I am a qualified Social Worker (Dipsw/MA), have an MA in Law (Healthcare Ethics & Law), a Postgraduate Diploma in Community and Criminal Justice and a PhD in Social Policy. My background is in Law, Social Work and Social Policy, with broad inter-disciplinary training in Social Work matters, research skills and leadership competencies. As part of my Social Work career, I have worked as a frontline Social Worker in Children and Adult Services, a Team Manager and Senior Manager. I have also completed several statutory independent reports, including Domestic Homicide Reviews, Serious Case Reviews and more specialised reviews.

I am a HEA Associate Fellow and have taught core criminology modules for five years, at the University of Lincoln, and as a visiting lecturer to the Law School, Chester University. I have experience of teaching undergraduate modules in social policy, law, education and research methods. As part of my teaching role at Bangor, I have supervised dissertations at undergraduate and postgraduate level. I also teach on several MA Social Work modules and on the BA in Childhood and Youth Studies. I have also developed a broad range of CPD course across Social Care, Health, Private and Voluntary organisations. For example, I developed an 8-week mindfulness CPD course for multi-agency staff across the learning disabilities community.

My PhD and general research interest is focused on social norms, young people’s intimate relationships, domestic abuse, gender, sexuality and a continuum of violence/abusive behaviour. My research focus is on several key areas: issues that impact on young people’s well-being outcomes, family violence and abuse, support for people living with dementia and interventions for adults with learning disabilities. A key interest that runs as a golden thread through all my research projects is the impact of social norms on social problems. Due to my eclectic professional experience, my research style is flexible and based on key principles of adopting a right-based approach and a co-productive research design.

I have attracted research funding from regional and national funding streams. For example, an initially short-term regionally funded project focused on developing Mindfulness Based Practice for adults with learning disabilities, was given additional funding for a further two. As the Principal Investigator (PI) for this project, developing the first bilingual interactive Toolkit and app to establish a mindfulness community for adults with learning disabilities, will have policy and practice impact in Wales and beyond. I have recently joined the National Welsh Government Disability Task Force: as a member for working groups on Children and Young People, Independent Living – Health and Well-being and Independent Living – Social Care. I am leading on the North Wales Learning Disabilities Community of Practice, which will continue to lead on this project on a multi-agency basis.

During 2022, I have developed three dementia focused research projects. Firstly, I worked as part of the team with Social Care Wales to develop the first national dementia care and support learning and development implementation toolkit (Dementia care and support learning and… | Social Care Wales). Secondly, I led on the BCUHB funded evaluation of the dementia worker role across acute and community hospital settings across North Wales. Finally, I am leading on a small-scale evaluation of the Dementia Actif Programme for Gwynedd County Council.

In October 2022, the successful £225k funded Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW) project on Care Leavers began. This successful research bid was co-produced with Conwy County Borough Council and 16 care leavers. A podcast to promote this project, to include stakeholders, multi-agency professionals and young people will be launched in 2023. In 2023, I am due to start as the PI for the co-produced, multi-agency sexual violence and cervical screening feasibility study. This project was recently launched during a research seminar on domestic abuse/violence against women as part of the shared seminar series for the academic collaboration between our School and the Centre of Excellence for the Hill Tribe Health Research (CEHR), Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand.

PI on Learning Disability Mindfulness & Well-being project - Funded by North Wales Together. Project extended until March 2024 with additional £24,000 funding