Introduce yourself in three words or phrases.
Down-to-earth, matter-of-fact, love a checklist
What do you like most about your job?
Putting Belfast and Northern Ireland on the global stage. For a long time, this place was on the map for all the wrong reasons and, understandably, it wasn’t at the top of people’s travel list.
For the last 20 years, we have been a bit of “hidden gem”, but when international visitors visit and experience the local landscape, culture and charm (we are a very charming bunch), they keep coming back.
This year, Belfast city hosted the “Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann” (world’s largest festival for Irish music and culture) for the first time. We welcomed over 1.5 million visitors to the city in a week…our hidden gem is not so hidden anymore and that’s fantastic. I’m really proud of this place and how much it has to offer.
Best work trip/Worst work trip?
So hard to call this as I’ve been fortunate to travel to such a diverse range of places but I would say that my best trip was a university delegation to Jordan in 2018. It was my first trip there and I was travelling with a large, multi-faculty delegation of colleagues from Queen’s.
Our program was designed by an alum in the region, who did an exceptional job of scheduling institutional meetings for us during the week but, as importantly, showcasing his homeland. I was blown away by the warmth and hospitality of the people, the food (vivid memories of bright green, fresh falafel) and the feeling that this was a place on the rise.
It also happened to be one of those magic trips where you get a diverse but totally aligned group of colleagues together and we spent much of the week in fits of laughter in the back of our minibus as we travelled between meetings. There is nothing like travelling with colleagues to cement relationships and I still lean on those internal connections today.
I’m slightly reluctant to name a worst work trip. All seasoned travellers have experienced the usual roster of bad tummy bugs, lost luggage and cancelled flights. I have had more than one hospital trip during work abroad!
However, I’ll go for a weather-related incident. A number of years ago I travelled to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to team up with one of our agents in Canada for a week of university visits. It was February (which is always a chilly time to be in that part of the world) and, as I was flying over, some serious snow arrived.
The flight landed OK but the rest of the week was spent trying to navigate hairy snow storms on the highway. Driving was capped to travelling at around 20 miles per hour as at times as we couldn’t see more than a few metres in front of us. Of course, students very wisely decided to stay tucked up in their dorms so it was a very quiet (yet stressful) week!
- If you could learn a language instantly, which would you pick and why?
Right now, Chinese. We are working on a range of TNE projects with brilliant partners in China. I would love to be able to converse with our partners in Chinese as fluently as they can engage with our team in English!
What makes you get up in the morning?
My two small and very early-rising children. Starting and finishing my day with those two keeps my perspective in check about what matters in life…good snacks and good craic (if you don’t know what “craic” is then you are definitely overdue a trip to Belfast).
I should include an ode to my coffee machine here too…
Champion/cheerleader which we should all follow and why?
I am a recovering English Literature graduate so I’ll opt for quoting a poet! My favourite quote, which is framed in my office, is by Emily Dickinson: “Forever is composed of nows.”
For me, that’s about showing up well in the present.
- Best international ed conference and why?
EAIE, because it is friendly and down-to-earth despite being enormous. People tend to be in a hurry but also in a good mood. Not too showy and no posturing. People are there for the right reasons.
Worst conference food/beverage experience
I was once served a “chopped olive” sandwich as a veggie option at a conference in the UK… I won’t name the location!
Book or podcast recommendation for others in the sector?
Priya Parker – The Art of Gathering. It stops to make you think about every event/invitation/meeting you are invited to or are leading.
Describe a project or initiative you’re currently working on that excites you.
I’ve spent the last academic year establishing a new International Partnerships Unit at Queen’s. That has been hard, interesting and incredibly diverse work. What’s exciting me most now is that the full team is in place and we are starting to see momentum build with large scale projects around the world. TNE has been a bigger focus than we might have originally anticipated and everyday is a school day as move across jurisdictions and program areas.
