I am a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow with the School of Education and Lifelong Learning leading the project 'Literacies of Dissent: learning, youth activism and social change'. The project is based within UEA's UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation.

Previously, I was Research Associate for the UKRI/GCRF-funded project on Family Literacy, Indigenous Learning and Sustainable Development. I was Lead Researcher for the commissioned UNV State of the World's Volunteerism Report 2022. I am currently Chair of the British Association for Literacy in Development (BALID) - where I coordinate research on the impact of COVID-19 on Adult Learning and Education (ALE) programmes in Afghanistan, the Philippines and the UK (2020-2021).

In 2021, I finished my PhD in education and development exploring the learning and literacy dimension of local volunteering in the Philippines - funded by the UEA UNESCO Chair studentship. I have a joint MA in Lifelong Learning: Policy and Management from the Danish School of Education, University of Deusto and UCL Institute of Education where I was a recipient of an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship.

I have years of experience as a professional and volunteer in the Philippine education and development sectors. I worked as a university teacher, a students’ retention specialist, a programme officer for an early grades literacy project of Save the Children Philippines and a volunteer and founder of various community engagement and youth formation programmes. I was also a former intern at the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning (UIL) under their research on “Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-formal and Informal Learning”.

In general terms, my research interests sit at the intersection of adult learning/literacies and international development. I research participation of marginalised communities, for instance, through volunteering and social activism, (particularly in Global South contexts) and how such processes cultivate and/or confine members' learning processes and personal transformation. I employ ethnographic, participatory and participatory action research methods.

I have taught at undegraduate and postgraduate levels as lecturer, seminar leader and lead tutor both at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning and the School of Interanational Development. I contribute to the following modules:

• Global and Digital Perspectives in Education (EDU)
• Introduction to Development Studies (DEV)
• Academic Skills Programme for Postgraduate Taught Students (Lead Tutor at DEV)
• Gender, Diversity and Social Inclusion (DEV)
• Development in Practice (DEV)

I was also research supervisor at the University of Glasgow for its MSc in Education for Sustainable Futures in Adult, Community & Youth Contexts.