Biography
I am currently employed as a Professor within the Business School. I am the founder and Director of the Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement, Lead for the new Scottish Armed Forces Evidence and Research (SAFE&R) Hub and the University Research Lead for Military Research. I have a strong record of collaborative research within the arena of armed forces studies and have a demonstrated record of knowledge exchange and building strong research and practice relationships regionally, nationally, and internationally. In addition, I work with several voluntary and public sector organisations devoted to military transition, education, and wellbeing including regionally on the Edinburgh Military Education Committee (MEC) and nationally on the Council of Military Education Committees (COMEC). As is not uncommon in the social sciences and business fields, my career path has crossed between practice and research. The interdisciplinary nature of my academic research and practice experience therefore rests within three key disciplines: human and organisational development, management, and wellbeing. These disciplines span two Edinburgh Napier University Schools namely the School of Health and Social Care and The Business School. My background in these fields continues to stimulate my interest and expand my knowledge across these disciplines as evidenced in my research, supervision, and teaching activity.
Since 1997 I have consistently held leadership roles in research development and management. I have held several strategic research leadership roles within The Business School including Director of the home and international Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Programmes and in the role of Joint Director of Research at the Business School. The expertise gained as programme leader of the DBA at Napier is now being shared in my role as an external examiner and mentor to the DBA programme at University of Central Lancashire. Within my key disciplines I have supervised over 48 home and international doctoral students to completion predominately as the Director of Studies and acted as an external doctoral examiner both nationally and internationally. I am currently supporting the application for Doctoral studies at ENU with the Army Reserve Unit Commander in Singapore. Since the establishment of CMREPE in 2021 I have built our doctoral population to four students, three of whom are veterans and the fourth a joint studentship between CMREPE and the School of Applied Sciences, ENU. I have been nominated twice for the Times Higher Supervisor of the year. Externally I have acted as a second supervisor and subject expert to four doctoral studies, and most recently invited by Bath University as a second supervisor to the Medical Commander in the Royal Navy.
For the last 10 years I have shared my knowledge and experience of research supervision by mentoring junior supervisors on my supervision teams. I have also provided training on doctoral supervision to international partners such as PSB Academy as part of our delivery of the DBA in Singapore. Moreover, I have worked with the UK Council for Graduate Education on two working groups related to supervision and laterally as a member of the steering group for their 5th International Conference held online but hosted by Edinburgh Napier University in April 2022.
I regularly publish in peer reviewed journals, have published several book chapters, and completed commissioned research evaluation reports. I have been interviewed as a subject expert for various mediums and podcasts such as YouTube, Channel 4 Television, national newspapers, and more recently interviewed as part of the Scottish Government’s campaign for employing veterans. I am a member of the Editorial Board for ‘European Journal of Training and Development’, Associate Editor of the Journal of Veteran Studies and peer review for several other academic journals. Additionally, I have been an active participant on School and University Research Degree and Innovation and Ethics Committees as both Member and Chair. Externally I sit on several local and national and international committees and working groups related to military wellbeing and education. I have substantial and sustained income generation portfolio amounting to well over £3 million. This includes a key research role on two major Erasmus + programmes CAREMAN and DOCMAN which examined the discipline of human and organisational development and management within the health arena. Other studies within these disciplines were funded by the NHS and the Department of Health. The focus on wellbeing, was reflected in studies funded by MacMillan and The Queen’s Nursing Institute, Scotland. In the past two years I have secured research grant funding more than one million pounds.