About Sally Brown

I’m an incredibly fortunate person, having spent all my working life in education of various kinds (school teaching, FE lecturing, working for the prison and probation service, as a home tutor, as a playgroup leader, but mainly in higher education. Now I undertake modest amounts of independent consultancy in the UK and internationally, and enjoy being invited to do conference keynotes, as well as doing pro bono mentoring of mainly middle-ranking colleagues looking to advance their careers in learning and teaching. I’m a committee member for the Assessment in Higher Education conference held annually in Manchester https://ahenetwork.org/ahe-conference-2020/

My husband the inestimable Phil Race (http://phil-race.co.uk/) and I keep a very open house and spend a lot of time with our families: Mathew Brown, who is a sound engineer in Brighton, Angus Race who works for the BBC in Wales and shares his life with partner Becky, and their twins Molly and Chloe (born in 2016) and Pete Brown, who works for Sage in Newcastle. He and his partner Les live in the same street as us in Newcastle so we see a lot of Poppy (born 2009) and Lucas (2013).

Newcastle is a great place to live for people who like the arts: we regularly go to the theatre and cinema in Newcastle, and Phil enjoys many classical concerts at the Sage, Gateshead. I read a lot of fiction, often books recommended and discussed by my Benton-based Book Group (which actually grew out of the babysitting circle I belonged to when Matt and Pete were small).

I also volunteer at my grandchildren’s school @bentondeneprim where I listen to Year One and Year Two readers as well as reading them stories as a class, both my own stories and from favourite books. My family, home and garden mean a lot to me and together these enable me to make a great deal of jam each year!

I’ve written a lot over the years across the full academic range of outputs, including editing and writing books, journals, informal articles for newspapers and so on, but nowadays only really co-author when it is helpful to one of my mentees.

I’m grateful for the recognition and honours I’ve received both in terms of formal accreditation by the Higher Education Academy (Principal Fellowship in 2012 and a National Teaching Fellowship in 2008), and Honorary Decorates from Plymouth, Kingston, Edinburgh Napier, Bournemouth and Lincoln Universities. Having been chair of the Association of National Teaching Fellows for three years, I am still active in supporting the Association especially through Twitter @NTF_Tweet, and attending their annual symposia.

I’m still an Emerita Professor at Leeds Beckett University and a Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University, where I am always keen to present at their annual teaching and learning conference (June 3-4 in 2020). In previous years I’ve held Visiting Professorships at The Robert Gordon, Plymouth University, and the University of South Wales, and Adjunct Professorships at the University of Sunshine Coast, University of Central Queensland and James Cook University, (all in Queensland, Australia).