Laurette Tahmassian-Zarneh

Laurette is currently working towards her fellowship of the higher Education Academy through the commencement of her studies for a postgraduate certification (PgCert) in health professional education at the University of Huddersfield, due for completion in 2021. Laurette became a full time Lecturer in August 2020. After obtaining a First Class MA (Hons) degree at the University of St Andrews in Social Anthropology with Linguistics in 2009, Laurette completed a GDip in Speech and Language Therapy from Queen Margaret University in 2011. Thereafter, as a Health and Care Professions Council registered Speech and Language Therapist with certified Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists membership, Laurette worked in the NHS to provide holistic assessment and management of adults with speech, language, communication, voice and swallowing difficulties subsequent to complex aetiologies. Settings included acute, rehabilitation, clinics and the community. Laurette’s clinical area of specialism is dysphagia (swallowing difficulties), dementia and end of life/palliative care.

Throughout her practise, Laurette has assumed leadership responsibilities in service development initiatives, audit and evaluation. Moreover, she undertook roles in training, supervision and mentoring of others, included students participating in practice education. In 2016, she co-established a dysphagia training programme for care home staff across Sheffield.

In 2017, Laurette was awarded a National Institute for Health Research funded studentship to undertake a Masters in Research Methods at the University of Nottingham, which she completed in 2020 following a period of maternity leave. This included undertaking a qualitative empirical study with NHS ethics to explore the facilitators and barriers for informal caregivers when following dysphagia recommendations for those living with dementia at home. She is currently finalising this work for dissemination - specifically her incidental findings on the challenges of recruitment in research, and is undertaking preliminary work in readiness to register for a PhD in 2021.

Laurette has an interest in normalising research culture and the capacity/capability for research across all professional and student roles. Furthermore, she is passionate about the empowerment and involvement of service users, carers and public contributors in the design and delivery of research, services and education.

Laurette is currently working towards her fellowship of the higher Education Academy through the commencement of her studies for a postgraduate certification in higher education at the University of Huddersfield in 2020.