Barbara Wilson (psychologist)

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."[5]

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.[5]

Barbara A. Wilson qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1977.[2] She worked at the Rivermead Rehabilitation Centre in Oxford,[5] then at Charing Cross Hospital and the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge.[3] She established the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Ely in 1996.[2] She is the founder and editor of the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.[6] Wilson is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Academy of Social Sciences and the British Psychological Society (BPS)[7] and past president of the British Neuropsychological Society and the International Neuropsychological Society.[8] The BPS Barbara Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest UK professional award for clinical neuropsychologists, is named after her.[7] Wilson was appointed an OBE in the New Year's Honours List in 1998 for services to medical rehabilitation.[3] She ran the London marathon, in 2008, in close to six hours and ran for a charity fund.[5]

Wilson has written and edited several books, chapters and papers including:

• The Assessment, Evaluation and Rehabilitation of Everyday Memory Problems: Selected Papers of Barbara A. Wilson (2013)[9]
• Case Studies in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation (1999)[10]
• Essentials of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation (Wilson and Betteridge 2019)[11]
• Life After Brain Injury: Survivors' Stories (Wilson et al. 2013)[12]
• Memory Rehabilitation: Integrating Theory and Practice (2009)[13]
• Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: The International Handbook (Wilson et al., eds, 2017)[14]
• Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: Theory, Models, Therapy and Outcome (Wilson et al. 2009)[15]

Wilson has published more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 26 books, as well as eight neuropsychological tests.

Her awards include:

• (1998) OBE for services to rehabilitation;
• Four lifetime achievement awards, one from the British Psychological Society, one from the International Neuropsychological Society, one from the National Academy of Neuropsychology and one from the Encephalitis Society;
• (2011) Ramon Y Cahal award, the International Neuropsychiatric Association;
• (2014) honorary degree from The University of Cordoba, Argentina;
• (2014) M.B. Shapiro award, The Division of Clinical Psychology (The British Psychological Society) for Distinguished Contributions to Clinical Psychology.[7]