Faces of Reading

I have been teaching pharmacy students since the Reading School of Pharmacy was established, with our first intake of less than 50 students in 2005. Now I am very happy to see how it developed into a very successful department delivering many undergraduate and postgraduate programs with several hundred students each year. 

Currently, I am Professor of Formulation Science and I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and also contribute to the Graduate School with a course on ‘How to write a paper’. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I supervise a large and very interdisciplinary research group, which includes postgraduate students and researchers from many countries. I am also a Programme Director for MSc by Research for 3 different programmes in Pharmacy and in this role, I oversee the delivery of teaching to our taught postgraduate students. 

I widely collaborate with researchers from many countries, which means that each year I travel to different institutions to deliver lectures, conduct joint experiments and attend research conferences and meetings. I am glad that the University of Reading provides a flexible working environment that helps to manage all my academic activities, including teaching, research, administration, and visits to collaborators in many countries. 

In SPCLS, I'm now Lecturer in Clinical Psychology and Programme Director for the MSci Applied Psychology. I really enjoy the teaching element and liaising with the NHS and Mind charity – I set up placements for students and supervise their research.

I've been delivering sexual diversity awareness training at the Charlie Waller Institute since June 2011. It looks at people's understanding and awareness, particularly regarding the barriers and potential prejudice that lesbian, gay and bi individuals may face in everyday life and when seeking clinical support. It directly ties in with students on placements within the NHS.

There is homophobia and biphobia because people are misunderstood. From personal experience, if you're bi, people think you haven't made your mind up if you're straight or gay. They also still use "normal" instead of heterosexual – you're either normal or gay. Therefore, bi is not too well understood, and that's a really important part for me when I'm doing the training.

In January 2020, I started my tenure as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. This role involves leading on all accreditation frameworks, namely, Athena SWAN, Disability Confident Scheme, Race Equality Charter and Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. The role also involves developing neurodiversity awareness on campus, which is something I am personally very passionate about.

I actually commute from Manchester at the weekend. I work hard to maintain my work life balance, but I'm enjoying my job so much that it is absolutely worth it. When I wake up in the morning I look forward to work. I feel really excited all the time about the things I'm doing. I'm very busy but not stressed, so that's a good sign.

It's a place that offers you a lot of opportunities. I will do my PhD here next year and the University has been very supportive of this. There are never any obstacles to professional development; they always help you to find a way to make things work.

I thought I might just stay for a few years, but now I think I could stay here until I retire!

Read more about the Department of Modern Languages and European Studies.

While at Reading I have developed in so many different ways. At a professional level, when I arrived I was in charge of the secondary history teacher training course. I was soon asked to take responsibility for the MA in Teaching and Learning, and shortly after that I became programme director for the MA in Education programme.

More recently I have been School Director of Teaching and Learning (SDTL) – this was a very varied role, but the main focus was on ensuring all of our students have a really positive academic experience with us. I was involved in leading initiatives within the Institute of Education to enhance the quality of our teaching and learning provision, monitoring the quality of our programmes, and supporting the implementation of university wide projects. As SDTL I sat on the senior management group for the Institute of Education and line managed a number of staff. My role therefore involved working with lots of colleagues within Education and across the University.

Since stepping down as SDTL I have taken on more teaching and supervision of PhD students, and have been able to develop my research interests – in particular, I have been looking at the experience of LGBTQ+ students in schools. I also feel privileged to have been involved with many interesting national and international projects, most notably the Council of Europe’s ‘Pestalozzi’ teacher training programme.

On a personal level, I joined Reading at a point where I was coming out as transgender. My colleagues have been tremendously supportive and I work in an environment where I am accepted and respected for who I am. My colleagues are very used to me presenting whichever way I feel comfortable, which can shift from day to day.

Working at Reading is very much about people – the staff are truly committed to their students and the university is committed to developing and supporting both staff and students.