Meet the team
We are a team of nationally respected specialists in autistic experience and best practice of healthcare and housing.
We have an excellent understanding of neurodivergent culture and communication, and we are passionate about helping others to learn and understand this language.
We are hiring
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Governance and Team Lead
Uses ’she/her’ pronounsBecca has worked with Jill in previous roles and jumped at the chance at joining Neurodiverse Connection at the start of 2023 to support the company and team grow.
Becca has previously delivered employability services, supported those with barriers in accessing education, training and employment and been a primary school teacher. Recently she supported the Care Treatment Review Panel members for the South region.
Becca cannot remember a time when her own neurodivergence and that of those close to her were not part of her life. She is happily spending a lot of her spare time on DIY and decorating and enjoys anything creative.
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Associate
Uses ’she/they’ pronounsCassie (she/they) is a Black mixed-race wheelchair user living with chronic illness and neurodivergence.
She is a scholar activist whose work focuses on ethical, community based and lived experience led research, education, and policy making practice within the fields of mental health, neurodiversity, unpaid care, critical disability studies, and race studies.
As an academic, Cassie's current work focuses on the intersections of poverty, mental illness, and support from the welfare state in the UK and ethical ways of co-producing knowledge and knowledge equity among communities that are disempowered within mental health, social care, and welfare services in the UK. She is a lead lived experience consultant in NHS England's adult mental health, and mental health, autism and learning disability quality transformation teams.
Outside of work Cassie mostly reads fiction, writes poetry, and hangs out with her cat.
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Associate
Uses ’they/she’ pronounsCharli Clement is proudly autistic, ADHD, dyspraxic, and chronically ill, and is particularly passionate about discussing links between co-occurring conditions, gender, sexuality, and how this then relates to healthcare, education and the wider world.
Since 2020, Charli has been working with the NHS and third sector organisations on psychiatric care, autism, sensory environments, and human rights after their own admission to a CAMHS unit when they were younger. They have worked on reviewing sensory environments as well as providing a variety of training sessions, sitting on the panels of Care (Education) and Treatment Reviews, and working on co-production for pilot projects to reduce admissions of autistic people.
They have previously been a keynote speaker for the British Medical Association and given talks to NHS boards and staff, universities, and city councils amongst others, as well as having bylines in outlets such as the Independent, the Metro, the Daily Mirror and VICE. Charli is also currently writing her first non-fiction book around autism and chronic illness for Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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Associate & Co-Founder
Uses ’he/him’ pronounsChris brings extensive experience supporting change in practice in education and healthcare settings to ensure neurodivergent cultural and communication needs are understood and met.
Chris is great at providing gentle and effective challenge to address poor practice and support services to deliver better outcomes for the neurodivergent populations they serve.
Chris is experienced in providing mentorship and development support to neurodiverse individuals who are struggling to identify and meet their own needs. He does this by sharing his own experience to give insight, identification and understanding.
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Resource Lead and Project Support
Uses ’they/them’ pronouns
El Dewar is a neurodivergent and disabled researcher and community activist. They are passionate about shared community action to ensure that no member of the community is left behind.
Outside of their work with Neurodiverse Connection they are CEO of the accessibility and inclusion charity BlueAssist UK Ltd. Within their academic work they are an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher, their work currently focuses on neurodivergence, philosophical theory (existentialism and post-structuralism), gender, queer studies and education. They also are often found crafting and promote the use of creativity within academia and activism, leading them to run their own small sustainable fibre art business.
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Founder & Director
Uses ‘they/them’ pronounsJill is interested in people, collaboration, autism, sensory environments health & social care. They are skilled in facilitating workshops and enabling change in practice and working with individuals and teams to support better outcomes for individuals.
In previous roles, Jill has worked with provider organisations supporting involvement, as an advocate, and supporting involvement and innovation in cancer services. In their role with NDTi they developed the autism programme, developed the sensory work into housing and hospitals.
Jill was the lead author on the co-produced ‘It’s Not Rocket Science’ report into inpatient sensory environments. This was commissioned by the CAMHS Mental Health Taskforce. The NHS ‘Sensory Friendly Ward Principles’ are embedded in this report and are supporting change across inpatient services in England. They have continued to develop and embed this work, developing guidance into lighting and working with architects to include aspects of the report into building notes.
Jill was also lead author for the co-produced LGA paper ‘Supporting autistic flourishing at home and beyond: considering and meeting the sensory needs of autistic people in housing’.
They are a lover of walking and wild places.
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Associate
Uses ’she/her’ pronounsKay is passionate about increasing awareness of the gifts of neurodivergence. She is late diagnosed autistic, has parented neurodivergent children of her own and has taught 11-18 year old neurodiverse students.
Kay has worked pastorally and therapeutically with children and adults throughout her whole career within educational, retreat and wellness settings. Currently she offers Disability Student Allowance (DSA) specialist university mentoring for autistic students.
Kay brings a wealth of experience and training to her role at NdC. She is a skilled speaker and facilitator who uses her lived personal and professional experience to share intersectional insights and trauma-informed, autism-friendly approaches—particularly focusing on embodiment, somatic and environmental strategies.
