Our team

Dr. Patrick Alexander

Patrick Alexander is Director of CECD, where he leads CPD, consultancy, and contract research activity in the field of education. He has over 15 years of experience working in applied and commercial social research, and more than a decade of experience working with schools on research and CPD activity. Patrick is also Research Lead for the School of Education, with oversight for research and knowledge exchange activity.

Jo Skelton

Jo Skelton is the Academic Lead for International CPD, for CECD. In this role, Jo works with international partners to deliver a range of CPD and consultancy projects, within the field of education. Jo’s academic specialisms include both Maths and English. She is a Senior Lecturer in Primary Mathematics and has a Master’s Degree in ‘Literacy Learning and Literacy Difficulties’.

Claire Wirth

Claire Wirth is an experienced Principal and Adviser with a demonstrated history of working in the primary education sector. Strong education professional skilled in Coaching, Educational Consulting, Curriculum Development, Team Building, and Teacher Training.

Eowyn Crisfield

Eowyn Crisfield has over 20 years of experience in the field of Applied Linguistics, and has a background that covers research, teaching and teacher-training, and supporting bilingual families. Eowyn continues to research in the field of bilingualism, with a special interest in promoting language equality in schools, and the integration of “languages across the curriculum”. She has extensive experience with a variety of curricula, including IB PYP, MYP, IPC, British Primary, IGCSE, and various Canadian provincial and US state curricula.

Professor Liz Browne

Professor Liz Browne is an active researcher having articles published in prestigious journals on issues such as data management, the early year’s standards, ICT and student voice. Her work is now focused on international partnership, delivering training in China and to visiting academics from China, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Dr Mark T Gibson

Mark has taught in schools in England for more than 30 years with 10 of those in senior leadership. He has been a senior lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire and in 2017-19 was an Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia. His specialism is educational leadership and management teaching predominately on post graduate programmes. He has published in high quality leadership journals and has led several research projects including ones focusing on international schools. These have focused on international school leadership, on their ownership and host-nation parental perspectives. The data from these projects is presently being written and submitted to journals for publication.

Dr David Colley

Dr David Colley is a Senior Lecturer in Child Development and Special Educational Needs/Inclusion at Oxford Brookes University. His experience includes teaching children and young people with autism and complex learning needs in both primary and secondary schools and leading specialist facilities for learners with social, emotional and attachment needs.

Mat Tobin

Mat Tobin teaches English and Children's Literature in Primary ITE and both the Primary PGCE and the 3-7 Early Years PGCE. He also teaches Early Children's Literature on the undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Studies and leads several modules on the MA/PGCert in Education with a focus on Imagination and Creativity and Children's Reading. Since joining Brookes in 2014 after 16 years of Primary teaching in Oxfordshire, Mat has been asked to deliver several keynotes across the UK on Reading for Pleasure, Picturebooks and Engaging pupils in the reading and writing process.

Dr Mandy Winters

Dr Mandy Winters developed and managed the Postgraduate Certificate in AdvancedEducational Practice framework: an extensive programme of professional development opportunities and masters level accreditation routes for the teaching profession. Mandy has organised and taught on the music secondary PGCE course and also taught on the Excellence in Cities Gifted and Talented Coordinators’ national training programme. Her teaching career has focused around developing challenging music and performing arts education for all children, including the very able.

Mary Briggs

Mary Briggs is the co-lead for the STEAM group in the School of Education which is the largest in the department which is actively involved in research across the subject areas in education. She is a consultant for a number of organisations about the learning and teaching of mathematics including TDA, NPS and the BBC. Mary has written a large number of books focusing on different aspects of education including the teaching of mathematics, assessment, use of IT in primary schools and leadership in the early years.

Lorna Shires

Lorna is a Principal Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. She has been a teacher and senior leader in secondary schools for over 35 years, including being a Headteacher of three secondary schools. She has served as an LA appointed Governor to secondary and primary schools in Oxfordshire and is also undertaking a doctorate in the development of expert teachers.

Dr Paul Wickens

Dr Paul Wickens is Programme Lead for the Postgraduate Programmes in the School of Education and subject co-ordinator for the MA Education (TESOL) pathway. His areas of research and expertise are: Corpus Linguistics; Systemic Functional Linguistics; spoken discourse analysis and English for academic purposes.