Expert panel
Dr Ivan Ezquerra-Romano :"
Author
Dr Ivan Ezquerra-Romano combines a career in academia and entrepreneurship. His research focusses on perception, education and psychoactive drugs. He earned a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from University College London, where he studied how touch and cold sensations interact with each other. He is the co-founder of Drugs and Me, and NeuroSight. Both companies aim to reduce drug-related harm. NeuroSight provides consultancy services to organisations to implement harm reduction practices. Drugs and Me develops AI tools to make drug use safer, smarter and healthier.
Dr Dominique Thompson :"
Lead advisor
Dominique is a multi-award-winning General Practitioner (GP), young people's mental health expert, TEDx speaker, author and educator, with two decades of clinical experience.
She is author of The Student Wellbeing Series (Trigger Press) for young people, and co-author of How to Grow a Grown Up (Penguin Random House) for parents. Dominique has done two TEDx talks: What I learnt from 78000 GP consultations with university students and Understanding why. Dominique is a Clinical Advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Student Minds, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). She was lead clinical adviser for Aardman Animation's What's Up with Everyone? campaign.
Dr Lesley Black :"
Advisor
Lesley is Director of Student Support and Success at the University of Winchester. She leads on the whole student journey experience and provision, centring on student engagement, continuation and success. Her work within education has always been student-centric, focussing on inclusive practice and enabling students to achieve their potential. She has held leadership roles in many areas including disability services and mental health provision. Lesley is passionate about student wellbeing and the interplay between wellbeing and success. She is a University Governor and holds trustee positions outside the education sector. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Melinda Green :"
Advisor
Melinda is currently the Associate Director of the Safe and Respectful Communities Unit at Charles Sturt University in Australia. With an impressive 18-year tenure as an accredited social worker, she holds a Master's of Social Work, Advanced Practice, and maintains active membership with the Australian Association of Social Work.
Throughout her career, Melinda has demonstrated expertise in university counselling services, mental health support, family mediation, intensive case management, prevention and sexual assault support, as well as addressing youth homelessness.
Beyond her professional achievements, Melinda finds fulfilment as a mother to three remarkable young daughters, who inspire her and keep her grounded amidst life's unpredictable moments.
Dr Jon Sharp :"
Advisor
Jon is currently Director of Student Services and Academic Services at the University of East Anglia having worked in the higher education sector for over 25 years. Jon has held a variety of professional services management roles ranging from institutional leadership for quality assurance to heading up university initiatives to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Jon's main area of expertise is in leading organisational change, process development and policy design. In his current role, Jon has overall responsibility for delivering an excellent student experience with a particular focus on wellbeing and innovative service delivery across the student journey.
Nic Streatfield :"
Advisor
Nic is a senior leader who has worked in student support for more than 20 years at the universities of York, East London, York St John, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Royal Holloway, University of London. Nic was on the AMOSSHE, The Student Services Organisation, executive Board from 2015–2022 with the last five years as Vice Chair, Professional Development. He is an experienced psychotherapist and University Mental Health Charter assessor. He contributed chapters to the 2019 Sage publication Student Mental Health and Wellbeing in HE and for the 2021 Jessica Kingsley publication Preventing and Responding to Suicide in FE and HE as well as being a contributor to Universities UK's Suicide Postvention guidance.
Wilma Alexander :"
Accessibility advisor
Wilma Alexander is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy with Master's degrees in Human-Computer Interaction, Linguistics and Information Science. She has over 15 years of experience as a manager with the online learning team at the University of Edinburgh, where she specialised in usable and accessible digital practice, tutored on the groundbreaking Master's degree in Digital Education and developed online staff training on accessible e-learning and online tutoring skills. Since retiring from the University at the end of 2015, Wilma has provided consultancy services on all aspects of online learning, with a special focus on accessibility and usability issues.
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