Dr Ivana Lessner Listiakova is a Senior Lecturer at the Special Educational Needs and Inclusion Department, Faculty of Education, University of Northampton. Her expertise is in inclusive education, learning support, sensory processing difficulties and sensory strategies. She has worked with international schools providing support to teachers, families and children with ASD and learning difficulties. She has conducted trainings for teachers and other helping professionals in sensory integration as well as the use of expressive arts therapies. She previously worked at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia and Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. She was a national coordinator in several LLP Leonardo da Vinci projects focused on early childhood intervention (ECI2.0, ICF-TRAIN) and mental health in families (Kids Strengths). She has got a PhD in Pre-school and Primary Education and a Master's degree in Therapeutic Education.

She has been involved in research projects focused on evaluating a range of practices in expressive art therapies - specifically drama therapy and art therapy, and the use of multisensory approaches, focusing on the needs of teachers in inclusive education, young people in social care facilities, and adults in mental health rehabilitation clinics. She is currently working on research projects exploring experiences of families living autism and teacher trainings in autism.