Professor Tansy Jessop began her career as a History and Latin secondary teacher in apartheid South Africa. She wanted to make a difference through her teaching, so she taught an alternative perspective on South African history. Students described Tansy as "an inspirational History teacher", having "a massive, positive influence ...you opened my eyes to the reality of SA at that time".

Dr Simon Jones has enjoyed a successful international career as a violinist spanning over thirty years. His teaching practice stems naturally from his performance work, and focuses on facilitating exposure to the broadest possible learning experience for his students, developing the wide range of skills necessary for success in today’s music industry.

Simon believes that students rarely realise just how much they are capable of achieving, and his teaching encourages them to become proactive learners, provoking them to question, to stretch their expectations and to maximise their creative potential.

Impact of work

Dr Mark J.P. Kerrigan is the Director of Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Medical Science at Anglia Ruskin University. Graduating with a PhD from Edinburgh University, Mark has worked as a researcher, investigating osteoarthritis, and a lecturer in physiology, cellular biology and research methods.

His love of teaching, combined with his passion for excellence, drives his work and commitment to a positive staff and student experience.

Dr Rachael-Anne Knight is a phonetician with degrees from Roehampton, UCL and University of Cambridge. She has been teaching phonetics to Speech and Language Therapy students at City, University London since 2005, and has won several awards for her innovative teaching and support of students.

She became Associate Dean Education (Technology and Innovation) in 2015.

'Rachael-Anne Knight is an education innovator who embraces novel uses of educational technology and encourages others to do so as well. She is immensely valued by colleagues and students alike'

Impact of work

Margaret Low is an inspirational educator with 30 years’ experience in the HE sector. She teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at WMG, University of Warwick and she has been involved in software development, designing and developing a variety of engineering applications.

Andrew Middleton has a background in art and music. His creative drive is core to his practice as an academic developer. His career in higher education began by looking after special collections of modern British art. He was responsible for curating touring exhibitions of sculpture and photographs as a way to bring new life to archival works leading to his commitment to open access to materials and learning for the benefit of all. Multimedia CD-ROM and website production in the 1990s continued this drive.

Liz Mossop began her career in higher education after several years working in veterinary practice, using this experience to develop the professional skills components of the new University of Nottingham veterinary curriculum.

Teaching vet students topics such as communication skills, ethical reasoning, reflective practice and business skills is crucial for their employability but tricky to get right. Innovative approaches such as a “Dragon’s Den” business game ensure engagement and industry involvement.

Professor Hilary Neve recognised the profound impact that education can have on the health of patients and communities whilst working as a volunteer doctor in Tanzania. This inspired her to make education an integral part of her career. She worked for seven years in GP education before joining the Peninsula Medical School in 2002. Hilary’s passion, as a GP, for providing high quality ethical, equitable and patient-centred health care, underpins her educational work, along with a deep interest in pedagogic ideas and scholarship.

Dr Sam Nolan has occupied a number of roles at Durham University. His focus has grown from personal innovation in teaching and support of his own students, to supporting students and staff more broadly across the university. He has become increasingly interested in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and actively publishes and supports others to share best practice within their disciplines.

Dr Julia Pansini-Murrell is a member of academic staff within the Faculty of Health Studies. Dr Pansini-Murrell has a reputation for creative and inspirational teaching and introduced Problem Based Learning into the undergraduate midwifery curriculum from 1995 with a full curriculum being implemented from 2000.

Her empowerment philosophy has developed students through PBL and her enthusiasm enables academics to develop personalised approaches to teaching and learning. She has facilitated fellow academics to engage in action research, publications and conference presentations on Problem Based Learning.