Meet the Team

Core team

Photograph of Cathy standing by a river in the sunshine

Cathy Manning – Associate Professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham and founder of Sensory Street. Her research focuses on the development of visual perception through childhood, and how perception varies across neurodiversity. She conducts research into how autistic children process visual information differently to non-autistic children. Find out more at: https://catherinemanning.weebly.com/about.html

Image of Keren standing in front of a white background looking at the camera

Keren MacLennan – Assistant Professor in Neurodiversity at Durham University. Her research focusses on the sensory experiences of autistic people, understanding the links between sensory and mental health, and emotional experiences of music, and improving live music inclusion. You can follow her on Twitter: @KerenMacLennan or find out more about her work: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/keren-maclennan/

Image of @21andsensory's logo which shows a person holding up a board with the words '21 and sensory' on it

Emily has Sensory Processing Disorder (diagnosed aged 8) and is autistic (diagnosed aged 25). She is a Graphic Designer, Illustrator, and Podcaster who lives and works in the UK. She enjoys discussing and drawing about her life as a sensory-being across social media at @21andsensory and https://21andsensory.wordpress.com/

Collaborators

Becky George – Founder of Sensory Spectacle

Catherine Woolley – children’s Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Brett Heasman – Senior Lecturer at York St John University

Jess Starns – Artist and founder of ‘Dyspraxic Me’

Research Assistants

Raveen Rayat – BSc in Psychology Professional Placement, University of Reading

Eliza Main – Sensory-inclusive supermarket e-guide project, University of Reading

Charlie Greenall – Sensory-inclusive spaces for autistic people training package, Durham University

Rain Jefferis – BSc in Psychology Professional Placement, University of Reading

Community partners

We have worked with the autistic community on all of our projects. Thank you to everyone who has given their time and expertise to these projects:

Aimee Fletcher, Alexandra Lawrence, Bronagh Eaton, Emma Nielsen, Josh Pike, Kana Grace, Lizzie Riden, Michelle Singlehurst, Rose Matthews, Rose Robbins, Sarah Gale, Sarah O’Brien, Sarah Miller, Tara Cooke, Thomas Vaughan + others