Dr Stephanie-Roxanne Blanco

Dr Steph Blanco, is a Neuropsychologist, Senior Lecturer and Disability Advocate known for blending science and lived experience to challenge exclusion in psychology and beyond. She is module leader across biopsychology, cognitive, advanced clinical and community-focused modules, and the Psychology Placements module, bringing creativity, critical thinking and a deep commitment to inclusive practice. Her practice is rooted in research and personal experience from classroom discussions to national advocacy work. With students, she will often explore intersectionality, diversity, inclusion and hidden disabilities or dynamic conditions in sessions and quirky topics too. She is vice-chair of a national charity and her work beyond the classroom regularly features in public talks, including TEDx or policy making, on neurodiversity, dynamic disability or health, environmental or other equity.

Her research explores the intersection of neuroscience, identity and justice. She works across neuroimaging, phlebotomy, mixed methods analyses, lived experience and participatory methods, and critical health psychology with a key focus on hidden and dynamic disabilities, psychological and environmental distress, and the role of inclusive research in transforming systems of care or in brain health, inflammation, and nutrition. In 2024, she was awarded the University’s STAR Awards for Inclusive Teaching and Student Support (voted by students), received the Scope Purple Pioneer Award in 2025, and was nominated for a National Diversity Lifetime Achievement Award. She believes psychology should be human, accessible, and bold, and that’s exactly how she teaches it (creatively, a little chaotically, critically and always with care).