Alison has 33 years’ experience, in the National Health Service, providing the highest standard of bereavement care in both adult and paediatric pathology services. She has contributed to the development of the recently published Scottish Government guidance: Standards for Mortuary Services.

Alison has a specific interest in the mortuary management of fatalities in disasters and until 2020 was the Emergency and Preparedness Lead for the Association of Anatomical Pathology Technology (AAPT). Whilst in this role Alison worked on Home Office projects such as Developing Specification for Emergency/Temporary Mortuaries and Safe handling of Contaminated Fatalities. Alison set up the AAPT DVI Response Team which activated in response to incidents in the UK and she was awarded a Metropolitan Police OCU Commander’s Commendation for her DVI work. She has provided training to key stakeholders in the field of Disaster Management and Victim Identification including facilitating training on Mortuary Management in Iraq.

Her NHS career has been interspersed with several field roles including deployments in Bosnia and Kosovo as part of Forensic Teams formed by the United Nations. She deployed as part of the British Military Operation at RAF Brize Norton managing the repatriation and autopsies of those killed in the conflict in Iraq. She was a first responder to Thailand after the Asian Tsunami, providing support for the victim identification process.

In 2009 Alison was seconded by Oxford Archaeology as part of the Fromelles Project in Northern France to recover & identify (where possible) WW1 soldiers buried in a mass grave and re inter them in individual plots in a newly constructed, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, cemetery. Her role was to advise on mortuary design, set up and then manage the mortuary/anthropology laboratory complex.

In June 2011 Alison was awarded, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, an MBE for Services to Anatomical Pathology Technology.