Can you tell us about your Natural Sciences journey? 

Aged seventeen, I set off alone off a three-week backpacking tour of North Wales, 200 miles from home and with no experience of hiking or camping! I simply adore wild rugged landscapes, open space, a sense of wilderness and places generally places untouched by humans. I think this passion was sparked by my A-Level Geography teacher, Mr Davies. So great was his passion that no effort was spared to get us out doing fieldwork, come rain or shine. One trip took us on a grueling tour of classic Geology and Geography locations all around the Isle of Wight and back to London in one day! These experiences led me to fall in love with the physical aspects of Geography and Geoscience that has not waned decades on. 

 For my undergraduate degree, I studied Physical Geography and Geology in Liverpool and followed that with a two-year postgraduate degree in Landscape Design. This led to several jobs working as a Landscape Architect, a Mineral Planner and an Environmental Scientist in both private consultancy and regional government. Halfway through this degree, I got married and so my subsequent career choices were geographically constrained to the North West of England, a situation that has worked out very well for me. Eventually, I returned to part-time study to complete a PhD at the University of Leeds while working alongside my studies in various paid teaching, educational development and geoscience consultancy roles.

I have worked at Manchester Met for almost twenty years and am a Reader in Higher Education and Pedagogy. I teach Physical Geography and Geography to undergraduate students and carry out personal tutoring, education research and a wide variety of educational management roles and responsibilities. 

How did your degree prepare you for your current role?  

My academic study has provided the necessary background knowledge to fulfill the discipline-based aspects of my current role. It has also given me plenty of experience with different styles of teaching including fieldwork. This helps me put myself in my students’ position, knowing what it must feel like for them.

I have had a hearing impairment since I contracted mumps aged four and this has made it hard for me to follow oral instruction. I rely heavily on lipreading, which is difficult to do if you are also trying to write notes. What I didn’t discover until I got a diagnosis in middle age, is that I also have ADHD. This added to the difficulties I face when studying, as I find it hard to focus, I miss things and I struggle to multi-task, finding it almost impossible to listen, look at slides, write notes and process information at the same time.

I have developed a wide range of strategies that help, but ADHD and my hearing impairment are both hidden difficulties that others quickly and easily forget. They serve as a constant reminder to me though, that when I’m faced with a sea of faces in a lecture theatre, every single person is a unique individual with all manner of hidden ‘stuff’ going on of which I am unaware. Everyone thinks differently, has different experiences and perceives information differently and learns in different ways. This has shaped my teaching practice and research into education enormously. 

What do you enjoy about your current role?  

I love many things about my job, but probably one of the things I value most is the variety. A ‘typical day’ doesn’t really exist in my role! In a single day, I can find myself designing learning activities for a class, giving one-to-one support to struggling students, checking course codes in a curriculum planning spreadsheet, collating guidance on decolonising curricula, searching for published research on enquiry-based learning, arranging meetings and checking out the latest activity from Professor Dave Petley’s Landslide Blog.

The Department of Natural Sciences is a very friendly Department with a real mixture of people of all different types. The subjects we study are varied, covering topics as wide as inorganic chemistry, climate change, political geography, microbiography and the digital world. Finding synergies and connections between our interests is always fascinating, making us a very dynamic and responsive group of people. 

What are your greatest achievements so far?   

My greatest achievements would be some of the qualifications that I have gained and awards I have won such as a National Teaching Fellowship in 2020. But in truth, the things I value greatest in life are my husband, family and friends; memories of loved ones I have lost; past events and experiences and the amazing places that I have been lucky enough to visit. I have especially found memories of those occasions where I’ve stood on a mountain summit with the sense of achievement of having got there and the sheer joy of gazing out over an incredible vista spread before me. 

What advice would you give to students who aspire to a career in Geography?   

Do Geography! Geography is the best degree to take, bar none! It’s a subject that has so much variety that you will never get bored and there are so many career options to choose from.

I personally know former students of Geography who now work in hydrographic surveying, engineering geology, teaching, sustainable traffic planning, GIS data analysis, international disaster management, environmental management and consultancy, carbon literacy training, landscape architecture, cultural development, housing, water resources, and the energy sector.  

What does diversity in Natural Sciences mean to you?   

Diversity accepts that we are all unique. Not a single person on Earth has ever lived or will ever live has the same experience of life as anyone else. The natural world is highly complex in the twenty-first century and we have some serious global challenges to address. We are more likely to achieve successful and effective outcomes if Geography and indeed all of Natural Sciences, comprises of a diverse body of individuals. Diversity in Georgraphy benefits everybody. It means that we can access the widest possible range of knowledge, experience, skills, talents and brilliant minds to seek out solutions to the significant problems we face.

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