Autumn 2025 Cohort Introductions by David Thum

Grant Jones - School of Education

2025-01-28 05:00:21 UTC

Hi Everyone. I am Grant and I will be starting my permanent journey with WSU in the School of Education as Associate Lecturer Work Integrated Learning which will see me teach in the Professional Experience space. I have been working as a Sessional Academic within the School of Education for the last 8 years teaching on a range of subjects such as Professional Experience, Mathematics for Primary School students, Primary Human Society and its Environment and STEM Education. Prior to this I worked full time as a primary school teacher in Western Sydney and have held many roles including Assistant Principal and Instructional Leader. In my spare time I love to travel and explore new places with my wife and daughter. This year we have Uluru and the Cook Islands planned. I look forward to meeting you all on February 10.

Matt Thompson - School of Education

2025-01-29 20:33:41 UTC

My name is Matt Thompson, and I am commencing this year as an Associate Lecturer, Education Studies in the School of Education. I have been a primary school teacher for 12 years and absolutely love teaching! For the past 6 years I have worked in the School of Education as a Sessional staff member. I am looking forward to meeting you all at our first face-to-face session.

Tiffany Patterson Norrie- School of Health Sciences

2025-01-29 21:58:12 UTC

Hi Everyone,

my name is Tiffany and I am an Associate Lecturer in Public Health at the School of Health Sciences. I have spent most of my early career working clinically as a dietitian and as a researcher with Western. While completing my PhD and doing casual tutoring I realised that I also love teaching. Thankfully in March last year I secured a permanent role and here I am doing FULT! I am so excited to be doing some learning in the teaching space as prior to this, I have had nothing!

Asides from my professional life, I am also a mum to three little people- My eldest is starting Kindy this year! and I am a happy wife :) We love travelling, exploring and being active.

Looking forward to seeing all of you soon.

Lindsay McCabe - School of Social Sciences

2025-02-03 01:50:40 UTC

Hi all, my name is Lindsay and I am a proud palawa (Aboriginal) woman living on Darug Country. I started at WSU last year, after several years casual teaching at the University of Sydney. Looking forward to meeting everyone next week!

Miryam Chinellato - School of Nursing and Midwifery

2025-02-04 10:12:40 UTC

HI everyone, My name is Miryam, and I have started my journey this week as an Associate Lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

I am a Registered Nurse and completed my Master's in Nursing, specializing in Clinical Teaching at WSU in 2019. Since then, I have worked as a Nurse Educator in both public and private hospitals across Western Sydney. I am very passionate about promoting excellent patient care and empowering new nurses to reach their full potential. I truly love education and am passionate about fostering a learning environment that supports growth and development. In addition, I’ve been teaching at Sydney Uni’s Medical School, coordinating skills and simulation sessions, which has been an amazing experience. I’m looking forward to meeting you all on Monday and starting this exciting new chapter!

Reem Rendell - School of Health Sciences

2025-02-05 05:54:37 UTC

Hi, my name is Reem. I started at WSU about a year ago teaching neurological physiotherapy. I previously worked as a physiotherapist and team leader at a Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit. I am looking forward to the FULT course. Outside of work I am a mum to a 2 and a 4 year old and (and a big 5 year old goofball lab!) and I enjoy bushwalks and reading.

Emily Rytmeister - School of Humanities & Communication Arts

2025-02-06 22:21:51 UTC

Hi everyone,

I'm Emily and I'm a newly decasualised Associate Lecturer in Communications. I've been teaching across Comms, Arts, Media and Design at WSU since 2017, as well as a couple of other institutions. I'm excited to be on board, and looking forward to undertaking the FULT journey with you all.

Estee Ch'ng - School of Business

2025-02-06 22:56:21 UTC

Hello everyone. I'm Estee, a newbie to WSU. I started last week as an Associate Lecturer, International Business, in the Marketing, International Business, Sports Management and Hospitality (MIBS) discipline. I have been teaching in the higher education sector for over 10 years. As a lifelong learner, I enjoy learning and sharing ideas and having conversations with likeminded colleagues and our future leaders (our students). I am excited to embark on this journey with you, starting with FULT. Looking forward to meeting all of you next week!

Mark Goodhew, School of Nursing and Midwifery

30020863 — 2025-02-06 23:27:26 UTC

Hi everyone,

I am Mark. I have been working as a registered nurse for over 35 years and have predominantly worked with people who experience mental distress and use alcohol and other drugs. I commenced employment as a senior lecturer in the SoNM in June 2024 and started teaching nurses in 2008 as a casual academic. I am interested in co-designing and co-delivering education with people who experience mental distress and substance dependence to challenge students' stigmas and provide them with lived experience perspectives. I am looking forward to meeting everyone on Monday.

Jennifer Dove - School of Education

2025-02-07 00:14:41 UTC

Hi folks,

I'm Jennifer Dove and I started last week as Associate Lecturer, Secondary Education. I have been a high school English teacher for 17 years and have been working with the School of Education as a Research Officer and sessional academic over the past few years while I finished my PhD with a wonderful panel of WSU academics. Their passion for public education and social justice drew me to this role. I am looking forward to learning more about teaching adults and to meeting you all next week.

