past President and founder member of the UK Swallowing Research Group and has been a board member of the European Society for Swallowing Disorders and Hon Secretary and founder member of the British Association of Stroke Physicians. He has been awarded an honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and is a Visiting Professor at Greenwich University.  David has delivered invited lectures (on dysphagia in older people and stroke) in many European countries (including Russia, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Serbia, Czechia, Germany and Italy) and Hong Kong. Professor Smithard is editor of Triple Helix, magazine of the Christian Medical Fellowship, the Dysphagia Section of the online journal Geriatrics and board member of Integritas CIC and HEAL.

 

Alex Stewart – Committee Member and Abstract Committee Lead


Alex is a Speech and Language Therapist, specialising in paediatric dysphagia in London.  She is currently undertaking an NIHR funded clinical doctoral research fellowship, investigating swallow physiology and feeding outcomes of children born with oesophageal atresia and trachea-oesophageal fistula. Ales’s research interests include high resolution impedance manometry; outcome measurement and dysphagia associated with tracheal abnormalities.

Sue Mcgowan – Committee Member

Sue works as a Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in neurointensive care in London. She co-founded and co-runs the hospitals’ multi-disciplinary Tracheostomy Team in 2001. She is on the committee of the Tracheostomy Clinical Excellence Network and has lectured nationally and internationally. She is an RCSLT Advisor in Critical Care and has contributed to and co-authored profession-specific and national guidance documents relating to the care of tracheostomy and neuroscience patients. Sue’s research interests include tracheostomy and dysphagia and swallowing function of ventilator dependent patients.

Mr Chadwan Al Yaghchi – Committee Member

Mr Chadwan Al Yaghchi is a consultant Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon in London. He has a subspecialist interest in adult and paediatric laryngology. He manages the full spectrum of laryngeal disorders including airway stenosis, dysphagia and dysphonia. Mr Chadwan Al Yaghchi research interests include dysphagia; airway stenosis and Paediatric dysphagia

Prof. Paula Leslie – Committee Member


 
Paula supports clinicians and researchers with complex decision-making, ethics, end of life, in vulnerable populations, and non-traditional advanced training. She works for Newcastle NHS Medical Physics & Engineering, and for Lancaster Medical School. Paula’s research interests include swallow assessment & reliability, healthy ageing swallow, quality of life, ethics & decision making in vulnerable groups and at end of life.

Jacqui Benfield – Committee Member and Joint UK Stroke Forum representative


Jacqui is Clinical Lead SLT for acute stroke and rehab in the East Midlands. She is a clinical academic, her PhD is investigating the assessment and rehabilitation of post stroke dysphagia. 
Jacqui’s research interests include bedside dysphagia assessment; interprofessional dysphagia management; neuro-rehabilitation.; post stroke dysphagia and videofluoroscopy.

Grace McCormack – Committee Member and Social Media Lead

Grace McCormack is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in London specialising in swallow and voice rehabilitation after high level spinal cord injury. Graces research interests include post ACDF voice and swallow disorders, complex + altered airways, quality of life and manual laryngeal therapy for dysphagia and dysphonia post spinal cord injury.

Rebecca Murphy – Committee Member

Rebecca is the Clinical Lead Neonatal Speech and Language Therapist at Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and an IBCLC Lactation Consultant. She recently completed an NIHR-funded Pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship, with a focus on oral feeding in infants receiving non-invasive ventilation. Rebecca’s research interests lie in neonatal feeding and infant communication, with a particular emphasis on supporting vulnerable infants and their families. 

Alison Smith – Committee Member

Alison is a Prescribing Support Consultant Dietitian in a CCG Medicines Optimisation Team working in the community in the East Of England specialising in the care of older adults.

Alison’s research interests include malnutrition; nutrition screening; care homes; dysphagia; dementia; frailty; pressure ulcers and non-cancer end of life.

Sarah Wallace OBE – Committee Member

Sarah is a Consultant Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and specialises in critical care, tracheostomy and complex dysphagia with over 30 years of clinical experience in the UK and overseas in hospitals in Singapore, Grenada and Cambodia. In 2024, she was awarded a Manchester Academic Health Sciences (MAHSC) Honorary Clinical Chair in recognition of her clinical, research and leadership contributions. During her 20 years’ experience as an RCSLT Specialist Advisor, she developed RCSLT and national critical care, FEES and tracheostomy policies and guidelines helping to shape the role of SLT in ICU. She implemented the first bedside FEES service in the Asia, and FEES training in the UK 25 years ago. Her research focusses on treatments to restore voice and swallowing for patients in ICU and she has published over 60 papers with awards from the Intensive Care Society, British Medical Journal and American Speech and Hearing Association. She regularly presents at international forums and is a board member of the Global Tracheostomy Collaborative (GTC) and European Society of Swallowing Disorders (ESSD) and lead SLT for the National Tracheostomy Safety Project. Sarah currently supports SLTs in academic research and clinical service development in Chile, Portugal, Cambodia, Sweden and the Netherlands. In 2020/21 Sarah was honoured as an Officer of the British Empire (OBE), and awarded an RCSLT Fellowship and an honorary Master’s of Public Health in recognition of her contribution to the profession and the NHS.

Dr. Lisa Everton – Committee Member and UK Stroke Forum Scientific Committee

Lisa is a highly specialist Speech and Language Therapist working in acute stroke and also joint AHP Clinical Academic Lead in the Midlands

Lisa’s research interests are in dysphagia rehabilitation post-stroke, VFSS, FEES and outcome measures.

Christina Smith – Committee Member

Christina is lecturers and researches in the field of drinking and swallowing in London and the Midlands.  She works clinically with adults with dysphagia across a range of different clinical environments. 

Christina’s research interests include eating, drinking and swallowing across the age span.

Anita Smith – Committee Member

Anita is a consultant Speech and Language Therapist in the South East where she is dysphagia lead and manages the integrated acute and community services and is a RCSLT Specialist Advisor.

Anita’s research interests include instrumental assessment, therapeutic interventions, complexity classification and outcome measurement.

Prof. Christine Roffe – Committee Member

Christine Roffe is a stroke physician, trialist and Professor of Stroke Medicine in Staffordshire. She leads the National Institute for Health Research Hyperacute Stroke Research Centre Oversight Group.

Christine’s research interests are acute and hyperacute interventions for stroke, and the prevention of stroke complications, such as hypoxia and pneumonia. She is the chief investigator for the Metoclopramide and for the Prevention of Pneumonia (MAPS-2) trial.

Dr Grainne Brady – Committee Member and Secretary