The School of Human and Behavioural Sciences is a merger of the School of Psychology and the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences. As the Head, I am responsible for the academic and strategic leadership and management of the new School.

In this interim role I am responsible for overseeing the academic, financial and people management of the Faculty of Science. The Faculty of Science includes three Schools, namely, the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences and the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences.

I am the Assistant Director of the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at LJMU and a principal lecturer in sport social science. My research and consultancy specialist areas include youth development, organisational culture and community. I have worked with numerous top and lower tier football clubs across the North West and across Europe including France, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. I have also worked with respected governing bodies in football and cricket. I am part of the Psychology and Development (PaD) research group which concerns the understanding of identity within high performance environments. This research theme embraces athlete transitions and critical moments within and out of sport. Typically, this research explores environmental, relational and cultural themes that impact the strategic and operational aspects of an organisation’s approach to athlete development. Other research interests include positive lifestyle change in community populations. Alongside colleagues I have led and co-ordinated the development of a unique partnership between Everton Football Club and LJMU that has hosted projects including family based interventions, Premier League Men’s Health, intergenerational projects, Extra-time and Fit as a Fiddle. My research and consultancy work (typically) adopts qualitative techniques (including interviews, ethnographic techniques, action research) and is represented through the utilisation of traditional qualitative analysis and/or the use of creative non-fiction narratives to capture and illuminate observations of culture and associated applied practice.

I am responsible for the delivery of academic, financial and people management of the School. My role is to lead and inspire my students and my colleagues. I am proud to support, external community and professional sport and health agencies in their pursuit of positive behavioural change; whether this be organisational, cultural or personal. I am committed to developing research and scholarship informed practice both within academia and through the continual translation of my work to the applied environment. In this regard, the translation of research informed practice through consultancy, applied practice and public engagement is critical to our future narrative as a School, and the wider LJMU institution, to ensure that we can lead, stimulate, inform, influence and contribute to positive behavioural change and foster social and economic good within our local, national and international communities.