Madeline is Professor of Aphasia Rehabilitation and Recovery at City, University of London. She has pursued a career in post-stroke aphasia rehabilitation since 1998, commencing with her doctorate exploring communication and quality of life at the University of Queensland in her native Australia. She moved to City in 2002, and has held a fulltime role across teaching, research, administration and management, and external responsibilities for two decades.

She is connected to stroke and aphasia rehabilitation research nationally and internationally. She has represented the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists on the UK Stroke Forum Organising and Scientific Committees (2020-2023), and is Co-Chair of the international Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (2024-2026).

Professor Cruice’s research interests include the development of novel interventions to optimise functional communication and quality of life for people with aphasia – multilevel discourse interventions, communication partner training, technology-enabled aphasia rehabilitation, communication access and inclusion in stroke research and stroke rehabilitation practice – and working in partnership with human computer interaction design researchers – inclusive data visualisation, inclusive design content in media, and inclusive content creation and curation.

Her research has been funded primarily by the National Institute of Health Research, the Stroke Association, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Dunhill Medical Trust.

Jytte Isaksen is an associate professor at the Department of Culture and Communication, University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark. She has a background as speech and language therapist and holds a PhD in aphasia rehabilitation. Jytte lectures in the speech-language therapy and audiology programs in evidence-based practice, qualitative research methodologies, neurogenic communication disorders including aphasia, and other clinical subjects. Jytte’s research is centered around communication with people with aphasia, for example communication partner training of health professionals where she has co-developed the training program KomTil and currently she is a part of the UK-based project COM-STAR developing online communication partner training for health and social workers. Jyttes largest current project is about the development of cross-sectorial and cross-disciplinary psychosocial care and communication training for families living with aphasia and feasibility testing hereof.