I completed a BSc(Hons first class) in Psychology at the University of Stirling, UK, before going on to complete a PhD in Community Psychology, also at the University of Stirling.  The title of the PhD was ‘Scottish secondary education from a critical community psychological perspective: power, control and exclusion’.  This research involved extended ethnography in a number of secondary educational settings and participatory research with young people who have experienced school exclusion.  The work examined education from a standpoint with these young people using Foucauldian discourse approaches to reveal problematic power relations in education. 

I have since been engaged in qualitative research involving: migrant children and families; young LGBTIQ people; young carers; evaluating health and mental health service provision; and student experiences of Higher Education. 

In 2010 I joined the School of Psychology at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on the Wagga Wagga Campus.  I teach qualitative methods and critical community psychology and my current primary research interests include the social exclusion experiences of young people and collaborative, ethnographic methodologies. I am a member of the Faculty research group on Health Services, which aims to provide a cross-disciplinary perspective that will seek to explore problems and challenges that the health industry faces.

I am the Editor of the Australian Community Psychologist. 

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