Debbie Sell, OBE, FRCSLT (born 21 June 1954) is a leading British speech and language therapist.

Life and career

Sell qualified in 1976 with a diploma in speech Pathology and Therapeutics from the College of Education in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. Her first appointment as a speech therapist was at

Whipps Cross Hospital Whipps Cross University Hospital is a large university hospital in the locality of Whipps Cross in Leytonstone and is within Epping Forest in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, London, England. It is managed by Barts Health NHS Trust. Histo ...

where she worked from 1976 to 1978. Between 1978 and 1981, she worked at St. Georges Hospital,

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre- Saxon times ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In 1981 she moved to

Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital ...

in London and was appointed head of the department of speech and language therapy in 1996. She gained her Phd in 1992 from

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

for an investigation of speech outcome in Sri Lankan

cleft palate A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The te ...

subjects with delayed surgery. She was a key member of the Sri Lankan Cleft Lip and Palate Project, and was Assistant Director of the Eurocleft Speech Group. In the late 1990s, she directed the speech research of the national UK Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG) study in cleft lip and palate, and was subsequently a member of the National Cleft Implementation Group. She became Honorary Lecturer at Institute of Child Health and then Honorary Senior Lecturer in 1999. Between 1999 –2003, she was

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at the Faculty of Health and Community Studies, De Montfort University and in 2003 was Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies University of Latrobe in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and the Royal Children's Hospital.

Career

Her research interests are several and include the management and evaluation of velopharyngeal function, including surgical and prosthetics outcomes associated with structural anomalies and the 22q11DS group, the delivery of speech and language therapy in the Developing World for patients with cleft lip and palate, and methods for the perceptual evaluation of speech. Sell has worked on developing speech therapy training in Sri Lanka, and she has used nasopharyngoscopy as a means to allow people to see inside their mouth while working on speech therapy.

Current posts

*Head of Speech and Language Therapy,

*Lead Speech and Language Therapist, North Thames Regional Cleft Lip and Palate Service (St. Andrew's Centre,

Broomfield Hospital Broomfield Hospital is an acute district general hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. It is managed by the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital, originally known as Essex County Hospital, was designed as a hospital for the t ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and

*Honorary Senior Lecturer, Institute of Child Health,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

*Visiting Professor, Faculty of Health and Community Studies,

*Adjunct Specialist, Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences,

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Honors and awards

She was awarded the Fellowship of the

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (abbreviated as RCSLT) is the professional body for speech and language therapists in the UK and a registered charity. It was established on 6 January 1945 to promote the study of speech therapy ...

for “work of special value to the profession in one or more of the following areas: research, teaching, publishing, practice” in 1999. In 2001, she received a Distinguished Fellowship Award from the La Trobe University/Children's Hospital in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

. In 2005 she was awarded the OBE for services to the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

Selected publications

* * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sell, Debbie 1954 births Academics of De Montfort University Academics of University College London Alumni of De Montfort University Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Leicester National Health Service people Speech and language pathologists Fellows of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists