Celebrating 25 years with Dr Ava Easton

Today marks 25 years since Ava started working for Encephalitis International and what a 25 years it has been! To help celebrate this incredible milestone we thought we should share some of  her career highlights and successes (trust us there are many more!) – not in any particular order!

1. Earlier this year the World Health Organization published the first ever Technical Brief on Encephalitis – this is a game changing achievement for the global encephalitis landscape – an achievement that was pioneered by Ava and wouldn’t have happened without her.
2. Back in 2013 Ava secured us the opportunity to work with the October Club (https://www.theoctoberclub.co.uk/) who helped us raise over £500,000 in one night – the most money we have ever raised in one go and was the start of the transformation into who we are today.
3. Ava joined the organisation on 24^th April 2000 as Adult Support Services Coordinator, the first paid role of the organisation thanks to a National Lottery grant. Ava provided one to one support to individuals and families all over the UK.
4. Ava is also a tireless fundraiser for the organisation which has included events such as a Transylvanian Mountain trek with a party of 15 (many of whom were survivors of the condition) and taking on challenges like the Dry January.
5. Due to Ava’s passion, innovation and strategic thinking the Board of Trustees in 2011 asked her to become the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer – and we have never looked back!
6. Our work with the World Health Organization let to us being deservedly nominated for Campaigning Team of the Year 2023 at the Charity Times Awards, all thanks to Ava’s leadership and efforts.
7. Ava completed her PhD on patient narratives (Life After Encephalitis) in 2014 whilst leading the charity full time. The PhD focussed on her passion – enabling those that have been affected by encephalitis to share their story.
8. In 2002, Ava worked collaboratively to establish the first ever Encephalitis Conference held at the University of Stoke-on-Trent bringing professionals from around the UK together for the first time. From 2008 for several years the conference operated as an afternoon symposium for no more than 50-60 interested individuals. Under Ava’s leadership, it is now the go-to conference on encephalitis, hosted at the prestigious Royal College of Physicians in London each year welcoming participants from all over the world. In 2024 it had over 500 attendees from 71 countries.
9. In 2014 Ava was offered an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Liverpool where she remains an Honorary Senior Fellow of the Dept. of Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology today.
10. In 2020 Ava presented a petition signed by 28,000 people to the World Health Organization to get them to recognise that encephalitis matters – a big step that led to the issuing of a Why Encephalitis Matters meeting report by the World Health Organization in 2023.
11. In 2017 we were given the honour of being named Charity of the Year – under 1 million by the Charity Times Awards – an amazing achievement and recognition of Ava’s hard work.
12. In 2021, Ava led the development of a significant piece of work – A Global Impact Report titled Encephalitis: an in-depth review and gap analysis of key variable affected global disease burden (www.encephalitis.info/global-impact-report). This 160-page report has identified a range of difficulties and solutions to the global impact of encephalitis which could save lives and improve the treatment and after-care of millions of people today and into the future.
13. In 2022 – Ava was highly commended at the Charity Times Awards in the Charity leader category – she should have won in our opinion 😉.
14. Ava was invited by HRH the late Queen Elizabeth II to her Diamond Jubilee Garden Party at Buckingham Palace (2012) in recognition of her work in the fields of encephalitis, and also received an award in 2018 from the Queens High Sheriff of North Yorkshire for her work on encephalitis.
15. Ava is incredibly savvy with the media and has appeared as a global expert on encephalitis on numerous television, radio and newspapers around the globe raising awareness of encephalitis and its impact.
16. In 2013 Ava recognised the need to have focus energies around the world into raising awareness of encephalitis on one specific day – this led to the launch of World Encephalitis Day 22^nd February in 2014. Since then the campaign has a life of it’s own and has directly reached over 215 million since it’s inception. Undoubtedly helping to save lives.
17. Ava has been an author on well over 100 research papers and is considered a global expert on encephalitis by her academic peers.
18. Ava has been able to charm many high profile individuals over the past 25 years to join our cause as supporters be that Ambassadors like Rebecca Adlington, Susannah Cahalan and Maggie O’Farrell to Vice Presidents like Richard Lockwood and Stuart and Janet Brown.
19. Ava led many of our events in particular those with art theme as narratives can be expressed in many ways not just written, from events like Expressions of Encephalitis, and a World Encephalitis Day community art competition that resulted in an exhibition at the world famous Saatchi Gallery in London.
20. Ava has presented around the globe on encephalitis and participated in many research projects as a patient and public representative including projects like DexEnceph and Brain Infections Global. She is currently involved in around 25 research projects aiming to improving the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for patients.
21. Ava’s PhD led her to be commissioned by Routledge to author the book ‘Life After Encephalitis’ -an incredible book that features real-life case studies alongside the science behind narratives. The book was launched at an event at the Guardian in 2016. Ava is working on an new version at the moment.
22. Ava established a weekend retreat for survivors of encephalitis called the Retreat in 2004, despite lots of resistance and being told it shouldn’t be done. It turned out to be one of the most impactful events of the organisations history – proving that peer to peer support is invaluable and remains at the core of support work.
23. Ava’s scientific and academic work during the Covid-19 pandemic have been heralded as exemplars of good practice in eminent journals such as the Lancet Neurology, and by organizations like the British Pediatric Neurology Association. Ava’s expertise as a leader in key neurological fields was quickly sought by a range of academic institutions around the world, including the Rockefeller Institute in New York, the University of Verona in Italy, the World Health Organization (WHO), University of Liverpool, and the UK’s primary COVID-CNS £2.3million UKRI-funded study asked her to join their ranks as Chair of their patient and participation panel to help drive critical research into the neurological complications of COVID-19.
24. Under her leadership, the charity created a strong Scientific Advisory Panel made of leading academics, physicians and scientists involved in the field of encephalitis across the world. Along with support from this Panel, Ava has driven the encephalitis research agenda globally.
25. Ava has provided stability, loyalty and importantly a caring work culture that resulted in a thriving organisation and many of the team having worked with Ava for over 10 years – a testament to her and her leadership. Here’s to the next 25 years hah!

And just in case you don’t believe us – here’s what others had to say about Ava: