Ailsa is a Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

Ailsa’s area of particular expertise is in Paediatric Epilepsy and she manages a tertiary-level epilepsy service with outreach to hospitals in the South-East of Scotland.

She manages the teenage epilepsy service, epilepsy transition services, Vagus Nerve Stimulation service and the Ketogenic Diet service. She is the lead clinician of the Scottish Paediatric Epilepsy Surgery Service.

She is interested in education in epilepsy and participates widely in teaching events locally and nationally. She is involved in the development of Paediatric Epilepsy Training (PET) courses in the UK and internationally. She was the Training Programme Director and Head of the School for paediatric training in South-East Scotland from 2018-2023.

Her research interests include epilepsy and behaviour, epilepsy and cognitive outcomes, epilepsy and sleep, aetiology of epilepsy, SUDEP and seizure detection.

She was a founder member of the Scottish Paediatric Epilepsy Network (SPEN), the lead clinician of SPEN from 2007-2011 and continues to sit on the Advisory Group, Steering Committee and lead on different work streams.

She was a member of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline development group for Epilepsies in Children and Young people.

She is the past Chair of the British Paediatric Epilepsy Group (special interest group of the British Paediatric Neurology Association) and previously Professional Support Officer for the BPNA (2019-2023) and on the Executive Council of the BPNA. She is currently the President of the BPNA (2024-2027)’.

She is married with two teenagers and spends a lot of time at the touchline and enjoys catching indie bands in venues across Scotland!