Jacqui Willis - School of Humanities and Communication Arts

2025-02-07 01:54:34 UTC

Hi everyone,

I’m Jacqui and I am a new decasualised academic working in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. I just commenced at the end of January in the role of Associate Lecturer – Arts (Core Subjects). I worked at Western for over 13 years as a casual and worked (concurrently) for 11 years at the College.

I chose to become an academic because I have a love for teaching and learning, but also research. I am hoping that FULT provides me with the opportunity to ground my teaching in theory a little more, and to be more reflective about the way I teach and why.

I look forward to meeting you all soon!

Isabella Leung - School of Health Sciences

2025-02-07 04:48:22 UTC

Hello Everyone, I'm Isabella from the School of Health Sciences. This will be my third year working as a Traditional Chinese Medicine lecturer and clinical coordinator with WSU. Prior to this, I worked as a researcher with NICM HRI on a clinical trial using a herbal medicine formula for Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia. Fun fact: See that brain in my photo? That's actually my own brain 3D-printed from an MRI scan I had during my PhD!

Looking forward to meeting everyone and learning ways to enhance my teaching, engagement, and learning outcomes for my students at the FULT workshop!

Melissa MacLean - School of Social Sciences

mmaclean17 — 2025-02-07 06:16:21 UTC

Hi everyone, my name is Melissa and I am an Associate Lecturer in Counselling Practice at the School of Social Sciences. I have been in this role for a year, and am a decas academic. I have been teaching at WSU for 6 years and am looking forward to learning more about teaching and to meeting you all next week.

Zhigang Lu - School of Computing, Data and Mathematical Sciences

2025-02-07 11:34:19 UTC

Hello everyone,

My name is Zhigang Lu. I joined WSU in August/2024 as a senior lecturer. I followed a conventional path in higher education: working as a casual tutor and casual lecturer during my PhD, then beginning to supervise PhD students as a postdoc fellow, then a lecturer and am now a senior lecturer. Being an academic is the ideal option for me to explore the boundaries of the uncharted world. I am also passionate about educating the next generation of scientists and engineers, and I believe FULT would greatly enhance my teaching skills. Looking forward to meeting you next week!

Jeeva Sajan- School of Social Sciences

2025-02-07 11:54:14 UTC

Hi everyone,

I am Jeeva and joined as Associate Lecturer in Social Sciences this year. My background is in Urban planning and Geography. I have been working as a casual academic for many years teaching and coordinating subjects at WSU. I am really looking forward to enhancing my teaching skills further and meeting you all next week.

Kaiya Aboagye - School of Social Sciences

2025-02-08 05:41:39 UTC

Hi I'm Kaiya, I am an Afro-Indigenous person, mum of boys (3) and interested in Black Indigeneity. I write and research about Afro-Indigenous relations and Im based in the School of Social Sciences. I unit coordinate a core unit called, Introduction to Indigenous Social Sciences. Ive been with WSU since 2021 and taught casually with Sydney Uni for many years before scoring the role at Western. Bell Hooks book, Teaching to Transgress, taught me that I have a love for pedagogy and I am really excited to join you all in this space. I am hoping the course will assist me to connect with others and deepen my teaching praxis (in and outside the classroom).

Rob Doyle - School of Nursing and Midwifery

30060221 — 2025-02-08 10:05:40 UTC

Hi I'm Rob. Cadigal man brought up on Darkinjung country. Nursing background with experience working in Indigenous community mental health. I've been working at WSU for about 4 years as a research assistant, casual tutor and most recently as an associate lecturer for the School of Nursing. Working on finishing up my MRes candidature this semester, thesis is looking at the barriers and facilitators in teaching cultural responsiveness to undergrad health students. Here's a picture of me looking stoically off into the distance as I think about how many words I still have to write before June...

Reshin Maharaj - School of Nursing and Midwifery

2025-02-08 21:32:17 UTC

Hi everyone, I joined WSU in July 2024. Prior to that I worked at UNE. My background is in mental health and I have over 25 years experience as a mental health nurse. I look forward to meeting you all and doing the FULT together.

Sara Shishehgar- School of Nursing and Midwifery

2025-02-09 01:22:57 UTC

Hi everyone, I joined WSU in July 2024 as a senior lecturer in nursing. I've been teaching since 2015 in UTS, Charles Darwin University and now in WSU. I am experienced in women's health and poeple from culturally and linguistic diverse backgrounds, including immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

I am attending FULT program to improve my teaching skills and keep myself updated about modern teaching methods. See you all soon.

Susanne Armour - School of Nursing and Midwifery

2025-02-09 03:13:39 UTC

Hi everyone, lovely to meet you all. I'm Susanne, or Sus. I started in my lecturer role with SoNM in June, after a semester of casual work. I've been a midwife for 26 years and have worked in Germany, NZ and Australia. My last role was CMC for Models of Care at Auburn Hospital. I have a MHSc in Midwifery, my research was about midwives' lived experience when providing termination of pregnancy care in the second and third trimester. I've taken the questions I had after that project into a PhD and am in my final year. I feel very distracted atm as you can imagine lol.

The only thing keeping me grounded are the walks with my happy hippo Helga. We rescued her last year, she is a Bull Arab cross weighing in at a sweet 45kgs and she is almost 4. Looking forward to meeting you all tomorrow!