After my formal education in socially-conscious art and design, and a career in marketing and strategic communications, in 2015 I embraced my talent for elevating and empowering others when I began my journey in providing personal development for creative minds.
At around the same time, I became a lecturer in a design school.
I saw first-hand how young creatives were waking up to the ethical and environmental troubles affecting their lives and livelihoods. The same thing was happening in my professional coaching work with artists, designers, creative entrepreneurs and makers who are young at heart and rich in experience.
I saw how they were all anxious to do something about these troubles. I saw how they wanted to make things better for the world. And I saw how they were insufficiently and inconsistently supported to do this in an educational and social system which values wealth, power and status quo over creativity, integrity and revolution.
Henry David Thoreau wrote: “Things do not change; we do.”
And so the mission was born: to provide personal development media, projects and resources which elevate and empower creatives, helping them make ethical and environmental impact at work and in their practice, so that they start to change the world.
conventional education
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
BA (Hons) Design and Applied Arts, 2:1
MA History of Art, Distinction
Fellow of Higher Education Academy
career
Creative Lead and Communications Specialist in agency (’11-’15) working with brands such as Marks and Spencer, ghd, New Look, Redcats, Shop Direct, Eastpak; BT, Unilever, TSB, Aviva, TalkTalk, ASDA and NatWest
Visiting Lecturer London College of Fashion’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion (’17)
Teaching Fellow University of Leeds (’13-’18)
Self-employment in brand, communication and marketing (’15-’19)
Senior Lecturer Leeds Arts University (’20 – )
speaking
Keynote speaker University of Leeds Design Futures (’19)
Speaker Pebble Magazine Future Fest (’20)
Mental Health Awareness Week speaker for multiple marketing agencies across Leeds (’19-’21)
unconventional education
Introduction to Herbalism 10 week course
Introduction to Shamanic Journeying 2 day intensive
Foundation Training in Non Violent Communication
Life Coaching Diploma Level 3 (150 CPD hours)
Journal Therapy Diploma (150 CPD hours)
Carbon Literacy Project certified (’21)
One of Many Lead the Change leadership programme (’22)
awards
Awarded Best Specialist Blog at Blog North (’12)
Finalist ModeConnect International Fashion Writing (’14)
Nomination: University of Leeds Partnership Award for Innovation (’18)
Creator and curator of Sex Tapes, a night of sex positive spoken word, with Leeds International Festival (’19)
Category winner Venoor Poetry in Design (’19)
Winner: Lead the Change Award for embodiment of One of Many’s values (’22)
research
2013 Parsons New School of Design: digital fashion consumption’s impact on material clothing consumption
2014 Publication in Textile: Journal of Cloth and Culture Vol 12 Issue 3 on relationships between material, person and place
2015 Milan: emerging ideas on human sustainability in art education
2016 Leeds: results of career programme created around concept of ‘ikigai’
2016 Stockholm: attributes of eco-innovation in fashion and likelihood of adoption by brands (co-authored)
2018 Lyon: alternative methods for documenting fashion narratives in local places (co-authored)
2021 Climate Exp0 (online): art education’s role in imagining climate-change resilient communities
2021 Poland (online): problem-based learning as an ethical enquiry process in fashion branding and communication education (co-authored)
2021 Cape Town (online): case study of international collaboration developed with colleague in Monterrey (co-authored)
2021 Leeds (online): how critical place-based pedagogy can be an alternative to the SDGs for teaching sustainability in art
2022 Publication in Industrialisation of Arts Education (Palgrave Macmillan) on the emotional experience of the art educator during climate emergency