Kay is an avid researcher, writer and resource, workshop and course creator. She visions and catalyses individual, institutional and collective evolution - through education, embodiment and creativity—amalgamating metacognition, intuition and instinct.
She is an advocate for safe, nervous-system-friendly structures in education, learning and sharing spaces, alongside the creation of structures for peer support, collaboration and action-oriented groups for visionary professionals and committed change agents—those currently bridging old and new paradigms.
Kay and her husband Dan Aldred, are co-authoring a book together, Embodied Structure: Creating Safe Space for Learning, Facilitating and Sharing which will be available late autumn 2023.
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Associate
Uses ’they/them’ pronounsLoren Snow, is an autistic autism consultant with over ten years experience teaching people to understand autism. They have delivered training to tens of thousands of parents of autistic children, autistic adults, and NHS staff.
They work with NHS England teaching NHS staff and reviewing autistic patients' care in psychiatric hospitals on Care, Education, and Treatment Reviews and as a Tier 2 Lead Trainer on the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training.
They also work with many organisations from transporting bodies to public health, employers, schools, and charities and regularly speak at public events like conferences.
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Lived Experience Advisor (Culture of Care programme)
Uses ’she/her’ pronouns
Lucy started her career in academia before moving into the NHS. She has held national roles in Quality Improvement, and Trust leadership positions in Innovation. She now relishes the opportunity to combine her NHS leadership experience with insights from her lived experience of mental health challenges to facilitate reflection and create change.
Lucy is passionate about the power of neuroaffirming care and improving outcomes for Autistic people through increasing understanding of neurodivergent differences. She is also a Trainer on the National Autism Trainer Programme.
As a late discovered autistic parent, Lucy is especially interested in masking and camouflaging, and understanding the impact of autism during the perinatal period and transition into parenthood.
Outside of work, Lucy continues to enjoy discovering her authentic autistic self, perusing charity shops for bargains, and cherishing downtime with her young family.
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Lived Experience Advisor (Culture of Care Programme) and Development Lead
Uses she/her pronouns
Molly brings to the NdC team her passion for improving mental health services and support. Her expertise is informed by her own experiences of accessing a range of inpatient, outpatient, mental health and eating disorder services, alongside the challenges associated with being late-diagnosed Autistic.
Pre-diagnosis struggles with mental health led to Molly experiencing barriers to accessing education, which only increased her determination to improve society’s understanding of Autism, mental health, and the accommodations that can enable individuals like her to thrive. She has supported students facing mental and physical health challenges as a science tutor and is currently working as a co-researcher on projects relating to young people’s mental health and education.
Molly consults on and contributes to policies, procedures and training across various roles as an Expert by Experience in both the NHS and private sector. She influences change on a service level through her dedication to enhancing coproduction, advocating for service user experience and offering peer support.
Molly is also a proud dog Mum to two miniature dachshunds. She enjoys taking them for walks, anything crafty, going for coffee and listening to Taylor Swift.
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Associate
Uses ’he/him’ pronounsRichard has been working with autistic people and people with learning disabilities throughout his career. He brings a wealth of experience and insights to working with individuals, and continues to provide support and mentoring to individuals and their teams.
Richard is an experienced speaker and trainer who uses his experience to share stories and insights about autism from a lived experience perspective.
Richard shares some of his learning in his book I Dream In Autism.
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Communications and Design Lead
Uses ’he/him’ pronouns
Tom is a one-man-band design, brand and communications specialist who is responsible for Neurodiverse Connection's brand, website, publicity and social media presence, among other exciting things. Formerly, as a freelance graphic designer and brand consultant, Tom worked with Founder Jill Corbyn to create NdC's brand identity and website.Outside of his role at NdC, he continues his freelance work with individuals and organisations to develop distinctive, meaningful and beautiful brands. He specialises in working with start-ups, small businesses and non-profits. Tom is passionate about finding an organisation’s unique voice and translating it into compelling and expressive visuals. He also writes a regular design column for BP&O (https://bpando.org/author/tom-barnett/) He loves gardening, painting and David Bowie.
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Associate
Uses ‘she/her’ pronounsWarda is an autistic Speech and Language Therapist who specialises in inclusive policy review and implementation. She is a clinical communication expert who is passionate about helping to create equitable and inclusive environments. She understands the powerful influence that language, race and disability can have on how an individual or group is perceived and treated in society. Warda’s expertise lies in her ability to help organisations/individuals identify and address any systemic biases that exist within their existing approaches and practices. We make organisations more inclusive by providing education about intersectionality within workplaces.
She provides training and resources that empower organisations to create a more understanding, supportive atmosphere for employees and service users. Warda is committed to helping healthcare professionals develop the skills necessary to understand how these social identities can influence interpersonal interactions and how they can best provide culturally sustaining and responsive care.
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Canine Associate
Uses ’she/her’ pronounsBat (or Wombat, if she’s in trouble) is a Neurodiverse Connection Associate. She’s known for having the best hair. She’s also an exceptional listener and offers excellent reflections and insights to any issue.
In her spare time, Bat likes to run in the woods, find smelly things to roll in, to play catch and help tidy up any leftover snacks. She’s often found asleep at her desk in the day, but when she does attend meetings her contributions are always memorable. Let us know if you’d like to meet her!