Events
The Events group are responsible for helping to build learning developer networks across the UK through the hosting of regional and online events. Members support an Event Host Institution to coordinate and plan either a face-to-face or online event which encourages knowledge sharing and practice on topics relevant to the LD community.
If you are interested in joining the events group, please email admin@aldinhe.ac.uk, an expression of interest (approx 100 words) on your suitability for the role and your reason why you’d like to be involved in this group.
Eva Lippold
Hannah Awcock
Dr. Hannah Awcock was awarded a PhD in Human Geography in 2018, after which she taught at universities around the UK. This teaching experience has given Hannah an awareness of the growing challenges facing students, including the ongoing impacts COVID-19, the rising cost of living, and increasing mental ill-health. She joined Edinburgh Napier University as an Academic Skills Adviser in July 2023. Hannah is committed to using evidence-based approaches to support students to achieve their goals no matter their personal circumstances. This is her first research project as a learning developer.
Laura Barclay
Steering Group Member
Events Group Chair
Laura Dyer
Steering Group Member without Portfolio
JLDHE Assistant Editor and Member of the Events Working Group
Laura Dyer is a lecturer in English for Academic Purposes at the University of Leeds. She holds a Master’s in TESOL and FHEA. She is currently writing her monograph A Humanistic Approach to English for Academic Purposes Pedagogy: People, Place, Compassion, Power to be published by Palgrave MacMillan. Her research interests focus on philosophical approaches to pedagogy, pedagogical innovations, inclusivity and integrating GenAI into pedagogy and assessment. She has extensive experience of working with students from a wide variety of disciplines, particularly STEM.
Ro Tomlin-Wills
Member of the ALDinHE Events Working Group, I have worked in higher education for the last six years after a previous career in events management. I have a particular interest in student voice and student partnership within the learning space. My work is centred on creating inclusive opportunities for students to influence their learning experience and for colleagues to share innovative practice. I have a passion for life long learning and a personal interest, that is creeping into my professional life, around AI (I hold a masters in AI and Data Science), currently undertaking an MBA.
Robert Ping-Nan Chang
Robert joined the Events Working Group in 2020. He had been an EFL instructor for several years before moving into LD in 2017. He is a Senior Lecturer in Academic Support at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, with prior LD experiences built up at specialised institutions in London and the southeast. His teaching and research interests include discourse analysis, academic literacies, English for Academic Purposes and learning technologies. He holds FHEA, ALDinHE CeLP, EdD TESOL (Queen’s University Belfast), MA Applied Linguistics (University of Essex), CertICT (English UK) and CertIBET (Trinity College London). He was awarded JLDHE Reviewer of the Year 2022.
Sandie Donnelly
Steering Group Member without Portfolio
Deputy Chair of the Events Working Group
Sandie joined the Events Working Group in 2020, after working with Maddy as part of the original ALDinHE regional events group. Sandie has worked in university library and student support services for 8 years and is the Academic Skills Manager at the University of Cumbria overseeing library, academic and digital skills for students. Working in a university with a portfolio of mostly professional courses, Sandie is interested in supporting students to develop and celebrate their academic voice as part of their identity as critically reflective practitioners. She is an Advance HE Fellow and a qualified teacher.