Board of Directors

The NADP Executive Board and Administrative Office will maintain a range of activities designed to increase potential members' knowledge of NADP and its conferences and other activities. The Board and Office will also actively seek new staff groups who might benefit from our activities.

In undertaking those activities NADP will seek to collaborate with other appropriate organisations (eg those with aims similar to NADP) and engage proactively with other professionals across the sector.

Paddy Turner ( Chair )

Paddy trained as a British Sign Language Interpreter and successfully completed a degree in the subject from Wolverhampton University. He has worked at Sheffield Hallam University since 1998 in just about every facet of disabled student support from support working as an interpreter or note-taker, through co-coordinating support, DSA needs assessment, advising, teaching, writing, training and researching - he is now an education developer focusing on inclusive practice. He believes firmly in keeping the aim of creating an inclusive student experience as the guiding principle in all that he does and is having a ball tackling the cultural and practical change agenda within learning, teaching and assessment.

Having been part of the initial working party that gave birth to NADO in 1999/2000, he has enjoyed returning to the Board of the more mature and now well established, NADP. He represents NADP in both the BIS and SFE Stakeholder Groups, and has been an active member of the accreditation scheme working group. Paddy tries at all times to work on behalf of members, reflecting your views and representing your interests. He believes in building good relations, working collaboratively and listening with an open mind to different viewpoints and opinions

Mat Fraser (Honorary President)

Mat Fraser is a multi disciplinary performing artist and writer, presenter, and occasional conference chair. He has been working in the world of disability portrayal in the arts and media for over 25 years, and became president of the NADP when asked by Nicola Martin and Beverly Fraser, because he passionately believes that young disabled people should be given more not less chances as they negotiate the world around them, and the NADP are a wonderful umbrella organisation that can really give that help

Karen Atkinson

Karen has been working in the field of disability support within the higher education sector for almost 20 years. She is an academic member of staff at the University of East London and has direct contact with disabled students in teaching and work placement settings. As part of the Allied Health Professions Support Service (AHPSS) team she also has a UK-wide remit in supporting disabled students and their tutors and clinical educators as well as disabled people who have graduated and are working.

Karen is currently undertaking an EdD thesis at the Institute of Education in London which is focussing on support for disabled students in the clinical placement setting.

John Conway (Treasurer)

John Conway has been Disability Officer at the Royal Agricultural University since 1999, managing the support provision for disabled students, mainly with dyslexia, and also responsible for developing inclusive teaching, learning and assessment strategies.

As a full time academic he also has a direct impact on teaching and assessment methods through membership of the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Committee and the Academic Board, as well as contributing to a project team working to develop holistic student support services.

He believes very strongly in the rights of every student to access education according to their abilities and not to be restricted in their education by irrelevant dis-abilities. He joined the NADP board in 2006 to try and drive this agenda forward.

Ann Crocker-Smith

Ann is a member of CHESS which is a planning group and represents CHESS on the deaf education support forum. This provides a vital link between further education, higher education and adult education for deaf education.

Her philosophy is promoting students' independent choice and learning whilst providing them with a safe environment to learn and practice the co-ordination skills, which they need in order to manage communication support, needed for their working life.

Bryan Jones

Bryan Jones is currently head of Disability Support Services at Middlesex University, which includes the duties and responsibilities of Manager of the North London Regional Access Centre.

He has worked in the disability support field for over 20 years and in HE disability support since 1983, joining London Guildhall University (now city campus of London Metropolitan University) to take up the post of Equal Opportunities Adviser.

Brian Lutchmiah (Co-opted Director)

Assistant Team Leader, Support and Advisory Service, University of Derby Buxton. Brian Manages a team offering a wide-ranging and holistic support service available to HE and FE students within a split campus environment, and catering for students ranging from 14-16 provision through to Postgraduate level. Has also worked extensively in the past with NEET and Pre-NEET cohorts (11 years - 19 years).

Nicola Martin

Nicola Martin is currently the Director of Wellbeing and Disability Services at The LSE and an Honorary Visiting Fellow at The University of Cambridge working on a project with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen. Prior to the recent LSE appointment she was a Principal Lecture at Sheffield Hallam University leading the Centre for Disability and Diversity Studies and The Autism Centre.

Nicola has a very strong commitment to disability equality as a human rights issue and important aspect of social justice. She has worked in education with disabled people across the age range continually since 1976, has 4 relevant degrees, a range of specialist qualifications and a string of publications which articulate a social model perspective on disability.

Research interests include inclusive practice in further and higher education, emancipatory work with students who have Asperger syndrome, and disablism in performing arts. She has lectured in Australia, New Zealand, USA and many UK universities.

Val Morgan

Val Morgan worked for 23 years in the Adult, Further and Higher Education sector, setting up disability services as both a case worker and Service Manager. Val is now a freelance Assessor and Disability Consultant.

Val has been a member of NADO/NADP since its inception.

Peter Quinn

Peter Quinn is Head of Oxford University's Disability Advisory Service responsible for Disability related academic study support throughout the Collegiate University of Oxford. He has been at Oxford since 2000, heading the DAS since 2005 and was recently Interim Head of Equality and Diversity for 9 months. Pete is chair of the University's Buildings and Estates sub Committee on Access, advises Oxford's Colleges on disability issues and was recently on the University's Working Party on Specific Learning Difficulties along with Professors Maggie Snowling and Kate Nation. He has recently contributed to a Casebook on Successful Diversity Mentoring to be published by McGraw Hill in 2012.

