Gill Townend
Communication and Education Support Project Lead, Rett UK Ph.D., M.Phil., B.Med.Sci. (Speech), MRCSLT & HCPC registered
About this speaker
Gill Townend heads up Rett UK’s Communication and Education team. She is also a researcher at the Rett Expertise Centre Netherlands, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. Her background is in Speech and Language Therapy, initially specialising in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and more recently Rett syndrome. She worked for Sheffield SLT service for nearly 20 years before moving to the Netherlands in 2008.
Gill was responsible for organising the communication track of the 3rd European Rett Syndrome Conference Maastricht in 2013. She is co-founder of four national networks for professionals working with individuals with Rett syndrome - one for Communication Professionals in the UK, and one each for SLTs, Educators, and Physiotherapists in NL. She is the European representative on the North American Rett Clinics Network and, since April 2020, the inaugural Chair of the new Rett Syndrome Europe Scientific Advisory Board. Gill also led the international project that recently published the first consensus-based communication guidelines for Rett syndrome.
In 2019 she gained her Ph.D. from Maastricht University, with a thesis entitled "Rett Syndrome: Recognising the Communication Challenges, Needs and Potential of Individuals Living with a Rare Disease".
