Profile

I’ve loved science since I was a kid and that enthusiasm has never really gone away. I got particularly interested in how our blood pressure is maintained when I was a student and so I did a PhD in human physiology. I spent a lot of time in the lab testing samples of blood.

Then I had babies. It was a huge change  from research – I found that I got more and more intrigued by the ways women’s bodies are different from men’s. All of that led me into teaching and now I help students who are going to be health professionals understand how bodies work – and how they can go wrong.

I’m really interested in well-being – there are loads of small steps that everyone can take to improve their health. I like to work with people and groups in the community and help them to improve their health.

Away from work I love going camping – close to a beach if possible. I play golf – and there is always room for improvement. I love to cook and ask friends or family around to eat what I’ve made.

I work in a school of health sciences so I spend a lot of my time teaching and with students. I’m particularly interested in the (bad) effects of stress in workplaces and the things people can do to minimise its impact.

Some of my students have come straight from school and want to become nurses or paramedics or midwives or other kind of health professional. Mostly they are learning how the body works and how to do things like take blood pressure or other measurements. The rest of my students have already qualified and they are back doing some more study – mostly they are learning how things go wrong  – how diseases starts and how and why they get worse.

I also work with community groups – where we focus on particular topics – like stress or dementia or physical activity. I’m writing a book and really loving doing that.

Working in a in a university there are always lots of emails about teaching and meetings about the curriculum to deal with, so I usually start off by checking emails.

I teach at least one class every day – they last 2 hours. Often students have questions afterwards – that’s one of my favorite parts. I like to work with small groups –  this happens in the skills labs and they are usually in the afternoon – where all the learning is much more hands-on.

When I can, I get out for a walk at lunchtime  – it helps me to think and reduces my own stress levels.