I am a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the University of Sunderland, with 25 years of personal mindfulness practice, a decade of mindfulness teaching experience, and a 20+ year career in post-compulsory and higher education. My work sits at the intersection of medical education, contemplative practice, and practitioner wellbeing, exploring how mindfulness, compassion, and philosophy can transform healthcare systems and healthcare education.

My foundational mindfulness practice was developed over 15 years within the Triratna Buddhist Community, during which I completed numerous solitary and group retreats and progressed partway through the ordination process. In 2015, following my MBSR training, I transitioned into teaching secular mindfulness. Since then, I have delivered mindfulness interventions across diverse public and private sector organizations, including Tarmac and the NHS Business Services Authority. I have also co-delivered workshops with Dr. Zoe Williams (resident GP on ITV’s This Morning) and chaired sessions with Professor Ron Epstein, author of Attending. Beyond my work in higher education, I also serve as an external teacher for MindfulnessUK.

In my current role at the University of Sunderland, I help lead the Master’s in Medical Education programme, alongside lecturing on mindfulness and neuroscience for undergraduate medical students. Prior to this, I worked at Newcastle University as a Lecturer in Medical Education, an Associate Lecturer in Psychology - specialising in mindfulness and transpersonal psychology - and a mindfulness teacher. My teaching career originally began in 2005 as an A-level Philosophy and Critical Thinking teacher, before moving into teacher education in 2007 and ultimately specialising in medical education over the past 14 years.

Alongside my academic posting, I serve as Co-Chair of the Mindfulness in Medical Education (MiME) Special Interest Group within the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME), where I advocate for the integration and scholarly rigour of mindfulness in medical curricula. I am a registered mindfulness teacher with the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA) and serve on BAMBA’s Professional Standards Advisory Board. My formal teacher training includes MBSR and Compassionate Mindful Resilience teacher-training pathways with MindfulnessUK, early mindfulness teacher training with Suryacitta at Mindfulness Unleashed, and certification as a facilitator of philosophical enquiry through Oxford Brookes University.

My research and scholarship examine the role of mindfulness in healthcare and education, with a particular focus on physician-care, low-level bodily tension, and how Eastern and Western philosophies can inform modern healthcare design. I regularly peer-review for academic journals, including Mindfulness, and my work has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), where I explored the moral obligation of physician care in healthcare practice. I have presented internationally on topics ranging from resilience and clinical decision-making to medical humanities, including a recent guest lecture during Humanism in Medicine Week at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

To engage broader audiences and foster international dialogue on contemplative pedagogy, I host and produce two podcasts: Inside Mindfulness and On the Cushion: The Mindfulness Educators Podcast, where I explore the pedagogies of mindfulness teachers alongside leading global practitioners such as Michael Chaskalson, Ted Meissner, Karen Atkinson, and Margaret Fletcher.

I hold a BA in Philosophy, a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education and Training, and an MA in Education. I am also a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA).

I live with my family in Durham, UK.