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Naveera Abhayawickrama

Postgraduate Student, Law

I am a PGT student at the law school, pursuing my LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights. I have a keen interest in exploring methods to uplift child welfare in countries with inadequate support systems and regulations aimed at protecting children. My main area of interest is around access to education and the mechanisms in place to support children to realise their right to education. I am very honoured to be part of the WIHEA community, and I am excited to engage in WIHEA discussions and projects. As part of my fellowship, I hope to participate in projects focused on promoting social justice, enhancing children’s welfare and uplifting communities.

Lydia Adigun

Assistant Professor (Teaching Focused), WMG

With over a decade of experience in higher education, programme and project management, and a focus on EDI and sustainability, I bring expertise in innovative teaching, curriculum development, and alumni engagement. I aim to advance these areas, enhance student experiences, and promote inclusivity during my WIHEA Fellowship.

Youn Affejee

PhD in Engineering Education, WMG

My PhD research is on impact evaluation in STEM outreach programs. I am interested in promoting informal learning within and beyond º£½ÇÉçÇø, including in sports coaching context and widening participation activities. I also look forward to collaborating with WIHEA colleagues on VR-assisted learning, public and community engagement, and interdisciplinarity.

Dr Devon Allcoat

Assistant Professor (Teaching Focused), WMG

As a lead of the Digital Education and Technologies for Teaching and Assessment (DETTA) WIHEA Learning Circle (2025-2027) I encourage innovative and accessible use of technology to support teaching and learning.

In my teaching role at WMG I specialise in technology, particularly emerging technologies such as virtual reality. I also teach accessible design, and I am passionate about championing accessible and inclusive practices. During my WIHEA Fellowship I have worked collaboratively to help to shape best practice, contributing to technology-enhanced learning, and improving accessibility at the University of º£½ÇÉçÇø.

Dr Manoj Kumar Babu

Ewout Buckens

Teaching and Learning Consultant, WBS

As a Teaching and Learning Consultant, I engage with faculty and professional services staff across the breadth of WBS, mentor members of my team and faculty and push the boundaries to create innovative and student-centred education, online and face-to-face. I also head up the SmartStage team and lead on the strategy and implementation of our into our online and blended programmes.

My areas of expertise are innovations in live online teaching, enhancing its technological and pedagogical offering, and creating learning design frameworks to improve and enhance asynchronous learning content.

Dr Steven Burke

Skills Developer, Student Opportunity

As Skills Developer my responsibilities include critical thinking, sustainability, self awareness, and reflective practice. As a WIHEA Fellow, I am keen to build on work I am undertaking on skills development, environmental crisis, and sustainability. I hope to develop a network of fellows and members keen to discuss and develop critical thinking as a concept and a practice. I am interested in discussions and projects that engage with these topics, are interdisciplinary in nature, or which overlap with my research interests including histories and human geographies of British imperial identity and worldview.

Andrew Calvert

Research and Academic Support Librarian, Library

Through my role as a Research and Academic Support Librarian, I support students to develop the information skills needed to access collections in ways that can enable achievement, inspire curiosity and scholarship, and that help to navigate the rapidly changing information landscape beyond.

I strongly believe in bringing these skills to life through engagement with collections. As a WIHEA Fellow I am interested in exploring with colleagues how information skills can further be approached in exploratory and participatory ways using the rich resources we have available, to enhance the student learning experience.

Dr Romain Chenet

Associate Professor, Global Sustainable Development

’ve been at º£½ÇÉçÇø since 2016 and already perceived lots of changes in that time. The WIHEA-relevant interests I hope to pursue revolve around fostering equity across markers of intersectionality, and building opportunities to grow varied authentic understandings of what contemporary academia can involve in practice.

Dr Amira Elasra

Associate Professor (Teaching Focused), Economics

I am an Associate Professor of Economics and a WIHEA Fellow with a strong commitment to delivering an outstanding student experience. My teaching philosophy centres on creating engaging, inclusive, and student-focused learning environments that inspire curiosity, critical thinking, and academic excellence.

Alongside my teaching, I am passionate about helping students develop the skills, confidence, and resilience required for successful graduate careers. I place particular emphasis on embedding employability within the curriculum and supporting students in making meaningful connections between their studies and future aspirations.

