Work Experience

Evidence & Insight Officer

Crohn’s & Colitis UK | March 2023 - present

  • Generate evidence and insight from clinical data to improve the understanding of the prevalence and impact of inflammatory bowel disease in the UK.

  • Identify gaps in quality evidence and developing data strategies to support the charity’s objectives.

  • Develop front-end SharePoint architecture to enable more effective collaboration across multiple projects and work streams.

  • Publish web pages in Umbraco, creating copy and managing content.

  • Provide expertise on data governance and the ethical implications of AI, such as ChatGPT, with charity data and information.

Skills: SharePoint · Analysis (R/RStudio) · Epidemiology · Data Ethics · Project and Programme Management

Scottish AI Playbook Editor (voluntary)

Online | Oct 2022 - present

Contribute to the Scottish AI Playbook by:

  • Adding informative and credible content to the wiki on themes of:
    • Health
    • Ethics
    • Equality, equity, diversity and inclusion
    • Community governance and participation
  • Reviewing submissions to ensure content is accurate and up-to-date

Development Manager (voluntary, part-time)

EqualiTree CIC, UK | 2022 - 2023

  • Deliver Lantra-accredited training to industry professionals
  • Design and deliver practical horticultural courses to members of the public

Founder and Director

EqualiTree CIC, UK | 2019 - 2022

Oversaw the development of EqualiTree from start-up stage to developing partnerships and longer-term collaborations. Achievements to date:

  • Secured start-up funding to support early-stage activities
  • Delivered training courses to industry professionals
  • Built several ongoing working relationships with businesses, community groups and social enterprises to develop research and practical solutions to local issues

Statistical Support Analyst (Management Information)

Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, UK | May 2021 - February 2022

  • Produced monthly data summaries and press releases for publication
  • Liaised with Office of the Public Guardian and Tribunals regarding development of data products and bespoke analyses
  • Supported team members by quality assessing Excel workbooks prior to release to internal and/ or external stakeholders

Business Innovation Manager

University of St Andrews, UK | 2018 - 2019

  • Built collaborative relationships with SMEs across Scotland
  • Co-designed and developed research projects with Scottish innovation centres and industry partners
  • Organised and hosted networking events for academics and external funders

Founder and Director

Growing Research Ltd, UK | 2016 - 2018

Self-employed consultant providing bespoke R&D support to research-active SMEs and international NGOs:

  • Provided training in statistical methods for applied research staff conducting field trials and ecological research
  • Created bespoke data analysis workflows in R Studio for Bioversity International
  • Provided early stage business development support to the National Land Based College
  • Developed funding proposals for submission to Innovate UK and Horizon 2020 (winning €5M for The James Hutton Institute)

Research Development Executive

Coventry University, UK | 2015 - 2016

  • Developed the research strategy for the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR)
  • Co-ordinated data collection related to KPIs for reporting to senior management group
  • Delivered group and one-to-one training to academic staff in research grant applications

Sustainable Horticulture Development Manager

Stockbridge Technology Centre, UK | 2012 - 2015

  • Designed research projects for the commercial horticulture industry
  • Established a precision farming training and research centre
  • Delivered training workshops in precision farming technologies
  • Managed experimental design and analysis of field trials
  • Secured £1.4M of Innovate UK funding for Tru-Nject - precision agronomy that combined RTK-GPS autosteer of tractor and implement (spoke-wheel fertiliser injection system), satellite data for precision mapping of crop responses to targeted fertiliser inputs, and data from proximal soil sensing.

Education

MSc Health Data Science

University of Aberdeen, UK | Sep 2021 - August 2023 (part-time)

Instead of opting for a 60-credit research project, I have chosen to do two 30-credit courses each summer: Evaluating Policy Effects in Practice in year 1, and a work-based placement in year two.

  • Introduction to Health Data Science
  • Applied Statistics
  • Health Informatics
  • Machine Learning for Healthcare
  • Evaluating Policy Effects in Practice
  • Evidence-based Health
  • Database Systems and Big Data
  • Epidemiology
  • Data Science: From Data to Insight
  • Work-Based Placement
    • Incident use of antipsychotics in the treatment-naive and the risks of type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease - a data linkage project in the Grampian Safe Haven

Further details here

PhD Evolutionary Biology

University of Edinburgh, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh & The James Hutton Institute, UK | Sep 2007 - August 2011

Epiphyte diversity on Scottish Aspen (Populus tremula): a component of the extended phenotype

I studied genotype x environment interactions and community genetics in a native and biologically important, but rare, tree.

Further details here

MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants

University of Edinburgh & Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK | Sep 2005 - Aug 2006

  • A combination of classical herbarium taxonomy, and molecular aspects of plant identification and classificaion
  • My final project investigated the relationships between Prunus laurocerasus, Prunus lusitanica and allies from the Mediterranean and West and Central Asia.

Further details here

BSc (Hons) Botany

Reading University, UK | Sep 2003 - July 2005

  • Macroevolution and microevolution
  • Plant biodiversity
  • Crop physiology
  • Statistics and experimental design
  • Plant identification

My final project was to map and attempt to classify Carpobrotus spp. growing on the Bournemouth-Southbourne coast in the UK, comparing phenotypes from the various entities found to existing taxonomic treatments.

Further details here

Professional Qualifications

Level 3 Instructional Techniques

AtLast! Training | 2021

One day online preparation and practical assessment in Edinburgh over two days

Practical ‘train the trainer’ course to qualify as an accredited trainer for Lantra (national land-based training provider)

ILM Level 5 Leadership and Management

Social Enterprise Academy/ Institute of Leadership and Management | 2020 - 2021

6-credit RQF Level 5/ SCQF level 9

Hybrid delivery

Project Management And Planning With Microsoft Project (2 days)

Leeds Metropolitan University, School Of Business | 2014

Leeds, UK

Introductory Certificate In Project Management (Association for Project Management)

Leeds Metropolitan University, School Of Business | 2013

Leeds, UK