I’ve always had a keen interest in supporting people to discover and explore opportunities, achieve their goals and feel happier and more engaged at work. I have successfully lead training programmes in past roles and managed a wide variety of events throughout my career.  This combined with a masters qualification in People Management & Development and qualifications in coaching and mentoring enables me to have a good understanding of the types of support and training that can make a really positive impact in the workplace.

I look forward to working with the Champions and colleagues across the College and wider University to design and deliver a Birmingham Professional programme that can support staff development, increase staff awareness and availability of developmental opportunities across the University and how they can be part of these, as well as increasing wellbeing and engagement.

Through leading the Birmingham Professional programme I hope to gain a richer understanding of the Schools, Departments and the individuals therein to devise and deliver a programme with the champions that benefits the College as a whole and delivers something for every individual.

Please contact me should you be interested in delivering a session for the programme or if you have any ideas of sessions that we could deliver in the future to further benefit and develop CoSS Professional Services colleagues.

I currently manage the Research Office in the School of Education as well as working as an Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Programmes Team Leader. While managing a diverse Team of seven Professional Services staff with disparate portfolios of work, I work closely with the Director of Research and the Education Strategies Manager to ensure high quality service is provided. My background is in Research, having worked as a Research Associate in the School of Education for a number of years, after completing a Masters in Research in Political Science. I see the Birmingham Professional programme as an excellent way of meeting colleagues from different schools and widening my participation in university events. 

Becoming a CoSS Professional Champion has given me the opportunity to not only work cross school and college but also to establish new links across the University.  Being a part of the team and working to deliver the events is a great way to develop and add to my events experience whilst also providing new experiences and learning which all add to my professional development.  I am also looking forward to working together with professional services staff to gather ideas and suggestions for what they would like and helping make that happen. 

My current role is PA to the Director of Education and the Director of Research in CoSS. I hope to be able to bring event planning and organisational skills to my role as a Birmingham Professional champion for the College. I would like to be able to develop event marketing skills such as creating and maintaining social media accounts and creating event invitations.  I decided to be a champion because I think it is a good way to contribute to the professional services team and make suggestions for events which I think that they would find useful.

I joined CoSS Birmingham Professional Service Champion Team because I believe the group offers fantastic opportunities to get involved in the wider life of the University, whilst also allowing individuals to acquire valuable interpersonal skills. My previous career in teaching has allowed me to understand the importance of cross-curricular and collaborative working methods which inspired me to join CoSS Birmingham Professional group. Participating in event planning, organisation, management and promotion will undoubtedly provide me with interesting and varied opportunities to work alongside other support staff, academics and students which I feel is an incredibly important part of my professional development within the University.