22-06-2023

Ivelina Dobreva and Charlotte Dore – Rising Star Award 2023

The Rising Star Award was jointly awarded to Ivelina Dobreva and Charlotte Dore for their contributions to the Department’s Public Engagement programmes.

Ivelina Dobreva

Research Assistant, Ivelina Dobreva, is a part of the Vision in Parkinson’s Disease Group. Ivelina been recognised for playing a pivotal role in supporting the Patterns of Perception in Parkinson’s Disease Project.
Award winner, Ivelina Dobreva
This project set out to the identify the roots of discomfort linked with dementia in the Parkinson’s community. To do so, Ivelina worked with the project team, including artists Anne Marr and Ru O’Connell, to design and deliver creative workshops, which utilised creativity to open up these conversations.

As the project developed, Ivelina also supported the co-production of information resources that explore thinking and memory changes in Parkinson’s, alongside lived experts and healthcare professionals.

The resources, developed by Ivelina and the team, will replace Parkinson’s UK’s current information on Parkinson’s dementia.

 

On winning her award Ivelina said:
“I am really lucky to be part of this project. It’s been inspiring to see how much creativity has helped to bring together different people to discuss dementia (which can be a difficult topic, especially in the Parkinson’s community). I believe this project highlights the real potential of using arts and creativity in dementia research, which we need to explore further. It is also truly wonderful to have Parkinson’s UK embrace the toolkits as part of their official information resources. Thank you to the Public Engagement team for this award – it has been truly a pleasure to work together on this”

 

Charlotte Dore
Research Assistant and PhD Student, Charlotte has been recognised for contributing to a number of different Public Engagement activities across the Department.

This includes collaborating with participants from PLORAS and qMAP-PD research studies to co-create a series of animations explaining important aspects of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a neuroimaging technique used by researchers within the Department.

Passionate about using creative engagements methods, Charlotte also helped to deliver creative workshops and online focus groups as part of the Patterns of Perception in Parkinson’s Project.

Additionally, Charlotte has worked on a collaborative project with German advertising company, Innocean Berlin. The project, Mood Music and Movement Disorders, is using music as a medium to explore perceptions surrounding tremor in Parkinson’s disease. Once complete, Charlotte’s work will be launched as part of an awareness campaign to challenge the perception of tremor.

Congratulations to Charlotte and Ivelina on their excellent contributions to Public Engagement!

You can read more about the awards here.