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Ms Elisa Valdez

Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy

School of Allied and Public Health Professions

Elisa is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy and Equity and Inclusion Lead for the School of Allied Health Professions.

I am a dedicated and experienced Occupational Therapist with a passion for occupation, occupational justice and inclusion. My expertise lies in integrated therapy services within educational settings, with a particular focus on special education needs, autism, learning disabilities, sensory integration, and collaborative approaches between health and education that maximise engagement and participation.


I hold triple professional qualifications, including BSc (Hons) in Occupational Therapy, Professional Graduate Certificate in Education in the Lifelong Learning Sector, and Teacher of the Deaf and Language Therapist (Bachelor's degree) from Argentina. Additionally, I have earned Postgraduate Certifications in Collaborative Working between Health and Education (PGCert), Sensory Integration (PGCert) – Qualified as a Sensory Integration Practitioner, and PGCAP.
Before transitioning into academia, I worked as an Integrated Therapy Team Lead and School-based Occupational Therapist in a specialist school, where I established and managed integrated therapy services. My work has centred on designing and setting up the first occupational therapy service, developing and implementing a three-tiered approach with an emphasis on whole-school interventions for all the therapeutic input offered. In addition to this, I coordinated the integrated therapy team which included Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Dramatherapy, Physiotherapy, Music Therapy, and Counselling provision with a focus on the implementation of collaborative, innovative and affirmative practices which would improve the educational, health and wellbeing outcomes of children and young people with autism and learning disabilities.

Prior to my work in occupational therapy, I spent over a decade as a Spanish teacher in the UK, and worked extensively in health and education settings in Argentina as a teacher of the deaf, and language therapist.

I have extended teaching experience both abroad and in the UK. My early academic career started at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina, where I contributed to module teaching, research, and conference presentations. At Canterbury Christ Church University, I lead various modules in both the undergraduate and apprenticeship courses. I am the School Equity and Inclusion Lead and the Athena SWAN representative. I am the Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) of the S22 Apprenticeship (Surrey and Sussex).

My early academic career started at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina, where I was awarded a research scholarship with outstanding result in 'Exploring the Development of Phonological Awareness through the Use of Nursery Rhymes in Children at Risk' as an undergraduate student in 2001 (unpublished). In my previous role, I devised implementation projects to promote mental health in the school setting, and to make teaching and learning environments inclusive for autistic individuals. My academic and professional interests include occupational justice and equity in education and healthcare, inclusive education and whole-school approaches to therapy, participation in physical activity as a means to promote health and well-being. My current participation in research includes the professional reasoning of occupational therapy students, and occupational therapy assessments. I am the lead of a research project on evaluating the effectiveness of the Occupational Performance Analysis tool (OPA) in measuring the quality of the observed occupational performance by level 4 occupational therapy students.

I am a HCPC registered occupational therapist. I participated in the Equity Champion project funded by the Elizabeth Cason Trust in 2023.I have been active member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) since 2013. I took the role as a student rep in the regional specialist group for children, young people and families whilst studying an Occupational Therapy degree. All these years, being a member of the RCOT has been essential to develop my professional skills and maintain appropriate breadth and depth subject knowledge, especially in school-based occupational therapy, utilising occupation-centred interventions with children and their families, and enabling occupational performance of neurodivergent individuals. I served as a School Governor at a Special Needs School where I contributed to the quality assurance of the school curriculum and participation in the school community among other responsibilities.