I am a Principal Lecturer Enterprise & Knowledge Exchange in the School of Health & Life Sciences. As an experienced academic and mental health nurse, I have established strong networks across healthcare both within the NHS and Higher Education. Having achieved an MBA from Teesside University in 2007 I have determined to use the learning from this to support me in understanding the business needs of partners in healthcare. I have extensive experience of working with partners to support the design, development, and delivery of workforce development initiatives, including developing educational programmes, new roles, and new ways of working to improve healthcare outcomes. This has included me leading on the development of educational programmes to support new roles such as the development of Foundation Degrees for Assistant Practitioners in healthcare and securing Health Education England funding to develop education for Peer Support Workers in Mental Health.  

I have extensive system knowledge and understanding of the healthcare system with expertise in healthcare leadership. As an NHS Healthcare Leadership Model reviewer, I support aspiring and established leaders from across the NHS to understand their leadership role and support them to identify how to develop their leadership behaviours and performance. I have secured new business opportunities for the School with successful tenders to design and deliver bespoke leadership courses for NHS partners.

My research interests focus primarily on mental health, including suicide prevention, and the needs of people with learning disabilities and autistic people. I have led successful research collaborations on funded research projects and have presented at regional and national conferences on this work.