Personal Statement
I have worked in academia since 2014 and I am a fellow of the HEA. I began my academic career at the University of Gloucestershire before moving onto in the School of School of Health and Rehabilitation, Keele University and the School of Health Sciences, University of Liverpool. This has given me experience in nationally leading schools in the design and delivery of healthcare courses with programmes with both Keele and Liverpool regularly in the top 10 courses in university league tables in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy and nursing education.

I have had the opportunity to deliver high quality teaching and learning across a variety of academic courses including Sports Therapy, Strength and Conditioning, Sports Coaching, Sport and Exercise Science, Rehabilitation and Exercise Science, Radiography and Diagnostic Imaging, and Physiotherapy undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. And also support teaching in Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Occupational Therapy.

I have significant experience: in course leadership, module development, academic leadership in research and assessment, delivery, and assessment across all levels of HE, curriculum development and validation of HCPC/CSP approved programmes, student recruitment and retention, providing student support and guidance on academic, personal, health, conduct and clinical matters, mentoring staff members new to academia, and supporting research at undergraduate and post graduate levels. As an early career researcher, I am a Doctoral candidate at the University of Twente, evaluating the effect of the healthy behaviours in primary school children, collaborating with local councils, schools, international research institutions on a program of study that aims to positively influence the delivery of, and policy informing, physical activity provision in schools and the community.

Research Overview
I began my doctoral studies at University of Twente, the Netherlands as an external candidate in 2019. The project involves a collaboration between Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Staffordshire primary schools and researchers from Roessingh Research and Development, the Netherlands, the University of Liverpool and Bournemouth University. I am conducting a programme of work that seeks to promote healthy physical activity behaviours in primary school children. Being physically active is associated with living a happier, healthier, longer life due to improvements in physical and mental health, and personal and social development. It is recommended that children and young people participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, however, failure to meet the minimum recommendations is common. As there is a relationship between child and adult physical activity levels, childhood physical inactivity is becoming a growing global concern and has reported to be the fourth leading risk factor of premature mortality (WHO, 2017). The aim of the project is to develop healthy physical activity behaviours in primary school children. It has significant potential to further our understanding of physical activity behaviours in primary school children and could lead to the development of new approaches to promote physical activity and inform future policy.


I also have an interest in developing knowledge and understanding of the role and impact of peer mentoring in undergraduate education. I have published a recent paper evaluating of the effect of peer mentoring on assessment preparation and performance in students new to undergraduate physiotherapy education in Journal of Academic Development and Education in 2019 prior to starting at the University of Liverpool, and am currently in the process of evaluating data from a long term follow up in this paper in collaboration with staff from the School of Health Sciences, Keele University. The plan is to aim for publication in summer 2023. I presented preliminary findings from this study were presented at the Nets Conference 2021.