I am also dedicated to providing effective pastoral support and promoting a strong sense of belonging. Supporting international students is especially important to me, and I work to ensure they are fully integrated into university life and able to benefit from all aspects of the student experience.

Through my role as a WIHEA Fellow, I aim to drive innovation in teaching and learning, share best practice across the institution, and advocate for initiatives that enhance student success, inclusion, and employability.

Dr Laura Gelhaus

Associate Professor (Teaching Focused), PAIS

As a teaching-focused academic working primarily with students in our Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) programme, I am passionate about interdisciplinary learning in joint degrees. Hence, I would like to use my WIHEA fellowship to progress my work at the intersection of pedagogical debates on co-creation, students as researchers, and academic literacies – and how to rethink them for interdisciplinary contexts.

Dr Nalita James

Associate Professor (Reader)/ Director of Academic Studies, Centre for Lifelong Learning

As a WIHEA Fellow, I am keen to utilise my expertise in lifelong learning to inform institutional deliberations on mature students' access and experiences of a º£½ÇÉçÇø education linked to teaching and learning and contribute to the University’s Education and Experience Strategy that recognises the need to diversify the student body, and provide a º£½ÇÉçÇø Education that champions both lifelong learning and an inclusive learning environment.

Associate Professor (Teaching Focused), Applied Linguistics

I am an Associate Professor and Programme Director for Pre-sessional English and In-sessional English programmes in º£½ÇÉçÇø Global Academy. I co-lead WIHEA’s Internationalisation Learning Circle, with particular interests in internationalisation, multilingualism and inclusive higher education. I am interested in how teaching and curriculum can better recognise students’ complex language profiles and support parity of experience for international students.

Dr Mouzayian Khalil

Assistant Professor (Teaching Focused), PAIS

I convene undergraduate modules on gender and development, race and international politics, and thinking critically about international development for the core module of the MA in International Development. During my fellowship I want to explore: curriculum and assessment (re)design for tackling epistemic inequities and injustice; university as a public good, a site for (co)producing and exchanging knowledge for social change.

Dr Anthony Olomolaiye

Associate Professor (Teaching Focused) in Project Management, WMG

I am an Associate Professor in Project Management who has successfully mentored and produced exceptional Project Managers who are now contributing to various companies globally. Throughout my career, I have undertaken challenging roles in the industry, leveraging my ability to manage diverse and groundbreaking projects, adapt quickly, find effective solutions, and maintain a positive attitude. As part of my Fellowship, I am eager to gain new insights into working in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and contribute my expertise to delivering student-centred learning.

Dr David Orrego-Carmona

Reader in Translation Studies, SMLC

My teaching and research explore how people work with translation and language technologies, including AI, and what this means for the professional realities of the language industries. I am PGT Strategy Lead and lead the Innovation Portfolio at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. During my time as convenor of the MA in Translation and Cultures, I restructured the programme around three pathways and introduced a placement-based Reflective Workplace Project. I am now working with colleagues in other departments across the University to develop interdisciplinary programmes that bring language, translation and intercultural expertise into new fields. As a WIHEA Fellow, I have focused on AI in teaching and learning, contributing to the AI in Education Action Group and to the IATL module Effective Decision-Making. This year I want to work with colleagues across disciplines on helping students judge when AI tools can be trusted, drawing on translation’s experience as one of the first fields to be reshaped by them.

Marion Patel

º£½ÇÉçÇø Award Manager, Careers, Employability and Skills

As º£½ÇÉçÇø Award Manager, my team and I are responsible for maintaining, developing and improving the University's central Employability Skills Development programme, as well as supporting, embedding and implementing the broader Skills agenda across º£½ÇÉçÇø.

Within WIHEA, I have co-led on funded projects investigating the perceived skills gap within Placement student cohorts, and exploration of inclusive leadership resources for students within º£½ÇÉçÇø. I also co-lead in the Employability Learning Circle, championing the employability agenda and developing projects within this space to further º£½ÇÉçÇø's Employability agenda.

