My role
As Head of College for Liberal Arts and Sciences my role is to support and enable all colleagues within the College to provide excellence in education, research and knowledge exchange within the context of ensuring equity and inclusivity across all of what we do and how we engage with each other, our students and our wider communities.
The College is diverse in its discipline representation, and my vision is to enable disciplines to excel individually alongside enabling cross and multi-disciplinary collaboration to ensure our research and teaching supports our students to become graduates with the skills to look beyond a single story and instead address global challenges from a holistic perspective.
Background
I started my academic journey in 2006 after spending 17 years as a qualified social worker initially specialising in child protection and latterly youth justice. My professional practice experience of working with children and young people through the care, health, education and criminal justice systems is what established my very clear focus on the importance of equity, inclusivity and social justice.
I joined academia as a senior lecturer in Criminology with my teaching profile focusing on criminology, sociology, policing and probation studies particularly though the lens of discrimination and bias within these systems.
Throughout my academic career I have engaged in the full range of academic roles and responsibilities that academic colleagues engage with. I progressed through my academic career into Head of School, Deputy Dean, Interim Dean and Deputy PVC for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and now PVC Head of College.
As Deputy Dean and Interim Dean I previously led a Faculty of Health and Life Sciences which expanded my academic experience in to lab sciences and allied health professions.
My commitment to EDI work enabled me to lead the achievement of the first Silver Award for Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter and be recognised for my work in race equity by being awarded a CATE award for race equity/decolonising work from Advance HE.
I continue to mentor women and particularly women of the global majority to navigate progress and success in Higher Education.
I am particularly passionate about ensuring students are supported to achieve to the best of their abilities by understanding students' lived experiences and supporting them in their spaces alongside reviewing and challenging structures and processes that create barriers for students to succeed.
I continue to support organisations in their reviews of their processes and procedures, actions and behaviours in relation to equity and inclusion but particularly with a lense on equality.
External roles
I am a member of the Advance HE Race Equality Charter Governance Committee and I am a convenor for the Senior Women of Colour in HE network.