I started in Higher Education in studying Economics and Geography at  Strathclyde University in the mid/late 1980s. I then stayed in Glasgow and specialised in Urban & Regional Development at Postgraduate (MSc) level. After a year working and travelling in North America, I left Glasgow and went to work with the Highlands & Islands Enterprise Network in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. It is here I first had a role in funding and stimulating research and pilot projects in the region. I then joined UHI in the late 1990s.  Since joining UHI, I have led the development and delivery of the fully online BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees in Sustainable Rural Development. In 2011 I completed a PhD on e-Learning. I have had both external consultancy experience in this area developing regional strategy for a public partnership and developing European funding bids and contracted research experience too in the IT&Telecoms field. In 2017 I became the course manager for UHI's MSc postgraduate programme in Sustainable Rural Development. In my previous post (2013-17) I was seconded to EO,UHI  to research and develop the University's first accelerated Honours degree in Geography. Since then I have taken on a new role as a Head of Department for the Sustainability & Social Sciences department within the academic partner UHI North, West and Hebrides. I have over 20 years experience in supervising student research at UHI at undergraduate and postgraduate MSc and PhD levels. Most recently (2022-24) I have led UHI's input into the EU Horizons RIPEET Project to find sustainable energy transition pathways for rural communities. 

Specialties: Sustainability, Rural Regeneration, Distributed Learning

• Human and Environmental Geography
• Rural and Community Regeneration
• Economics of Community Wealth Building
• Sustainability and the Environment
• Net Zero Transition & Sustainable Energy Pathways
• The pedagogy of online education
• The use of technologies in online education