Vivensa Academy Excellence Awards

Professor Vicki Goodwin MBE is a physiotherapist and Professor of Ageing and Rehabilitation at the University of Exeter. She is an NIHR Senior Investigator and was awarded the 2025 Vivensa Academy Senior Leader Excellence Award. Her research focusses on community rehabilitation of older people living with frailty, multiple long-term conditions and neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and dementia. She is passionate about supporting those whose background may limit their career opportunities. She involves and engages with people with lived experience and service users to ensure her research is grounded in what is important to them.

Dr Toby Ellmers is a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow at Imperial College London, where he is exploring the psychological factors contributing to dizziness and balance disorders in older adults. He was awarded the Promising Scientist Award from the International Society of Posture and Gait Research (ISPGR) for this work, and is the 2025 Vivensa Academy Rising Star Excellence Award holder. He is the Co-Lead of the 'Concerns about Falling' Working Group within the World Falls Guidelines initiative, and regularly lectures and presents on these topics.