I am an Assistant Professor with a background in textile design, design for dementia, marketing and entrepreneurship based at the School of Textiles and Design in the Scottish Borders.

At The Design School, Heriot-Watt University I am a lecturer and researcher working across the design courses at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate level. I am Global Programme Director of Studies for our Postgraduate taught courses and programme director for our MA in Fashion and Textile Design
and MSc in Fashion and Textile Management.

Alongside this I am the TDS Public Engagement Academic Lead, working with colleagues and the public to facilitate university outreach and events.

My research explores the facilitation of creative workshops for wellbeing, which utilise e-textiles and waste materials to understand how technology and waste can be used as a resource to create and repair products. My research interests are in e-textiles, sonic textiles, craft, entrepreneurship, marketing and wellbeing. Additionally, I am an MA and PhD supervisor in design. If you would like to discuss doing your MA or PhD at SoTD I would love to hear from you.

• e-textiles
• sonic textiles
• craft
• sustainable strategies
• entrepreneurship
• marketing
• health and wellbeing
• design for dementia

I am involved in a variety of collaborative projects/bids - see details of those I can discuss below:

Interactive Waste with a fellow researcher at the University of Dundee on a BA Leverhume Small Research Grant.  This project explores how the creation of Interactive textiles and e-textiles can utilise more sustainable practices by unpicking existing projects and working with a network of e-textile researchers to understand the use of different materials as alternatives to traditional e-textile components.  

SBNZ - codesigned, low-carbon storage and transport systems

Hospitals depend on a wide range of containers, bags, trays and storage systems to move medicines safely. However, many of these systems rely on carbon-intensive plastics, with configurations and material properties that do not support sustainable or efficient clinical workflows. This project brings researchers from the University of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt University together with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to explore how low-carbon, bio-based and recycled materials can offer alternative solutions for medicine storage and transportation. Through a series of co-design workshops with pharmacists, nurses and logistics staff, the team will identify key challenges within hospital medicine management and develop prototype storage solutions tailored to clinical needs. This will include experimentation with emerging alternatives to plastic such as mycelium, cork, flax and fibre waste streams. The project will assess the environmental performance of the proposed designs, generating evidence to inform future healthcare innovation, sustainable procurement and decarbonisation across NHS Scotland.

Healthy Organisations in a place-based Ecosystem Scotland (HOPES) Green Transition Ecosystem (GTE) UKRI, AHRC, Design Museum Future Observatory award. This project explores through design research the NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy, which sets out plans for NHS Scotland to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and impact on the environment, adapt to climate change and to better contribute to the United Nation’s sustainable development goals. You can follow this project here: linkedin.com/design-hopes/