Barbara Wilson (psychologist)


Prof. Barbara A. Wilson OBE is the founder of the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation in Ely, Cambridgeshire. She was awarded an OBE for her work in brain injury rehabilitation over 40 years for "medical rehabilitation". She was a clinical psychologist, and is now retired. She was shortlisted for a Lifetime Achievement Award in the NHS70 Parliamentary Awards in 2018 for her dedication to brain injury rehabilitation.

Career

Wilson spent her early career working with children with developmental delay, and brain injury, which influenced her career direction. She says:
"I worked for two years with children who had severe developmental learning difficulties, and then I moved to Rivermead Rehabilitation Centre in Oxford. On my first day there I knew that brain injury rehabilitation was my field and I would stay there for the rest of my career."
She had a brain rehabilitation centre named after her in 2007. A centre in Quito Ecuador was named the “Centro de Rehabilitacion Neurologico Integral: Dra Barbara Wilson” and it was opened in honour of her work.

Life

Barbara A. Wilson qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1977. She worked at the Rivermead Rehabilitation Centre in Oxford, then at Charing Cross Hospital and the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge. She established the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Ely in 1996. She is the founder and editor of the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. Wilson is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Academy of Social Sciences and the British Psychological Society and past president of the British Neuropsychological Society and the International Neuropsychological Society. The BPS Barbara Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest UK professional award for clinical neuropsychologists, is named after her. Wilson was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours List in 1998 for services to medical rehabilitation. She ran the London marathon, in 2008, in close to six hours and ran for a charity fund.

Publications

Wilson has written and edited several books, chapters and papers including:
Wilson has published more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 26 books, as well as eight neuropsychological tests.
Her awards include: