Sharon Power graduated from Trinity College, Dublin as a physiotherapist in 1997. She is a neurodevelopmental trained therapist. Sharon has worked in the Assistive Technology and Specialised Seating Department in the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin for nearly twenty years and has a special interest in custom contoured seating. She co-presented at the International Seating Symposium in Pittsburgh in 2019 on this topic specifically in relation to a collaborative approach to self-propulsion and custom contoured seating.

Dr Ray Samuriwo is a Lecturer in the School of Healthcare Sciences, and the Wales Centre for Evidence Based Care at Cardiff University. Ray’s work focuses on the complex interplay between evidence, values, and virtues that underpin different aspects of health and social care. The focus of his work is on developing, testing, and refining theory on values to underpin research, education and policy which enhances patient safety. Ray’s original contributions to values in health and social care have advanced international thinking in relation to end of life care, healthcare professional education and wound healing. He is also a former Chair of the Tissue Viability Society.

Dr Melanie Stephens is a Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing and Head of Interprofessional Education within the School of Health and Society. Melanie is a health service researcher with specific research interests in pressure redistributing properties of seating, tissue viability, and interprofessional working and learning. She has undertaken research to provide an evidence base for products used in the twenty-four-hour management of pressure ulcers and affective domain development of student nurses. Melanie co-led an amendment to the UK Tissue Viability Society Seating Guidelines with service users and is using this work to impact policy and practice. She is currently leading a feasibility study on the impact of Interprofessional Student Training Care Homes on residents, care home staff and students. Experienced in mixed methods of enquiry, working with practitioners and commerce to develop research for the use in the clinical environment.

Having completed her nurse training in Leeds, Nikki worked in orthopaedics, medicine and care of the elderly in secondary care before completing her District Nurse training. It was during her time working as a District Nurse that Nikki developed a passion for wound care and pressure ulcer prevention, and secured a Tissue Viability Nurse Specialist post in 2000. Completing an MSc in Evidence based Practice at The University of York she developed a desire to implement and generate robust clinical evidence in wound care and pressure ulcer prevention and management. Nikki works with the Universities of York, Leeds and Manchester on NHS funded research programmes supported by the wound prevention and management service.

Nikki’s career developed further in the community as a Clinical Project Lead, developing an integrated wound service and then as Professional Lead for Nursing. In 2019 Nikki received a Queens Nurse Award. She is an active member and trustee of The Society of Tissue Viability. Since retiring from the NHS Nikki now works as an Independent Nurse Consultant in Tissue Viability.

Elaine Wynne is an Senior Occupational Therapist working in the Assistive Technology and Specialised Seating Department of the Central Remedial Clinic, Dublin. After graduating from the National University of Ireland, Galway in 2013, Elaine spent time working in Vancouver, Canada where she developed a passion for the life changing impact that seating, powered mobility and assistive technology can have on the lives of individuals post spinal cord injury (SCI). Elaine has experience working with clients in the chronic and subacute stages of SCI in a specialised residential care setting (George Pearson Centre), a specialised outpatient clinic and in inpatient rehabilitation settings in Vancouver and Dublin. This experience has given Elaine a comprehensive insight into some of the unique complications and considerations to keep in mind when prescribing seating and assistive technology equipment for this population group.