Contributors

Toks Adesanya

Toks Adesanya started work as an ABA tutor in 1998 and joined Peach as a case manager in 2007. Toks is a talented trainer who has  developed  and delivered a variety of courses for Peach in a range of settings and for a variety of audiences. His sessions are vibrant and entertaining. He is a regular speaker at Peach’s new parents’ days and ran a session at the Autism Show in July 2011.

Claire Cotterill

Claire Cotterill BA MSc BCBA  joined Peach in 2004 after working freelance as an ABA supervisor. She has 13 years’ experience running ABA programmes. She was promoted to Senior Case manager in 2011 and now supports the Peach clinical team . She also has special responsibility for training new case managers and is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst.

Louise Denne

Louise Denne has been working in the field of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and in autism education, for the past eleven years. She has worked both with private clients and the Oxfordshire Local Authority in the UK and in particular has worked with that authority to establish an appropriate infrastructure for the delivery of ABA in mainstream schools. She is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, has a Masters in Behaviour Analysis and is currently doing a PhD at Bangor University. Her research interest is Evidence based Practice in relation to ABA.

Kevin Filby

Kevin Filby has worked in social care for twelve years. The majority of his experience has been in supporting young adults with challenging and complex needs in community services. More recently, Kevin has spearheaded the development of the unique Activities Unlimited brokerage service on behalf of Scope and Suffolk County Council Children and Young Peoples Directorate. The service has gone on to win national awards for e-government and for achievement in children's services in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Becky Jones

Becky has 14 years’ experience working with children, young people and adults with learning difficulties. Her work has covered various settings, including mainstream school, respite care centres, residential homes for children with autism, holiday camps and family homes.

Sara Lyons

Sara is a self employed specialist autism consultant through her independent consultancy Asteroids providing autism training and support for schools, employers and services. She also provides support for children and adults with autism and gives talks about her own experiences of having Asperger Syndrome. Previously Sara was a specialist teacher for secondary aged students with ASD where her main role was to provide intensive support for a small number of students with ASD in mainstream secondary school, working with students individually or supporting them within the classroom. She is a member of the Steering Group for the Autism Education Trust and is also a member of the group Autistic Intelligence.

Stephen Reeder

Stephen Reeder has specialised in housing & social welfare law, public & administrative law, and human rights since being called to the Bar. He has extensive advisory experience in relation to housing management, social housing allocations, community care, mental health and public law relating to children. He is an experienced trainer, lecturer and author in his specialisms.

Kate Williams

Kate Williams is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Ambitious about Autism. Kate previously worked on campaigns and policy for the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign, the Council for Disabled Children and the Special Educational Consortium. She also worked in Parliament for Ed Balls MP when he was Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

Mandy Williams

Mandy Williams is the Peach CEO. She joined Peach in 1999 and has extensive knowledge of the autism and ABA sectors. Mandy previously worked as a career civil servant in a policy section of the department of employment and in ACAS before becoming a freelance writer. As a county councillor she gained an insight into how local government works and developed an in interest in special needs and early years' provision. She has also served as a non-executive director of a major acute hospital. Many of her roles have involved acting as an advocate for others in variety of settings.

Suzy Yardley

Suzy Yardley BSc, MSc, BCBA has 15 years experience using ABA-based teaching for autism, and in the last 10 years has supervised programmes for more than a hundred children. Suzy joined Peach in 2003. She job shares the lead clinician role with Kirsty Hayhoe. Suzy leads on clinical development and ensures the quality of Peach services. Suzy holds a BSc in Psychology, a MSc in Behaviour Analysis and is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst.