About
Heather is the Doctoral College Professional Development Programme Manager working closely with colleagues in the Doctoral College and the Centre for Higher Education Practice, as well as in the Faculties and Professional Services to ensure that we have a high quality and comprehensive professional development provision for postgraduate researchers (PGRs). As part of the Doctoral College and CHEP teams, Heather leads the Doctoral College Professional Development Programme and Doctoral College PGR Events Programme, and contributes to our induction for new PGRs. Passionate about PGRs and their professional development, Heather has been working leading University-wide PGR development programmes and facilitating workshops for PGRs for over a decade. With a background in Health Sciences, Heather has been an active researcher in the field for 15 years and has supervised both PhD and Professional Doctorates students to completion.
Research
Research interests
- Doctoral professional development
- Health-related quality of life
- Food allergy
- Doctoral education
Current research
While Heather has conducted research in Health Sciences for 15 years (largely within food allergy, but also within elderly care), she's keen to bring her research skills from this area together with her understanding of educational research to undertake research into doctoral education. In particular, Heather is interested in research around the experiences and identities of postgraduate researchers, their career and professional development needs, and in rethinking doctoral education for the future.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Heather has a wide range of experience of delivering and leading teaching on evidence-based practice and research methods to healthcare students and professionals at a range of levels. Since 2013, she has been leading University-wide Professional Development programmes for PGRs in addition to contributing to supervisor development workshops. Heather is currently the lead for our Doctoral College Professional Development programme and Orientation to Teaching Demonstrating course for PGRs new to teaching. She continues to be an active supervisor of postgraduate researchers. As part of these roles, Heather has designed and facilitated workshops as well as developed standalone online learning modules for postgraduate researchers on a range of topics related to research philosophy, methodology and design, as well as statistics, and professional development skills (such as research project management).
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
With an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Heather completed her PhD in Health Sciences in 2009 at the University of Portsmouth, in which she developed and validated a health-related quality of life scale for teenagers with food allergies. She subsequently worked as a researcher and lecturer in Health Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, undertaking a range of primary and secondary research on food allergies and elderly care, contributing guest lectures on quality of life in food allergy, teaching evidence-based practice and research methods at all levels (including as a module lead), leading a short course on evidence-based practice for healthcare professionals, and supervising PGRs on PhD and Professional Doctorate programmes.
During this time, Heather also contributed to the University-wide supervisor training programme as well as the PGR Professional Development Programme and established a firm enthusiasm for ensuring that PGRs are able to access high quality support for their professional and career development from all those involved with their studies. Hence, in 2013 Heather was delighted to be appointed to the role of Researcher Development Coordinator within the Graduate School at Portsmouth, where she worked for 7 years continuing to develop the University-wide Graduate School Development Programme and induction events for PGRs, catering to a rapidly growing PGR cohort with a diverse range of professional development needs and circumstances.
Heather joined the University of Southampton in January 2020 as the Doctoral College Professional Development Programme Manager working closely with colleagues in the Doctoral College and the Centre for Higher Education Practice, as well as in the Faculties and Professional Services to ensure that we have a high quality and comprehensive professional development provision for postgraduate researchers (PGRs). As part of the Doctoral College and CHEP teams, Heather leads our Doctoral College Professional Development Programme and Doctoral College PGR Events Programme, and contributes to our induction for new PGRs.
In her role, Heather counts herself extremely fortunate to work closely with a range of academic and professional services colleagues across the University as well as our fantastic postgraduate researchers. She also liaises and collaborates with other Researcher Developers nationally through a range of networks and contributes to international conferences in the area.