About
As someone with a huge passion for education, I immensely enjoy the varied tasks I undertake as Vice Dean for Learning and Scholarship within the School of Medicine at the University of Liverpool. As part of this role, I am responsible for developing and delivering high quality educational experience to all students across the School, with a focus on developing our educators through our CPD programmes. As School EDI lead I co-lead for the Staff-Student network on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and have been responsible for developing and leading on initiatives related to Microaggressions Awareness and Active Bystander Training. I am the School of Medicine lead for Schwartz Rounds and sit on the interprofessional steering group tasked with delivering Schwartz Rounds for students across the health and life sciences faculty, as well as being a trained Schwartz Round facilitator. I was promoted to a Personal Chair with the title of Professor in Medical Education in 2023.
During my time in the School, I have developed the "Day to Day Professionalism" teaching, an intervention for first and second year medical students to introduce them to the concept of professionalism, and what that means practically for them as student doctors, and contribute to the Psychology and Sociology as Applied to Medicine and Diversity in medicine themes.
I am experienced in curriculum development and review; in my previous role as of Director of Studies I oversaw new curriculum developments and their quality assurance and contribute to supporting student wellbeing and professionalism across all five years of the MBChB programme
I created and am the Faculty Lead for the initiative, "Supporting Second Attempts in Learning (SAiL)" programme, a cross-School venture that aims to develop best practice in supporting students undertaking resit years of study. As part of this work we also look at developing initiatives to improve study skills for students across all health professions programmes.
I am proud to represent my colleagues and students as the the Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing Lead for the Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, leading EDIW initiatives in the Institute, and contributing to the Athena Swan SAT and Race Equality Charter at both Institute and University levels. I am also the Faculty lead for People, Culture and Environment for the REF.
I am a qualitative researcher by background, and hold a first class BA (Hons) Degree in Sociology from the University of Nottingham, UK, a Masters Degree in Social Research Methods from The Open University, UK and a PhD in Medical Education from the University of Leeds, UK. I have a number of research interests, with my current output focused on identifying and supporting students at risk of future failure and equality, diversity and inclusivity in health professions education. I also regularly publish in the area of how developing mobile learning resources can change the way that students of the healthcare professions work and learn. With colleagues, I co-lead a developing research stream on understanding and supporting the development of professionalism, and I am particularly interested in professional identity development and socialisation processes, and how these are shaped by curriculum developments such as interprofessional education.
I identify as non-binary and my pronouns are they / them.