I completed the University's Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, gaining HEA Fellowship along with it, in 2017, along with a second Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Change. In 2016 I gained a Master's degree in English from the Open University with a dissertation on the concept of abjection in the works of Kafka and Orwell, for which I received a Merit. This followed from my award in 2012 of my Bachelor's degree in Humanities with Philosophy, also from the OU. I have also been a Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology since 2012, and became an assessor for ALT after my successful portfolio review in 2016.

I began my current role at the University of Sunderland in 2014, having previously spent six years at Northumbria University, four of which were with their learning technologies team providing specialist customer support, principally for Blackboard Learn and PebblePad. Prior to my specialisation in learning technology, I worked on Northumbria University's IT Service Desk for a year after moving to the North East from Blackpool where I was an ICT Officer at Blackpool Council.