Areas of Expertise

• Academic Programme Leadership & Management: Directing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, overseeing curriculum development, and significantly improving student satisfaction and programme reputation.
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Advocacy: Championing EDI through dedicated leadership roles, policy development, and targeted support for underrepresented staff and student groups.
• Industrial Relations & Trade Union Negotiation: Serving as a lead negotiator and representative on key institutional policies, workload agreements, and staff welfare initiatives.
• Curriculum Design & Quality Assurance: Designing, writing, and reviewing dozens of modules and programmes, ensuring they meet rigorous internal and external quality standards.
• Strategic Planning & Inter-departmental Collaboration: Building and leading collaborations across faculties and with external industry partners like the BBC, ITV, and Adobe to create impactful opportunities for students and staff.

Academic Leadership

My leadership experience is rooted in a commitment to academic excellence and enhancing the student experience. I have progressed through key leadership roles, from leading a flagship programme to directing a large creative media department, focusing on quality, innovation, and growth.

Director of Creative Media (2011-2013)

• Provided academic leadership for approximately 800 students and 80 academic staff members across 11 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
• Held line management responsibility for 20 full-time and 60 part-time staff.
• Built and maintained the Inter-organisational Media network, fostering relationships with partners such as the BBC, ITV, Adobe, and Nvidia.
• Co-led major collaborative projects like BBC Fusion Games, securing placements and masterclasses for hundreds of students.

BSc CVG Programme Leader (2006-2012)

• Transformed a programme under serious internal review into a top-10 UK course, culminating in a BAFTA nomination within 5 years.
• Dramatically increased student satisfaction from 35% (NSS 2006) to 95% (NSS 2011).
• Led the programme through two 5-year internal and external QA reviews and three major curriculum rewrites, authoring 30 new modules.
• Managed academic and pastoral needs for over 120 undergraduate students and line-managed 10 academic staff members.

Curriculum Innovation & Quality Assurance

• Designed and wrote a range of innovative undergraduate and postgraduate courses, many of which are still running today.
• Extensive experience as an External Examiner for numerous institutions, including Open University, University of Plymouth, Birmingham City University, and Staffordshire University, shaping and validating academic standards across the sector.
• Served as Chair of the Board of Examiners for the School of MMP/SAMCT (2009 onwards), overseeing assessment and quality enhancement.

Leadership in Equality & Diversity

As an advocate for equity and inclusion, I have held several key roles dedicated to creating a fair and supportive environment for all staff and students.

• UCU Equality Officer (2017-Present): Led on equality impact measures for the REF2021 Code of Practice, resulting in the UoS being the only HEI to receive a signed letter of support from the UCU. During the pandemic, I developed risk assessments for staff with protected characteristics, ensuring no BAME staff were put at serious risk.
• UoS BAME Network Chair (2019-2021): Organized and led quarterly meetings to support institutional EMI staff, identify workplace EDI challenges, and provide a safe space for sharing best practices.
• School Equality & Diversity Co-Ordinator (2006-2010): Was responsible for E&D policy review, planning, and delivery for 2,000 students and 200 staff. Led a university-wide project to identify and address the causes of plagiarism within BME student populations.
• Community & Outreach Leadership: Engaged in extensive outreach, including tackling hate through immersive storytelling with the Remembering Srebrenica charity and mentoring young BAME students with the 'Young Professionals Society'.

Industrial Relations

As the UCU Vice President and Branch President (2017-Present), I have focused on staff advocacy, fair policy implementation, and collaborative negotiation to improve the working environment for all academic and professional staff.

Lead Union Representative, COVID Planning Group (2020-2022)

• Led negotiations and workstreams to ensure a safe and effective transition to online teaching across all schools during the pandemic.
• The resulting UoS plan was noted by the Department of Education as a model plan and used in its recommendations to all Higher Education Institutions for COVID planning.
• Successfully negotiated for additional trade union Health & Safety officers to support the implementation of safety plans.

Academic & Professional Workloads Institutional Review (2018-Present)

• Acted as co-chair of the ULT led workload review group, which was formed after I wrote and deployed an institution-wide survey across 400 staff members.
• This work led directly to the introduction of a new, transparent workload system in 2021, including new principles, an appeals process, and agreed-upon notional hours.

Lead Negotiator & Staff Representative (2017-Present)

• Served as the lead negotiator for major institutional policies, including the REF2021 Code of Practice and the institutional Lecture Capture policy.
• Manage serious grievances and disciplinary cases, negotiating settlement agreements while maintaining strict confidentiality.