Kamini Gadhok (b. 1961) is a

speech and language therapist Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...

, specialising in

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

and, since 2000, has served as the

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

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 ...

Career

Gadhok graduated from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

in 1983. She worked as a speech and language therapist in Nottingham Community Health NHS Trust as a locality manager and coordinator for the speech and language therapy services. She specialised in bilingualism and led the development of services for people for whom English was an additional language. She established the Asian bilingual co-worker service, the first of its kind in the country. In 1997, Kamini became ethnic health projects coordinator for the NHS and was seconded to the Department of Health to set up the Race Equality Unit, where she was section head until 2000. From 2007 to 2012 she was director of the

National Literacy Trust The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity (registered no. 1116260 in England and Wales and registered no. SCO42944 in Scotland) based in London, England, that promotes literacy. It was founded by Sir Simon Hornby, former chairman of th ...

. In her role as the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, Gadhok had advocated the prioritisation of children's language services by the UK government as a result of the findings of a 10-year impact assessment of the Bercow Report. In April 2022 Gadhok announced that she will be retiring from her role as CEO of the RCSLT in March 2023. In October 2022, the RCSLT announced the appointment of

Steve Jamieson ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

as Gadhok's successor, taking up the post in March 2023. Gadhok was awarded an

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

2009 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 2009 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as pa ...

for services to the allied health professions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gadhok, Kamini Living people 1961 births British women academics Speech and language pathologists Members of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of the University of Manchester