CAHPR announces a new Board of Trustees

CAHPR is delighted to announce we have appointed a brand new Board of Trustees.

CAHPR is setting up as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and will soon be registering with the Charity Commission. As part of this process CAHPR have elected seven trustees to govern CAHPR.

Our trustees are:

Adine Adonis, Charikleia Sinani, Hazel Roddam, Helen Watson, Nick Downing, Vimal Sriram and Yat Tsang.

Our trustees bring a wealth of experience with them. Here is more about their professional roles and their involvement with CAHPR.

Adine Adonis, Chair of the Association of Physiotherapists in Neurology (ACPIN), Lecturer at University College London (UCL), Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist in Neurology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and CAHPR Trustee. 

Dr Charikleia Sinani, Senior Lecturer at York St John University, Consortium Lead of CAHPR Yorkshire and the Humber & Lead of CAHPR Yorkshire Hub and CAHPR Trustee.

Dr Hazel Roddam, Independent Consultant for Allied Health Practice Research, former Vice Chair of CAHPR Strategy Committee and former Chair of CAHPR Cumbria & Lancashire Hub.

Dr Helen Watson, Director of Allied Health Professionals at Cambridge Universities Hospitals NHS Trust and CAHPR Trustee.

Nick Downing, Director of Operations and Transformation at NPH Group and CAHPR Trustee.

Dr Vimal Sriram, Director of Allied Health Professionals at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Occupational Therapist and Deputy Theme Lead, NIHR Applied Research Collaboration, Northwest London, and CAHPR Trustee.

Dr Yat Tsang, Director of Radiation Therapy, Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Canada and CAHPR Trustee. 

Meet our team

Adine is a clinical specialist physiotherapist in neurology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She also works at University College London (UCL) on the MSc in Advanced Neurological Physiotherapy.

Adine is a developing researcher with a number of grants and research publications focussed on minority ethnic patient engagement and identifying the barriers for progression and development for Black and Ethnic Minority Physiotherapists in the UK. She a panel member on the NIHR HSDR Committee and the CSP Research Panel. She is the chair of ACPIN- a neurological physiotherapy professional network, that is developing evidence-based guidelines and hosts evidence-based CPD. Adine has a passion for research, previously holding research fellowships and is a coach and mentor on the Imperial College ‘Starting out in research’ course. 

Charikleia is a Chartered Physiotherapist and has worked in Greece and in the NHS, specialising in children with neuro-disabilities. She has an MSc in neurorehabilitation and a PhD in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) which was funded by the State Foundation of Scholarships, Greece. She has worked as a senior lecturer in Manchester Metropolitan University, Leeds Beckett University and is currently working at York St John University. She has been the leader of the CAHPR Yorkshire Hub since 2005 and the Consortium Lead of CAHPR Yorkshire and the Humber since 2023. Her research is focused on children, adolescents and adults with Cerebral Palsy and DCD known as dyspraxia. Her work has been published in prestigious journals such as Research in Developmental Disabilities and presented in numerous national and international conferences. She has been an NIHR grant theme advisor and has been and still is grant, journal, book and conference reviewer. In 2021, she became a member of the abstract moderation group for Physiotherapy UK and in 2023 the Chair of this group. She held and still holds external examinerships in UK and Greek universities and she is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  

Over her career as a speech and language therapist Hazel has worked in clinical, research and national leadership roles. Hazel led the development of the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Research and Innovation Strategy that was published by Health Education England (HEE) in January 2022. She is currently commissioned by NHS England’s Workforce Training and Education Directorate to lead the national implementation work of the AHP research agenda. She is hosted in this role by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT).

Helen is Director of AHPs at Cambridge Universities Hospitals NHS Trust. A Dietitian with a clinical and research background.  

Helen worked as a Clinical Dietitian in Leicester, London, Nottingham and latterly Papworth, specialising in Critical Care and Cystic Fibrosis (CF).  She completed her PhD studies at the University of Surrey and the University of Queensland. Helen has also been involved in undergraduate and post graduate teaching and supervision.   

Helen’s current role involves professional responsibility for over 1000 AHPs from 12 teams across a large acute teaching hospital.  This role involves supporting AHPs in career development, including ACP and consultant roles, clinical academics, apprenticeship development, training, linking in with the HCPC around professional matters and fitness to practice referrals. 

Nick's experience as a business leader in operations and transformation roles spans the NHS and independent sector in physical, mental and occupational health settings. He has delivered successful programmes of change and adoption of new delivery models in MSK, Mental Health and Occupational Health services introducing digital-first, automation and AI to enhance access and user engagement. 

As Chair, of the Advanced Practice Physio Network (APPN), he led collaborative efforts to enhance professional development and elevate standards within our field including first-contact and advanced practice physiotherapy roles across the divulged nations and internationally. He was recognised for his contributions with a Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Distinguished Service Award. 

Vimal is the Director of Allied Health Professionals at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and Deputy Theme Lead for the Collaborative Learning and Capacity Building theme for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration in North West London. 

He trained as an Occupational Therapist in India and read for his MSc in Evidence Based Healthcare and DPhil in Populational Health at the University of Oxford.  Vimal has been a NICE Fellow (2015-2018), is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and regularly lectures on translating health policy into practice and applied health research for MSc programs in Imperial College London. 

Vimal has experience in capacity building for quality improvement and has a keen interest in digital health, research using mixed-methods, eLearning, mentoring and developing future AHPs, especially those from a Black and Minoritised Ethnic background. Vimal was a fitness to practice panel member for the HCPC (2015-2023) and an NIHR/CAHPR research champion for North West London. He is also currently the Vice Chair of the Research & Development Board at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, a reviewer for the WHO Dementia Knowledge Exchange Platform and a Founding Fellow of Innovate Healthier Together in Health Innovation West of England.  

Yat is currently jointly appointed as the Director of Radiation Therapy in the Radiation Medicine Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at University of Toronto in Canada. For Yat’s previous clinical and research roles in the UK, he has worked as a Consultant Therapeutic Radiographer at Mount Vernon Cancer Center and Associate Professor (Clinical Academic Careers) at the London South Bank University. He was the past chair of East of England (EoE) AHP Ethnic Minority Network and Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic group EoE regional representative.