Professor Dawn Skelton
- Director
- Tutor
- Assessor
Description
Dawn Skelton is an exercise physiologist with a scientific research background. She is currently a Professor in Ageing and Health at Glasgow Caledonian
University. She is Deputy Lead of the Later Life Research Group and also the Scottish Centre for Evidence Based Care. She oversees the newsletter and discussion board of ProFaNE (Prevention of Falls Network Europe). For 8 years she was Vice-Chairman of the charity EXTEND.
She specialises in research and health promotion concerning exercise and older people. Along with Susie Dinan Young, she designed and undertook the FaME (Falls Management Exercise) programme which forms the basis of the Postural Stability Instructor Training delivered by LLT. She is the Vice-President and Scientific Advisor for the International Society for the Prevention of Osteoporosis, Falls and Fractures (ISPAPOFF).
In 1995, Dawn completed her PhD research into the effects of healthy ageing on strength, power and functional ability and the benefits of strength training in older women. She was the foundation recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Fellowship from Research Into Ageing in 1997 where she and Susie Dinan-Young, working with Dr Olga Rutherford, co-authored the FaME research trial that the PSI course is based on. She won the Evian Health Progress Award in 1995 for her book "Exercise for healthy ageing", published through Research Into Ageing (sold over half a million copies for charity). She was awarded the Imperial College School of Medicine Research Into Ageing Prize in 1999. More recently, 2004, she was co-awarded (with Susie Dinan-Young) a Certificate of Recognition from AGILE (Chartered Physiotherapists working with Older People) for "Distinguished service in clinical / management / educational practice". In 2009 and 2010, two of her collaborative research projects have won awards (Clinical excellence award from NHS QIS and Jed Rowe prize at the 10th International Conference on Falls and Postural Stability). She is co-hosting the 8th World Congress on Active Ageing in Glasgow in August 2012.
In 1995, Dawn completed her PhD research into the effects of healthy ageing on strength, power and functional ability and the benefits of strength training in older women. She was the foundation recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Fellowship from Research Into Ageing in 1997 where she and Susie Dinan-Young, working with Dr Olga Rutherford, co-authored the FaME research trial that the PSI course is based on. She won the Evian Health Progress Award in 1995 for her book "Exercise for healthy ageing", published through Research Into Ageing (sold over half a million copies for charity). She was awarded the Imperial College School of Medicine Research Into Ageing Prize in 1999. More recently, 2004, she was co-awarded (with Susie Dinan-Young) a Certificate of Recognition from AGILE (Chartered Physiotherapists working with Older People) for "Distinguished service in clinical / management / educational practice". In 2009 and 2010, two of her collaborative research projects have won awards (Clinical excellence award from NHS QIS and Jed Rowe prize at the 10th International Conference on Falls and Postural Stability). She is co-hosting the 8th World Congress on Active Ageing in Glasgow in August 2012.
Her interest in active ageing was nurtured at an early age, when she went for daily walks in the park with her grandfather. Being an only child, her long living grandparents were her mentors. Her passion for travel, both through work and holidays, is only rivalled by her passion to try new thrill-seeking experiences (helicopters, microlights, white water rafting, parachuting!). She loves animals, hill walking in Scotland (where she now lives), anything New Zealand! and visiting her godchildren, Joshua, Samuel, Niamh and Conor.
