About Us

Professor Jane Owen-Lynch joined Huddersfield from Lancaster University where she was the first Head of Biomedical and Life Sciences in the Faculty of Health and Medicine, a new Faculty at Lancaster set up in 2008. Under Jane’s leadership the Department achieved a rapid period of growth, almost doubling in size, income and student numbers and achieved a research excellence rating placing it within the top three departments in the subject area in the country.

Jane has a distinctive multidisciplinary portfolio of research activity based in Biochemistry but spanning across collaborations in Physics, Psychology and Biology. Her current work is based around biomarker analysis in physiological conditions including cerebrospinal fluid function in brain development, renal function in cardiovascular disease and biochemical markers of stress responses in acute stress. In conjunction with collaborators in Physics she has just completed an ESRC funded project looking at the dynamics of cardiovascular ageing and this work is continuing at a cellular and clinical level.

Jane also has a wealth of experience linked with student facing activities primarily in admissions but including development of international courses and acting as project lead for building projects including multidisciplinary teaching laboratories. She is also an active supporter of the Athena Swan agenda and orchestrated the Faculty Athena Swan submission at Lancaster which gained the Silver Award.

Ruth Stoker is the Director of Strategic Teaching and Learning, working with the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Teaching and Learning on the development of institutional projects and initiatives in support of the University's commitment to delivering excellence for all our students.

After graduating with a Biology degree, she moved into journalism, working in the field for eight years. She was appointed as a lecturer at Barnsley College in 1993 to develop programmes in journalism at a time when this was a new subject in HE and FE, and as a result was invited to work with exam boards including Edexcel, City and Guilds and OCR in developing journalism curriculum specifications, assessment mechanisms, and in setting and moderating exams at national level.

She was a programme leader and part of the HE quality management team at the College, responsible for liaison with the University of Leeds over the development of its suite of programmes, when she was transferred to the University of Huddersfield in 2006 as a Senior Lecturer in Journalism as part of the University's new collaborative venture "Towns Like Us". Coming from a working class background herself, and developing her career as a teacher in Barnsley - an area with a high proportion of students in IMD1 and 2 households - has made her a strong advocate of widening participation in HE and the transformative impact University education.

She was appointed Director of Teaching and Learning for the former School of Music, Humanities and Media in 2014, and Director of Strategic Teaching and Learning in 2022.

Since joining the University, she has worked as a reviewer and review co-ordinator for the Quality Assurance Agency, and more recently served as a panel member for the Office for Students on the pilot of the Teaching Excellence Framework Subject Review.

She is a qualified teacher having completed a PGCE while working at Barnsley College, holds industry qualifications in journalism via the National Council of Training Journalists, and holds a Leeds

University MA in Journalism. As a researcher, her field is journalism education, and was awarded a Doctorate qualification in 2021 for her work looking at how early career journalists learn ethics in the workplace.

Contact Email: r.stoker@hud.ac.uk

Andy is a qualified Programme and Project Manager. He worked for 8 years in the Learning Technology department at the University of Huddersfield after spending the early part of his career working in the commercial sector providing consultancy and project management to various blue-chip organisations and running his own consultancy business. He has been instrumental in the increased adoption of learning technologies at the University of Huddersfield, contributing to the development and delivery of a range of staff development courses and promoting the use of technology to enhance pedagogical practice across the institution.

In 2017, he undertook a project to analyse the learning technology business requirements of the University, and subsequently project-managed the procurement and implementation of our VLE, Brightspace. He was also responsible for the project management of the early stages of the of the Global Professional Award and the redesigned Student Hub which has been met with a positive response from students. 2020 saw Andy take a pivotal role in the University’s COVID response projects.

His project management skills, coupled with his technical background and understanding of pedagogy and the HE sector, allows him to communicate effectively with academic, support and technical staff and successfully manage, drive and enthuse cross-institutional project teams to the successful implementation of a range of strategic projects.

Andy has presented at both international and UK conferences. He has a master’s degree in Multimedia and eLearning, is a Chartered Manager and is also a Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technology.

