Alison is principal pharmacist for education and training at Addenbrooke's NHS Trust and lecturer practitioner at Homerton College School of Health Studies, both in Cambridge. She qualified as a pharmacist in 1976 and has worked in both community and hospital pharmacy. She has an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy from the University of Derby and is currently finishing the final year of a Master of Education degree with the University of Leeds.

Her specialist areas include dispensary management, surgery and cardiology. Alison teaches pharmacology on the extended nurse prescribing and supplementary prescribing programme at Homerton College and is about to assist in developing the course to include pharmacists in a multi-disciplinary approach. Many of her teaching materials appear on the DrugInfoZone website. Alison is an advisory editorial board member of MIMS for Nurses. She is also pre-registration training manager and course organiser of a regional post-graduate course in clinical pharmacy practice on behalf of the University of London.

Since June 2000, Alison has published a series of articles in Hospital Pharmacist on clinical accuracy checking of prescriptions (see articles). She is currently conducting a research project looking at the place of a portfolio in the training and assessment of extended formulary nurse prescribers which she hopes to complete in August 2003.