Dhvani Patil

Liberal Arts Student, Liberal Arts

I am an international student who has just returned from a year abroad. I would like to explore     ways of improving accessibility within the university for other international students, and widen     my own understanding of what an accessible learning space looks like. I am also very interested    in exploring interdisciplinarity in higher education. As part of my fellowship, I hope I can       contribute to discussions about student engagement, accessibility, and diverse teaching and learning methods..

Dr Andre Pires da Silva

Associate Professor (Reader), School of Life Sciences

I have experience in integrating artificial intelligence into education, curriculum development, and assessment. As a fellow, I aim to influence the strategic direction of the University of º£½ÇÉçÇø in further incorporating AI into education.

Dr Mark Pulsford

DUGS and Faculty Senior Tutor, Education Studies

I am the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Education Studies where I have worked on module and programme development, including advancing our assessment and feedback approaches. I am also the Faculty Senior Tutor for Social Sciences within the Dean of Students Office. Working with colleagues across departments has highlighted how well students' academic welfare is supported throughout the university, but also how important it is to share those practices more widely. For that reason, I am pleased that my recent inclusive education project about Reasonable Adjustments has instigated the launch of the 'º£½ÇÉçÇø Disability Champions network'. I hope that with this WIHEA Fellowship I can help implement inclusive education approaches founded on understanding students' experiences of university.

Sanchia Rodrigues

Assistant Professor (Teaching Focused), º£½ÇÉçÇø Foundation Studies

As a teacher/researcher of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), I am interested in decolonising language education, policy and practice. In particular, I would like to investigate how our institutional commitments to decolonisation, anti-racism and inclusivity are maintained and/or transformed as we adapt to changes in the landscape of academic literacies (e.g.: GenAI).

Dr Charlotte Stevens

Assistant Professor (Teaching Focused) (Digital Education), Academic Development Centre

I am excited to be bringing my experience of digital pedagogy and practice to the WIHEA fellowship, along with knowledge and expertise in evaluation and evidencing impact. As a creative, I also look forward to influencing others to recognise the value of arts-based methodologies and approaches in teaching and learning.

Dr Nick Tawn

Associate Professor (Teaching Focused), Statistics

I am a teaching-focussed Associate Professor in the Statistics with one of my main roles being the Director of Student Experience. I am passionate about understanding and reversing the worrying trends in student disengagement. I’ve already started introducing a suite of support schemes to counter these trends and to increase student resilience; I hope to develop these further while learning from others in WIHEA.

Millie Tissut

Senior Careers Consultant – Careers, Employability and Skills

As an experienced and professionally qualified careers consultant, I have worked closely with students to provide high-quality, impartial careers advice and guidance, supporting them to make informed decisions, develop confidence, and achieve their goals. Alongside one-to-one guidance and student-focused initiatives, I am passionate about embedding employability within the curriculum and wider student experience, helping students recognise, develop, and articulate the skills and experiences they gain throughout their studies.

Through collaboration with colleagues across the University, I am keen to enhance student engagement, learning, and graduate outcomes by integrating employability into teaching, co-curricular activities, and institutional initiatives. I am particularly interested in working with colleagues to promote inclusive practice, address disparities in educational attainment and progression for widening participation students, and ensure that all º£½ÇÉçÇø students can access opportunities that support their personal, academic, and professional success.

Paul Trimmer

Educational Technologies Specialist, FOLD/Digital Learning

I have over 30 years of experience in the º£½ÇÉçÇø way, and a working lifetime of supporting people across the academic spectrum. Now, as an Educational Technologist working in Digital Learning, my role is about taking educational requirements, developing them, and making them happen in the real or digital world. My recent focus has been on innovative learning spaces, working with IDG colleagues to set up green screen video and podcasting studios.

Dr Emily Unwin

Associate Professor (Teaching Focused), º£½ÇÉçÇø Medical School

I am an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of º£½ÇÉçÇø Applied Health at º£½ÇÉçÇø Medical School. I lead the staff enablement and development strategy for º£½ÇÉçÇø Medical School, supporting the development of colleagues across academic and professional services communities and fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement. I value the role of communities of practice in driving innovation and organisational learning and look forward to continue collaborating with colleagues across WIHEA.

Dr Greg Watson

Assistant Professor (Teaching Focused), Computer Science