Leah is a Senior Lecturer, Senior Fellow of Advance HE and the Lead for Internationalisation in the Department of Nursing at University of the Highlands & Islands [UHI]. She was a Professor in Nursing at the Christian Medical College, Vellore in South India prior to moving to Scotland in 2011. Leah is passionate and committed to excellence in nurse higher education. She has a long track record of teaching excellence and curriculum innovation, both supported by significant research and resource development previously in India and now in Scotland.
Leah as a teacher has been consistently recognised for her passion, student support and role modelling as described in the words of her students: “Very professional, extremely passionate, instils in us a love for learning and advance our careers.” She has received several awards throughout her career in recognition of her excellence and commitment to teaching and research including the competitive Scottish Crucible award in 2013.
Dementia, an unchartered territory for Leah until 2012 has now become her area of passion and commitment. She has successfully developed and implemented award winning comprehensive dementia curricula since 2014: [Being Dementia Smart’ (BDS) at the University of Stirling and ‘Dementia Enhanced Education to Promote Excellence’ (DEEPE) at University of the Highlands & Islands] as core components of nurse higher education for workforce development in response to the growing prevalence of dementia nationally and globally. She was awarded the prestigious Churchill Fellowship in 2019 in recognition of her expertise and leadership in dementia education.
Her most recent contribution to the Covid-19 Action as a Churchill Fellow includes the first comprehensive Covid-19 dementia education resource for blended and flexible learning in education, health and social care contexts that is attracting significant national and international interest.