Dr Eirini Kontou

Dr Eirini Kontou is the Chief Investigator for e-OPTIMISM. She works as an Associate Professor at University of Nottingham, and she is a Lead Clinical Psychologist at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Eirini works clinically in an NHS stroke rehabilitation unit, and she has a long-standing commitment to improving psychological care after stroke. She is also the Lead Investigator for the OPTIMISE research project, which was funded through her Clinical Academic Lectureship funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research,

Eirini also contributes to the Trent Doctorate Programme in Clinical Psychology and has been involved in research on complex interventions aimed at enhancing psychological support for people with stroke and other neurological conditions. Her previous research has been supported by funding from the Stroke Association, including her PhD and early postdoctoral fellowship, which facilitated the development and implementation of the original OPTIMISM intervention.

Dr Jade Kettlewell

Dr Jade Kettlewell is an Assistant Professor and co-lead investigator on the e-OPTIMISM project. Her research is centred on primary care and community settings, with a focus on improving long-term outcomes following major trauma and stroke. She has particular interests in acquired brain injury, behaviour change and the implementation of complex interventions across different healthcare contexts.
Jade contributes to teaching and supervision across occupational, forensic and clinical psychology, supporting students to apply psychological theory to practice. Her work aims to enhance recovery and quality of life through person-centred, evidence-based approaches in primary care and the community.

Margaret Cheng

Margaret had a haemorrhagic stroke 10 years ago and lives with non-apparent disability.   Unable to continue to run her research consultancy after her stroke, Margaret sought help including fatigue management and back-to-work skills training. She found a way forward via skills-based charity work and, later, a part-time role with the Stroke Association.  She now focusses on lived experience roles in the UK health sector, working with both public bodies and universities.

Peter Ford

Patient and Public Involvement Member

Professor Dame Caroline Watkins

Professor Dame Caroline Leigh Watkins (an NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus) is one of only two UK nursing professors of stroke care and leads University of Lancashire's internationally renowned Stroke Research Team. She is Director of Lancashire Clinical Trials Unit (LCTU); Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange Institute for Applied Health and Wellbeing (LIFE); Implementation Lead/Deputy Director for NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (NIHR ARC NWC); and Honorary Stroke Nurse Consultant at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. At University of Lancashire, she is Director of Applied Health Research Hub (AHRh) and has established the Research Facilitation and Delivery Unit (RFDU) and the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Unit to improve capacity and capability for research, as well as providing a mechanism for developing researchers. She has led the development of the Stroke-Specific Education Framework (SSEF), which, through supporting and guiding workforce development, facilitates the delivery of quality stroke care. In 2016, she received a ‘Life After Stroke Special Recognition Award’ from the UK's The Stroke Association for contributions to improving the lives of stroke survivors through better stroke care and research. She was recognised for services to Nursing and Older People’s Care in the 2017 New Year Honours with the award of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

Dr Eugene Tang

Eugene is a GP and NIHR Advanced Research Fellow based at Newcastle University. He is also the NIHR RDN primary care settings lead for North East and North Cumbria and the primary care strategy lead for the NIHR Research Support Service delivered by Newcastle University and partners. His research interests are around optimising the long-term care of stroke patients in the community. 

Professor Kate Radford

Kate Radford is an occupational therapist and Professor of Rehabilitation Research, specialising in supporting people with acquired brain injury to return to work or regain meaningful life roles. Kate’s methodological expertise is in developing and evaluating complex rehabilitation interventions using mixed methods. Current research includes multi-centre trials to determine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of job retention interventions for stroke survivors, trauma survivors and people with MS and studies to evaluate assistive technologies for promoting self-management and participation following acquired brain injury. Kate is ‘working age’ theme lead for the new NIHR Health Tech Centre in Rehabilitation and Nottingham.

Professor Dana Wong

Dana Wong is a Professor and Clinical Neuropsychologist in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She leads the eNACT (Neurorehabilitation And Clinical Translation) Research Group, which develops and translates innovative, evidence-based neuropsychological rehabilitation interventions to improve outcomes for people with stroke and brain injury. Dana is an award-winning researcher and educator with a strong focus on training scientist-practitioners and enhancing clinical implementation of best practice. She is Past-President of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment and serves in multiple national and international leadership roles in neuropsychology and stroke.