Pete is a trustee for Kids.Enjoy.Exercise.Now (a charity which provides access to sport for athletes with learning disabilities in Oxfordshire), a steering group member for the Oxford Student Mental Health Network and a member of the MCR of St Antony's and Kellogg College. Pete provides financial and material support to Moshi Technical Secondary School and other schools in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania and is a Careers Mentor to his former secondary school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. When not at work or spending time with his two young children, Pete can often be found in a kayak on the Oxford Canal or learning more about African Masks.

Karen Robson

Karen Robson, Disability Service Manager at Cardiff Metropolitan University, established the Disability Department at Cardiff Metropolitan University in 1998 to respond to the needs of disabled students and has responsibility for the development of policy and provision for currently approx 1400 disabled students, in addition to managing the Assessment Centre.
She has also provided lecturing input on education courses delivered at Cardiff Metropolitan University and undertakes staff training both at Cardiff Metropolitan University and on behalf of other institutions/organisations within a wider consultancy remit, presenting at UK and international conferences. In 2002 she co-authored and published 'Accessible Curricula: Good Practice for All, which was disseminated throughout the UK HE sector by the forerunner to the Higher Education Academy as sector best practice guidance in addressing the duties under SENDA. She has also developed a range of good practice resources, including undertaking research on behalf of the Disability Rights Commission. She was Chair of Skill Wales between 2001 and 2006 and sat on both the Skill HE Working Group and Skill Council until its demise in 2011. She joined the NADP Board in 2005.
Karen’s extra curricula interests include supporting disabled veterans and she advises the GB Army on the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers in Wales. With a long standing interest in international development she undertakes voluntary work in Rwanda annually, most recently advising on mental health provision for students.

Elaine Shillcock

Elaine has worked in post-16 education for over 25 years, both in further and higher education. For the past 12 years she has led, managed and developed the disability service at the University of Manchester which has responsibility for supporting both disabled student and disabled members of staff. Elaine has knowledge and experience of both the DSA and Access to Work processes.

Elaine has a postgraduate qualification in Management Studies and is a member of the Chartered management Institute and is an Accredited Member of NADP. She has also trained as a mediator and is a member of University of Manchester mediation service.

Martin Smith

Martin Smith is the Disability and Dyslexia Service Manager (Policy and Planning) and West London Assessment Centre Manager at Brunel University in Uxbridge.
Martin has worked with disabled people for 38 years, originally working in Mental Health services he then qualified as an Occupational Therapist and worked for over 20 years in Social Services departments as a Senior OT, Team Manager, Commissioning Manager, Head of Adults Services and Director of Disability Services (including, briefly, working as Acting Director of Social Services).
Martin joined Brunel University in 1999 to set up the service for disabled students. Now Brunel has one of the largest teams in the country and also has a large group of Support Workers, an Assistive Technology Centre and an Assessment Centre so that the full range of Services can now be offered to students on site. This holistic range of support services was always the aim and has been very well received by its users. The service won the THES award for Services to Disabled Students in 2008.
Martin is a staunch advocate of the Social Model of disability. He is a Trustee of the local association of disabled people (DASH) in Hillingdon, was a member of Skill's Council and their HE working party and joined NADP at the starting of NADO in 2000. He has been an external examiner and has worked on HEFCE and ECU projects on inclusive teaching and on disabled students’ participation. Martin led on the production of the first DES at Brunel and has spoken at many conferences on Legislation and Good Practice, Access and other disability related matters.

Deb Viney

Deb Viney is the Diversity Advisor for the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) which is an independent college within the federal University of London. The School is one of the most diverse institutions in the UK in terms of both staff and student ethnicity with more than 200 nations represented.

Deb's SOAS role includes addressing issues relating to age, disability, ethnicity / race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and sexual identity, especially the activity which results from current and forthcoming legislation for both staff and students.

After graduating from Portsmouth as a mature student in Psychology (1989) Deb gained a wide range of experience including working in neuropsychology and later in Psychiatry - primarily on a haemophilia and HIV project considering the cognitive and emotional effects of infection which formed the basis of her M.Phil. thesis (which was finally published in 2007!).

Deb also taught part time in psychology at all levels from GCSE to post-graduate. From 1997 - February 2006 Deb was the Disability Co-ordinator and later Head of the Disability Service at the University of Southampton, where she drew on all of her psychology skills and academic experience to develop a service with a national reputation for excellence.

Mike Wray

Mike Wray is the disability manager at York St John University. He was previously senior policy officer and national co-ordinator for the National Disability Team (NDT) and in the context of widening participation with Action on Access.
During his time with the NDT he oversaw 23 HEFCE-funded projects in a range of HEIs in England which developed disability services and numerous resources within higher education (HE).
He has also worked as the project manager of a highly successful CPD project which developed online modules and resources for teaching and learning staff in HE.
He is currently facilitating the NADP sustainable networks project and chairs and administers the groups in the north west and the north east and Yorkshire.