Dawn June Ratcliffe Brooker (born 1959) is a British clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus in Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester. In 2020 she was awarded an MBE for her services to dementia care. She founded the university's Association for Dementia Studies in 2009 and served as its director until March 2022.
Education Brooker received a BSc (Hons) in psychology from the University of Birmingham in 1981 and an MSc in clinical psychology in 1984, when she qualified as a clinical psychologist. She became interested in dementia because of her personal experiences, having grown up with a grandfather with dementia.
She worked in clinical and managerial posts in the National Health Service for 17 years before moving into academia in 1999. She first heard Tom Kitwood, a pioneer in dementia care who would eventually become her doctoral supervisor, speak at a conference in 1988. She completed her PhD at Birmingham in 1998. Her doctoral research focused on improving the quality of care for people with dementia.
Research and career In 2005, Brooker was awarded a personal chair at the University of Bradford, where she continued Kitwood's work on person-centred dementia care.
In 2009, Brooker founded the Association for Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester and became its founding director.
Brooker developed the VIPS framework for person-centred dementia care, which underpins the Care Fit for VIPS online toolkit.
In 2021, she led a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded study examining the sustainability of community-based Meeting Centres for people affected by dementia in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Powys.
Brooker retired as director of the Association for Dementia Studies in March 2022 and continued as Professor Emeritus at the university.
Brooker is also co-editor, with Keith Oliver, of Open University Press's Reconsidering Dementia book series.
Selected publications
Books
Articles
Awards and honours 2019 Universities UK Top 100 Lifesavers working in Higher Education 2019 National Dementia Care Award Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 Elected to the MBE in the Order of the British Empire 2022 University Fellowship, University of Worcester
References