Professor Louise Connell 

Louise Connell is Professor of Allied Health Rehabilitation. She works as a clinical- academic in a partnership post between Lancaster University and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. Her interest is in implementation research, and she is undertaking a programme of research into neurological rehabilitation. Her current research focuses specifically on implementation research for increasing intensity after stroke. Louise integrates implementation science into rehabilitation, demonstrating how its theories, models and frameworks can address real-world challenges. Her work has provided actionable insights and practical guidance to clinicians and researchers alike. A key achievement is her work on the GRASP program for upper limb rehabilitation after stroke, which is now implemented in over 200 sites across five continents, informing clinical guidelines and increasing uptake in the UK, where more than 50% of therapists report regular use (Yang et al, 2023).

Louise has led the development of scalable and sustainable interventions, such as the NeuroRehabilitation OnLine (NROL) innovation, which leverages telerehabilitation to address resource constraints while maintaining high-quality care delivery (Ackerley et al, 2023). This has now been included as an exemplar in UK National Clinical Guidelines, has been upscaled regionally with further upscale planned in 2026.

Louise has internationally recognised research outputs, with over eighty peer-reviewed publications, over 5000 citations, and a H-index of 34(Google scholar). She is a physiotherapist and is particularly passionate about improving research capacity and capability of Allied Health Professionals. She is chair of the NIHR Doctoral Fellowship scheme. Her work has been recognised by being awarded a Fellowship of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists In Neurology.

Kate Horton

Kate Horton is our Public Involvement Lead. In her role she supports the team and members of the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) group, organises and leads PPI meetings and ensures feedback from the group is heard, noted and implemented to the highest standard.

Dr Diane Trusson

Dr Diane Trusson is the Research Fellow on e-OPTIMISM with a background in medical sociology. Her PhD explored women’s experiences after they had finished treatment for early breast cancer, highlighting how illness can disrupt lives and identities.

Diane has extensive post-doctoral research experience using multiple methods. However, her main expertise is using qualitative methods.  Her experience and interest in stroke research were developed when working on the Return to Work After Stroke (RETAKE) trial which included interviews with stroke survivors and their family members. As part of RETAKE, she was lead author on a paper describing the disruptive experience of stroke in the context of societal disruption resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Diane subsequently gained funding to explore experiences of female Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic stroke survivors, which she is keen to pursue.

Marie Williams

Marie has a background in psychology and six years’ experience working as an Assistant Clinical Psychologist within neurorehabilitation services, supporting individuals with complex neurological conditions. Since 2017, she has worked as a Research Assistant within the Trust, conducting epidemiological research and leading service evaluations to improve the quality and effectiveness of care. She is currently completing an MSc in Counselling and Psychotherapy, further strengthening her clinical and therapeutic expertise.

Recent research has focused on transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke. She has supported an Umbrella Review of systematic reviews exploring psychological interventions to improve mood and cognition following TIA and minor stroke. In a subsequent project (OPTIMISE) she is exploring both the lived experiences of individuals affected by TIA and minor stroke and also the current NHS service provision, with the aim of improving services, informing patient-centred care, and ensuring that support better reflects the emotional, cognitive, and practical needs of the people it serves.

Alice

Alice is a Research Assistant in the Newcastle University Stroke Research Team working on e-OPTIMISM. She has a background in mental health support across healthcare and higher education settings. She previously worked as HE Wellbeing Officer in a higher education support service where she designed and delivered group psychoeducational sessions for students, and conducted qualitative research through focus groups. Alice has also worked in an inpatient neurorehabilitation unit, supporting individuals with acquired brain injuries and complex neurological conditions.
She holds an MSc in Psychology, with her thesis exploring the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on autobiographical memory. Her research interests focus on improving mood, quality of life, and long-term outcomes for people following transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke, with a particular emphasis on trauma-informed approaches.