Dr Alexandra Forsythe

Dr Alex Forsythe has been an educator and psychologist since 2003 and among her various accomplishments, she is Senior Lecturer at University of Liverpool, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Head of Professional Certification for the Association of Business Psychology. This combination of expertise and experience is the foundation of the knowledge that Alex applies to identify opportunities and problem solve in innovative and creative ways. She is committed to seeing her initiatives through, with an infectious enthusiasm to motivate and encourage others to strive towards excellence. "My career pathway has been both enormously rewarding and personally challenging: My children were born with medical conditions and my life was plunged into turmoil following my husband's sudden death. The difference between being able to complete my education and dropping back into a world of hopelessness was the peer network that developed through my education. My friendship network, my PhD students and my university peers who worked to help me look from the outside and find the solutions not only for me but for my children. When things were tough, there was an interesting topic or debate to engage in and I never felt the need to talk about my personal circumstances. I describe this as my headspace: the place that gave me hope and an external perspective, and it is something that has always influenced my approach towards Higher Education". Impact of work These experiences have shaped Alex into a focused educator who understands the value of partnerships and networks, who strives to help students and academics develop as people and to stay the course. She continues to develop to advanced professional standing in areas relating to human performance and then applying those principles to better support and inform students, academics and organisations on how to manage their performance. Her work in this area has attracted invited talks and papers. In addition to being Associate Editor Higher Education Pedagogies, Alex is Editor for the award-winning community of practice for psychological literacy, "PsychLiverpool", work which received a University commendation during 2016 for the Greatest Contribution to Student Experience.