Meet the team

The LEANS project is officially based within the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre, at the University of Edinburgh.  

The project involved two main teams of people, who worked together to develop the LEANS resources. If you are interested in the development process or the roles that these teams played, you can find more details on our development page. 

Many more people made contributions to specific resource items or stages of the project, detailed on our credits and acknowledgements page. 

LEANS development

Resource pack credits and acknowledgements

The LEANS research team (alphabetical order)

Dr Alyssa M. Alcorn, LEANS research and impact lead

Researcher at the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre (SMRC), University of Edinburgh 

Dr Dinah Aitken, LEANS research team member 

Head of Outreach, Salvesen Mindroom Centre 

Fergus Murray, LEANS research team member 

Consultant and educator; Autistic Mutual Aid Society Edinburgh (AMASE) 

Liam J. J. Peacock, LEANS youth research representative 

Dr Sarah McGeown, LEANS research team member 

Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh 

Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson, LEANS Principal Investigator 

Personal Chair of Developmental Psychology and director of the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre (SMRC), University of Edinburgh 

Professor William Mandy, LEANS research team member 

Professor of Neurodevelopmental Conditions, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London 

The LEANS educator participatory design team  

Team members chose to be credited as follows, and are listed in alphabetical order by first name: 

Amy Nic Thaidhg, Primary school teacher  

Chris Rigby, Director of SEND for Outwood Grange Academy Trust (England)  

Erin Marie Tschiderer, Classroom Teacher (England) 

Fiona McBryde 

Joan McDonald (Posautive), Autism Trainer/Teacher (Ireland) 

Kate Bradley, SEND Consultant  

Kirsten Duncan, Class teacher/Support for Learning teacher (Scotland) 

Sarah Douglas, Neurodivergent former primary autism LSA (England) 

LEANS illustration 

Claire Hubbard (@emseeitch) 

LEANS funding 

Development and evaluation of the LEANS resource pack was funded by the following sources: 

• The Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre (SMRC) Scientific Advisory Board 

• Autistica 

• University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Research Adaptation Fund 

• University of Edinburgh College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange and Impact Grants 

Conflict of interest statement 

The research and design teams have released the LEANS resources online, for free. There will be no royalties from these resources. However, team members may accrue paid opportunities such as training delivery and paid invitations to speak about LEANS project research. 

Read Professor Sue Fletcher Watson’s general COI statement