I am an experienced higher education leader and researcher based at the University of Notre Dame Australia, where I work in the Pathways division on academic enabling and transition programs. My academic career is internationally oriented and includes visiting professorships in Belgium, the United States, and the United Kingdom. I mentor postgraduate students across four continents whose research focuses on equity, access, and support in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) contexts.
My expertise spans TESOL program leadership, literacy development, multilingual pedagogy as well as enabling and transitional education. I hold a PhD in Humanities Education from the University of Pretoria and am a former Fulbright Fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. I was a Visiting Professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. I am also rated National Research Foundation (NRF) researcher and a former member of the South African Academy of Young Scientists (SAYAS), as well as a Fulbright Alumna, COIL Alumna, and Margaret McNamara Education Alumna. I also served on the South African Council on Higher Education Accreditation Committee.
My research is organised around four interrelated foci: (i) problematising dominant understandings of English as a Language of Instruction in multilingual contexts; (ii) developing language teaching methodologies grounded in culturally sustaining pedagogy and informed by disciplinary linguistic requirements; (iii) reorienting second language education research within multilingual education systems and (iv) enabling and transitional education. To advance this work, I lead an interdisciplinary research project titled Exploring the preparation and experiences of teachers using English across the curriculum in five continents. My research orientation is firmly grounded in asset‑based pedagogies that seek to dismantle the hegemonic deficit models that have traditionally shaped language learning and teaching.
