Laurette Tahmassian-Zarneh

Laurette has co-developed the BSc (Hons) Speech and Language Therapy at the University of Huddersfield. Laurette is also a Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy, Admissions Tutor and Service User and Carer Involvement Lead for the programme.

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. 

Laurette has an interest in normalising research culture and the capacity/capability for research within all roles. Furthermore, she is passionaete about the empowerment and involvement of Service Users and Carers within heatlh professional education.