Meet the Team

Chris Atkins

Director

Head of Education & Social Care

Chris has worked in the field of autism for over 30 years in a variety of specialist services and agencies. Since 2001, he has been the Executive Director at Stroud Court Community Trust, a specialised charity providing a range of services for people with autistic spectrum conditions. He also works as a tutor and visiting lecturer in autism for the Department of Inclusion and Special Needs at the University of Birmingham. Prior to this, Chris worked for several years with the National Autistic Society as Group Manager, Adult Services Manager and Head of Projects and Developments. He is the lead Learning Disability representative for the Gloucestershire Care Providers Association and is a founder member of the Gloucestershire Joint Learning Disability Commissioning Team Challenging Behaviour Strategy Working Group. Chris has many years experience in operational leadership and management and strategic development in human services and has a particular interest in cultural and values-based organisational change.

Ruth Moyse

Director

Head of Training & Co-production

Ruth is a highly experienced trainer, facilitator, and mentor with over twenty years’ experience in education. A teacher by profession, her research interest lies in the education of autistic children and young people, particularly the female experience, and more widely in autistic mental health and wellbeing. Ruth is an advocate for participatory research and the co-production of knowledge and chooses creative methods of engagement and collaboration. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, where she is a member of the Autistic Community Research Network, and sits on a number of neurodiversity advisory boards and research steering groups in the UK and Europe. In addition, Ruth is a Trustee of the John and Lorna Wing Foundation, and part of the Information Autism editorial board. She is also autistic.

Jacky Towells

Director

Head of People & Resources

Jacky is an experienced and accomplished professional with substantial experience in finance, organisational management and strategic planning in the care sector. She has held senior positions in specialist autism care services in the independent sector for over 18 years. Jacky is a founding director of AT-Autism and takes a leading role in the strategic, financial and operational management aspects of the company and in providing close support to the board and network of Associates.

Linda Woodcock

Director

Head of Families and Support

Linda has many years experience of working with autistic individuals and their families. She previously managed advice and advocacy services and a family support service for a large regional charity. She has been instrumental in devising and delivering innovative person-centred training courses for parents and families in understanding autism and behaviours of concern. She also delivers this training to professionals within health, social care and education services, as well as the criminal justice system. In addition, Linda carries out assessments and service audit and reviews working both in the UK and internationally. She is the co- author of the book ‘Managing Family Meltdown: The low arousal approach and autism’. Linda manages a person-centred service for her adult son who is autistic with additional learning disabilities.

Sarah Downs

Senior Administrator

Sarah is a primary school teacher by profession with a variety of experience of working with autistic children and their families. After having her own children, she spent many years volunteering in governance in her local primary school becoming Chair of Governors with a specific interest in teaching and learning. She specialised in special needs, mostly autism and aiding the school to become more aware and ‘autism friendly’. Her eldest son is autistic, so she also has parental experience of supporting and encouraging her son. Sarah has knowledge and experience of strategic planning and administration within many educational settings and now provides administrative support for our team and associates.

Richard Mills

Special Advisor

Richard is a Consultant Associate and Adviser to the AT-Autism board and Head of Research, Evaluation and Clinical Support. He is a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath; Senior Research Fellow at Bond University, Queensland Australia; Professor, J-CAAR Taisho University, Tokyo, Japan, and Consultant at the Autism Resource Centre Singapore. He is a Research and Practice Associate at Scottish Autism’s Centre for Practice Innovation and since 1994 he has been a consultant to the Inspire Foundation, Malta, where he now chairs their Research and Innovation Council. From 1990 until 2013 Richard was with the National Autistic Society initially as Director of Services, responsible for early years, schools, and adult services and later as Director of Research, a joint appointment with Research Autism. Richard’s interests are in behaviours of concern, forensic aspects of autism, autism in women and girls, programme evaluation and service design. He has authored numerous scientific papers, book chapters and articles on autism and is an editor for the journals Autism, the International Journal of Research and Practice, and Advances in Autism. He was a member of the Guideline Development Groups for the NICE guidance on Autism in Adults and Behaviours that Challenge, and of the Northern Ireland Autism Research Advisory Committee. From 2004 until 2014 Richard was the Autism Adviser to the States of Jersey. He is a Trustee of the John and Lorna Wing Foundation, supporting autism research.

Dave Moore

Special Advisor

Dave is a highly experienced professional with twenty years independent consultancy experience in the public and voluntary sectors and eighteen years employed experience in local authorities and the health service. He has worked extensively across education and children’s services, and health and social care.
His specialisms include project management, business analysis, service evaluations and research. Dave has led on the technical aspects of online surveys in support of numerous AT-Autism projects since 2017.