Contact Email: a.j.raistrick2@hud.ac.uk 

Jane is a National Teaching Fellow (2022), senior lecturer and course leader in the School of Education and Professional Development and works for the other half of her job with the Strategic Teaching and Learning Team as pedagogic lead. Many of you will be familiar with her role in coordinating the Flying Start initiative. Her research interests are in university transitions, lifelong learning, and educational communities of practice. A perspective centred in social justice mores is the driver for her work.

Contact Email: j.wormald@hud.ac.uk

Sue is an Academic Developer based in the Strategic Teaching and Learning Team with a remit to support the pedagogic development of staff in the use of digital technologies. Her role involves both training staff and contributing to the University’s strategic developments in this area. She has a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education) and has previously taught mathematics in the Further Education sector but has worked in Higher Education for over 20 years. She has a master’s degree in Multimedia and eLearning and has completed a doctorate in Education focusing on tutors’ experiences of teaching online. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the University’s representative on Helf (Heads of eLearning forum). Sue’s research interests include online teaching and learning, digital literacy, student dashboards and curriculum development.

Contact Email: s.folley@hud.ac.uk 

Jarek is a member of the STLT as a Data Analyst. His role involves investigation of factors affecting students’ attainment across the entire institution, using in-depth information on various characteristics of students, such as entry qualifications, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and others. He also contributes to analysis of student engagement with the VLE and help elucidate the impact of the pandemic on students’ achievement, course assessment structure, and others. Along with members of STLT, as well as Drs Vicki Trowler (SAS) and John Stephenson (HHS), they try to provide social context for this data and statistical modelling to highlight causative relationships, to further support the university in understanding student progress and achievement at the university. Jarek is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an instructor in The Carpentries. He is also a University Teaching Fellow in the School of Applied Sciences, where his main interests are ecological and evolutionary genomics of wild populations of mice and teaching with the R statistical programming language.

Contact Email: j.bryk@hud.ac.uk 

Steve is a Learning Technologist who joined the team in October 2022 having been the Learning Technology Advisor in the School of Applied Sciences for over 21 years. He has particular interests in online assessment, academic integrity, learning analytics and in developing and extending our online platforms, and has developed numerous add-ons for Brightspace to address institutional requirements.

He has presented at UK and international conferences and is a Fellow of the HEA and Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology.

Contact Email: s.d.bentley@hud.ac.uk

Michelle provides executive assistance and project support to the Strategic Teaching and Learning Team.

She has worked as a PA for a Regional Director of a deafblind charity and has spent the last 13 years working in the education sector, with 7 years working in special needs as a qualified Multi-Sensory Intervenor.

Michelle joined the University of Huddersfield in 2017, working in administration, finance and as an Executive Assistant for various departments, including VCO. She has developed extensive knowledge of the HE sector and how the University of Huddersfield operates within it.

During the Pandemic, Michelle was instrumental in the set up and operation of the University’s Trace Reporting system and has more recently project managed the University's Teaching and Learning Conference.

Michelle has her APM Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ), AAT Level 2 and 3 both with distinction and has also achieved her ECDL Advanced and Expert certificates.

Contact Email: m.radford@hud.ac.uk

Amanda is an Academic Skills Coordinator and Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities, currently taking a part-time secondment role with the Strategic Teaching and Learning Team. As a qualified teacher and chartered librarian, she actively promotes a collaborative and inclusive approach to help students make sense of academic practices and achieve their potential at university. She has worked in higher education for over twenty years and is a strong advocate of embedding academic skills within and across the curriculum at all levels of study, presenting and publishing this work nationally and internationally. She has previously worked at the Bodleian Library, led a digital image Heritage Lottery Funded project at Kirklees Council and teaching and learning projects focusing on e-portfolios and visual copyright. Amanda has recently acted as an invited reviewer for academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism courses, developed internationally by Oxford University Press.

Amanda is an active member of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Member of the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing, Advance HE Fellow and Chartered Manager. Amanda has a PhD in information science and her research interests include models and teaching practices of learning development, visual arts pedagogy, digital archives and information retrieval.

Contact Email: a.tinker@hud.ac.uk