Ruth was appointed as Associate Dean for Education at Ulster from 2017-2021 and takes an active role in learning, teaching and the student experience. Creating innovative programmes that enhance capability and capacity in work-based settings has been a constant feature of Ruth’s career and she has driven key partnerships that are critical to front line service delivery and transforming practice.
Ruth is a member of the UK Higher Education Forum in Policing and the National Police Research Hub. She was appointed as a member of the QAA Advisory Group for the Subject Benchmark Statement for Policing (2021), continuing to promote and develop the distinctive learning environment for policing in Northern Ireland. Her main teaching and research interests are police education and training, public procurement policy, governance and law, and she was a former independent member of the NI Procurement Board. She is part of a team within the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at Ulster that makes significant, evidence-based contributions to the wider policing environment.
Ruth has a worked on a series of European Commission projects within the security domain contributing to the development of social, ethical, legal and privacy framework across a diverse portfolio of projects encompassing policing, counterterrorism, cyber security and digital forensics. Projects within the H2020 portfolio include ASGARD and GAP. She is currently a member of H2020 Ethics Boards within ITFLOWS, APPRAISE and RESCUER. Internationally, she has designed programmes with a range of providers and has established relationships with a number of US and Canadian institutions including Rider University and the University of Guelph-Humber. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a National Teaching Fellow. In her spare time, she is a Trustee and Vice-Chair of a local community group, Discover Groomsport.