Lucy Rodgers

Overview

Lucy is a Clinical PhD fellow who has worked in the NHS as a paediatric speech and language therapist for over 15 years. Her clinical and research interests lie in speech sound disorder (SSD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) in the early years. As well as her subject specific interests, Lucy is deeply passionate about increasing diversity within patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) and facilitating research involvement in under-represented groups. She is also interested in how clinical expertise (i.e. knowledge acquired through applied clinical experience) can be best utilised within the intervention development and evaluation process.

Within her HEE-NIHR funded internship, Lucy benefited from supervision from the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Unit (the only NHS research centre for SLT in the UK), who remain a principle collaborator in her work. Following the internship, in her NIHR funded pre-doctoral fellowship, Lucy worked with clinicians and people with lived experience to develop her PhD question and methodology.

In her PhD, Lucy aims to develop an intervention for pre-school children with co-occurring features of SSD and DLD. A mixed steering group of professionals and people with lived experience will oversee all study phases. The final phase of her PhD involves ‘community-based working’ and conducting PPIE activities within minoritized communities. This work will inform a finalised draft description of the intervention, ahead of trialling within clinical services in her post-doctoral work.

Qualifications

• Introductory Certificate in Academic Practice (dist.), City, University of London, United Kingdom, October 2022 - July 2023
• ICAP postgraduate module in Applied Health Research (dist.), University of Kent, United Kingdom, October 2019 - July 2020
• MSc Psychology (dist.), Birmingham City University, United Kingdom, 2017 - October 2019
• BSc(hons) Speech and Langauge Therapy (2:1), University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, September 2005 - July 2008

Postgraduate training

• Experience Based Co-design, Point of Care Foundation, United Kingdom, November 2023
• Methodological Innovation in Public health Intervention Science: Development, Evaluation, Adaption and Implementation, DECIPHer Network at Cardiff University, Wales, July 2023
• Effective Community Engagement, Centre for Ethnic Health Research, Leicester University, United Kingdom, April 2023
• Mixed Methods in Health Research, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, January - February 2023
• Introduction to Systematic Reviews and Critical Appraisal, University of York, United Kingdom, November 2022

Employment

• Honorary Speech and Language Therapist, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, October 2022 - present
• HARP Clinical Research Fellow, City, University of London, United Kingdom, October 2022 - present
• Visiting Clinical Tutor, City, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2021 - July 2022
• Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellow, University College London, United Kingdom, October 2020 - September 2021
• Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, November 2017 - September 2022

Memberships of professional organisations

• Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy, July 2023 - present
• Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, August 2008 - present
• HCPC, August 2008 - present

Awards

• NHS Leadership Academy (2023). Healthcare Leadership
• Wellcome Trust (2022). Health Advances in Under-represented Populations and Diseases (HARP) Clinical PhD Fellowship
• NIHR RDS (Kent, Surrey and Sussex) (2021). Public Involvement Fund
• NIHR (2020). Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship
• HEE-NIHR (2019). Integrated Clinical Academic Programme (ICAP)

Featured publications

1. Abstracts from RCSLT Conference 2023: Embracing the future together. .doi:10.1111/1460-6984.13041
2. Rodgers, L., Botting, N., Cartwright, M., Harding, S. and Herman, R. (2023). Shared characteristics of intervention techniques for oral vocabulary and speech comprehensibility in preschool children with co-occurring features of developmental language disorder and a phonological speech sound disorder: protocol for a systematic review with narrative synthesis. BMJ Open, 13(6), pp. e071262-e071262. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071262

   [publisher’s website]

3. Rodgers, L., Harding, S., Rees, R. and Clarke, M.T. (2022). Interventions for pre‐school children with co‐occurring phonological speech sound disorder and expressive language difficulties: A scoping review. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 57(4), pp. 700-716. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12719

   [publisher’s website]

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