Born in 1964, Anna went to school in Cambridgeshire and trained to be a teacher in Reading before moving to Leigh near Wigan. She spent six years teaching in a special school where she fell in love with the potential for technology to transform the lives of children with complex needs and in 1997, she joined the Ace Centre. This Centre provides services for children and adults with little or no speech to communicate using technology and Anna established the organisation as a charity in 2001 and became its CEO.
Since 2009, in addition to her Ace Centre role she has worked on a part time basis as the National AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) Coordinator, a post created in response to a review by the former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow MP. Supporting the former Communication Champion for England, Jean Gross CBE, Anna has developed a model of provision for the Government to ensure that anyone who needs a communication aid and support will get it. In 2012, Anna’s charity took over the running of its sister centre in Oxfordshire and has established the charity as a truly national organisation providing its services across the country. From 2015, Ace Centre has been the NHS-commissioned provider of specialised AAC services in the North West and South Central regions. In 2017, Anna was instrumental in establishing the All Party Parliamentary Group: Assistive Technology ; she is a member of the DfE Assistive Technology expert Group and the ATech Policy Lab in partnership with Policy Connect and Bournemouth University.
Anna now lives in south Manchester with her partner. To relax (!), she loves spending time with her family, playing tennis, gardening and travel. Anna was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester in 2013.