Emma is a Lecturer in the School of Social Work and teaches across the social work qualifying and post-qualifying courses in the school. Emma has also developed and leads the teaching on the new CertHE in Therapeutic Fostering. This is the first University-led course in Therapeutic Fostering and is a 2-year, part-time, online course designed for foster carers to develop and deepen their knowledge of trauma-informed and therapeutic approaches to fostering.

Emma has a degree in Gender Studies, Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Hull. Emma worked for several years with children and young people in care in residential children's homes before gaining her MA in Social Work at the University of East Anglia. After qualifying Emma worked as a social worker in a Local Authority Fostering & Adoption Service, supporting and supervising foster carers and offering post-adoption and post-special guardianship support. Emma continues to practice as an independent social worker and sits on a local authority fostering panel.

Emma is also a qualified Practice Educator, gaining a post-qualifying diploma in Advanced Social Work with Children and Families at the University of East Anglia, as-well-as completing her Masters in Social Science Research with distinction and awarded the faculty prize for achievement.

Emma was awarded a SeNSS ESRC PhD studentship and completed her PhD in 2025. Her research explores the experience of relationships in foster care for young people who enter care as teenagers (adolescent entrants) and their foster carers. Her thesis title is: Foster care for adolescent entrants: Navigating fragmentation and growth through enduring fostering relationships.

Emma's experience working with young people in care led her to become interested in the importance of relationships in foster care for young people who enter care in adolescence (adolescent entrants). 

Emma's research focusses on the experience of relationships in foster care for adolescent entrants and foster carers who have experience caring for adolescent entrants. Emma is particularly interested in how these complex relationships are negotiated, defined and re-negotiated and re-defined across time.