I began my main career in Local Government in 1995 working across different specialities including Housing, IT, Licensing and Emergency Management.  Like many others at that time I fell into the role of emergency management by accident.  I did not have a University degree, but was hard working, and dedicated to protecting my organisation and the public from the impacts of emergencies.  I rose to the position as the Head of Civil Contingencies for Blackburn with Darwen Council, and completed both a Postgraduate Certificate in Integrated Emergency Management and a Masters in Civil Defence at the University of Leeds.

Before, and along side this, I was involved in voluntary work, on the British inland waterways, as a Director and trustee of a registered charity.  This engaged mostly young people in short and/or residential excursions on the Canals helping to build confidence and developing life skills.  Connected to this, I also ran training for the National Community Boats Association for boat handling and for the safe management of groups on narrow and wide-beam boats, where I also trained other trainers.  I also had the pleasure of teaching the Royal Yachting Association inland waterways boat handling qualifications around the UK to a wide variety of people. 

The culmination of my experiences in delivering training, in engaging with the public and young people to develop life skills, my passion for emergency management, and my achievements in gaining my University qualifications brought me to realise that I could combined these skills best through teaching.   In 2012 I joined the University of Wolverhampton to lead the emergency management, disaster management,  resilience, and response programmes.  My ongoing passion is to advance emergency and disaster management by bringing the strengths of academic knowledge and practical experienced delivery together; sharing this journey with students and practitioners.

Since 2012 I have developed and delivered a range of Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in Emergency/Disaster Management & Resilience, inputted on a range of courses in related subjects, and delivered a wide range of modules including those for emergency/disaster management foundations, societal resilience, learning for disaster,  communications/information management, consultancy, project management, research, and rescue.  I involve myself in projects working on a variety of resilience, recovery and educational issues, lead on supervising Masters research, take part in supervisory teams supporting PhD students, and am a Fellow of the Institute for Civil Protection and Emergency Management.

I continue to love teaching and supporting students in developing their knowledge and skills in this most diverse, interesting and engaging field: Emergency, Disaster and Resilience Management.

Emergency Planning, Management & Response
Disaster Management
Societal Resilience
Professionalisation
Learning from Emergencies & Disasters

Higher Education Authority (Fellow)

Institute of Civil Protection & Emergency Management (Fellow)