The Nominations Committee

Established: 9 November 2021

The Nominations Committee is responsible for the strategic oversight of the selection and induction processes for the members of the RCSLT’s Board of Trustees and other governing committees. Its role is to ensure the Board develops a diverse and representative pipeline of future leaders; that roles are advertised effectively; and that the RCSLT has the right mix of skills at Board and committee level to ensure our leadership is inclusive and prepared to take the organisation into the future.

The establishment of the committee and recruitment of its members is another step in the RCSLT’s journey towards greater diversity within the profession.

The committee aims to make applying for a position on the Board of Trustees or other governing committees as welcoming and supportive as possible, so that everyone feels confident that they apply for these positions. The process will not be an example of positive discrimination (which is not lawful, and would disadvantage others), but rather, positive action. ‘Positive action’ is lawful and involves making the workplace fairer for disadvantaged or under-represented groups (ACAS, 2022). In this way, it is hoped that applicants from under-represented groups can overcome any barriers they have faced through discrimination and lack of opportunity.

We will be encouraging people from under-represented groups to apply for positions in the hope of increasing diversity. This does not mean that if you are not a member of an underrepresented group you cannot apply. We encourage anyone who is interested to enquire and apply for vacant positions. We will have been successful when we attract a wide range of candidates. At interview and when making appointment decisions, the candidate most suitable for the position will be selected.

This work is in common with similar successful schemes in the UK, such as:

For more information on RCSLT leadership and governance, please see About us.

Committee terms of reference

Read the Nominations Committee terms of reference (PDF) – approved 4 March 2022.

Meet the committee members

Dorett Davis, speech and language therapist

Dorett is a speech and language therapist by profession and currently manages a range of children’s community services, including children’s therapies. She is also one of the creators behind SLTs of Colour, an online support platform formed in June 2022. The platform aims is to promote speech and language therapy as a career to people who come from minority ethnic backgrounds, as well as providing information for those new to the profession.

Melanie Packer, senior speech and language therapy lecturer

Melanie qualified as a speech and language therapist in 2006 and worked for the NHS in Warwickshire until 2018. At this point she joined Birmingham City University in 2018 and is both a placement lead and a senior lecturer in speech and language therapy. Melanie continues to maintain a special interest in prevention, early identification and intervention of speech, language communication needs in the early years, as well as professional practice and the development of a diverse workforce.
Twitter: @melaniepacker72

Ann Whitehorn, general trustee

Ann qualified as an SLT in 1973 with distinction and started work at Guy’s Hospital, having been a final year student there. She worked with a mixed adult and paediatric caseload until 1981 when, having gradually developed a specialisation in voice/head and neck, she was appointed to a clinical specialist role. In 1994, she became head of speech and language therapy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, continuing this role until her retirement. As a senior leader, she acted as director of therapies and represented the directorate on various trust-wide committees in the field of cancer and supportive care. In 2009, she co-led a successful tender for a community head and neck multidisciplinary team in partnership with Lewisham Primary Care Trust. In 2004, she was appointed trust management side lead for job evaluation, and led a national working group for RCSLT, reviewing and revising national speech and language therapy job profiles. Since retirement, she has continued in this role.
Twitter: @AnnWhitehorn1

Lee Bolton

Image of Lee Bolton, Nominations committee member

Lee qualified from the University of Sheffield in 2006 and has been working with adults with acquired communication and swallowing disorders across several clinical specialisms since this time, mostly in acute NHS settings in England and for a short period in the UAE. During the pandemic, he worked closely with the RCSLT to produce information and guidance on aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) in relation to SLT practice and was selected to represent the RCSLT at the NIHR AGP Task & Finish Group. His contribution to the profession was recognised with an RCSLT Fellowship in 2022. During the same period, Lee completed a pre-doctoral fellowship investigating the feasibility of a methodology for evaluating swallowing during and after an acute exacerbation of COPD. Following this, Lee moved to his current position as Clinical Lead for the Adult SLT service at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals. He has recently completed the Improvement Leaders Fellowship with the NIHR North West London Applied Research Collaborative and is currently implementing a QI project to improve voice and swallowing outcomes after cardiac and lung surgery.

Alpana Marwaha

Image of Alpana Marwaha, nominations committee member

Alpana qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist, from Strathclyde University in 2001.  Her career began in Glasgow, working in children’s services, where she worked in a school for moderate learning disabilities, a special needs school and 3 community clinics. After moving to Leicester, she continued working in children’s services and qualified in Dysphagia, covering 0 – 18, later qualifying in under ones. Alpana had an interest in working with early years and worked in children’s centres carrying out preventative work.

As her career developed, she took the opportunity to become involved in service transformation.  Her first transformation role was in children’s services, which aimed to develop multi-partner neighbourhood team across all sectors. She then continued her transformation journey in CAMHS, where she developed a strong interest in Speech Therapy in Mental Health. After taking a lead role in Speech Therapy in adult mental health, Alpana has developed a team of 13 therapists who cover acute inpatients, rehab, Liaison and Diversion and Huntington’s Disease.

Alpana has recently worked with the RCSLT on a workforce group and has also been nominated and shortlisted for a trust leadership award. She has a strong interest in co-production and equality and diversity.

Hannah Murtagh

Image of Hannah Murtagh, Nominations committee member

Hannah qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2001 from the University of Sheffield with a Bmed (Sci) Speech Science. She started out working as a Speech and Language Therapist for the HSE in the Republic of Ireland.

Hannah then relocated back to South Wales and took a role in adult acute service, realising this wasn’t her true passion she then moved into the Early Years. Here she developed her clinical expertise and passion for Speech and Language therapy, early intervention and prevention and multi agency working. After gaining her Msc in Healthcare management, Hannah went on to accept two separate secondment opportunities. She worked in a College developing and co-ordinating a course for Speech and Language Therapy assistants and then a regional post as Clinical Transformation Lead for Additional Learning needs (Wales) legislation implementation. Hannah went onto work as a Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist with Swansea Bay Health Board for 3 years overseeing the paediatric service and has just commenced as Head of Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy for Swansea Bay University Health Board.

Ellie Freeman

Ellie Freeman, Nominations Committee member

Ellie studied at Birmingham City University, qualifying as a speech and language therapist in 2024. She has started her NQP role as a community paediatric therapist in the West Midlands and is thoroughly enjoying it. Ellie’s clinical interests include AAC and supporting those with complex needs. She is also passionate about using her lived experience as a queer, disabled person to champion other minoritised SLTs and service users. While at university, as a member of student and national societies, Ellie began supporting work on diversifying the profession. She is particularly proud of her contributions as a supporting author on RCSLT guidance around supporting disabled students on placement published in 2024. She looks forward to continuing such work on this committee.

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