Meet the Research Culture & Researcher Development Team
We work as one team across Research Culture and Researcher Development. We aim to ensure that every member of our research ecosystem is supported to be at their best, and to be part of an engaging, fair, and collegial environment in which people help each other to succeed and to make informed, active choices about their career ahead.
Go to the Research Culture pages | Go to the Researcher Development pages | Find out more about us
Leadership Team
Dr Kay Guccione
Head of Research Culture & Researcher Development
Kay leads the Research Culture & Researcher Development Team and is Co-Director of the Lab for Academic Culture. The team works in pursuit of our ambition that every member of our research ecosystem, should be supported to be at their best, and to be part of an engaging, fair, and collegial environment in which people help each other to succeed and to make informed active choices about their career ahead. Kay's own specialisms and research interests are in mentoring, research supervisor and leader development, and in community building – anything that revolves around a good quality conversation. Kay is a Principal Fellow of the HEA and in 2018 she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in recognition of her impact in creating developmental reseach cultures, and this is where her leadership at UofG focuses.
Email | Staff Profile | LinkedIn
Blog: The Hidden Curriculum in Doctoral Education
Blog: Supervising PhDs
Dr Joanna Royle
Researcher Development Manager
Joanna leads the Researcher Development Team responsible for delivering our rich frameworks of university-wide professional development for all researchers, including Postgraduate Researchers, Research Staff, and Research Supervisors. These programmes, activities and events are designed to enrich researchers’ skills and working relationships, foster their talents, and accelerate their professional prospects. Joanna also leads the Talent Lab suite of research leadership programmes. Joanna is excited by the pedagogy underpinning excellent training, and has committed her career to widening participation, building academic literacies, and fostering supportive communities for different cohorts connected with the University of Glasgow.
Dr Rachel Herries
Research Culture Manager
Rachel leads the Research Culture Team, overseeing delivery of the five UofG Culture Priorities: Open Research, Research Integrity, Career Development, Collegiality and Research Recognition. This includes leading several flagship projects related to the Career Destinations of Researchers, the PI Development Strategy, and career enhancement for Research Professional Staff. Her aim is to enable all colleagues who contribute to research to develop their confidence to create positive environments, to be better connected with each other, and ultimately to be able to do the best possible research.
Charlotte Bonner-Evans
InFrame Project Manager
Charlotte is the Project Manager for InFrame, a Wellcome funded collaboration (with the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh) which aims to address the paucity of systematic knowledge on how collegiality can be fostered, recognised and rewarded within research leadership. The project also aims to expand the definition of who can be viewed as a research leader to include a wider set of role types, and individuals across the research ecosystem. Charlotte is a highly experienced Project Manager and higher education professional and a trained coach and mentor. She is a consultant to the UKRI Future Leaders' Fellows Development Network.
Specialists, Project Officers & Analysts
Dr Rhoda Stefanatos
Researcher Development Specialist (Research Staff)
Rhoda leads on Researcher Development for Research Staff and the institutional implementation of the Researcher Development Concordat, working closely with the College Researcher Networks and College Concordat working groups. She oversees the development and delivery of a wide range of opportunities, experiences, and resources for Research Staff. As an experienced researcher and researcher developer Rhoda aims to empower researchers to communicate, create, collaborate and make informed strategic choices about their career and development while contributing to a positive and open research culture.
Dr Emma Waters
Researcher Development Specialist (PGR)
Emma leads of Researcher Development for Postgraduate Research Students. She is a passionate educator and committed to ensuring PGRs develop skills during their degree which will benefit a career both in and out of academia. PGR Researcher Development at the University of Glasgow is a rich programme of over 250 courses, including mandatory courses which focus on essentials for all researchers and optional courses which allows PGRs to identify their own areas of professional development. Emma comes from a lecturing background and has experience in pedagogical design and promoting inclusive teaching practices. In 2023 she was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Glasgow for her work on improving teaching practices to make geoscience fieldtrips more accessible to students.
Dr Rachel Chin
Researcher Development Specialist (Writing and Communication)
Rachel leads on the development and delivery of writing and communication support for postgraduate research students and researchers across career stages. Her approach to writing support encompasses writing as an individual practice (how you write) and a technical process (what you write). The current writing support offering is wide ranging and includes bite-sized courses, practice-based sessions, writing retreats and an annual two-week long writing festival. Rachel is an active academic writer. She has authored a monograph, articles, book chapters and an edited volume in the field of modern history.
Dr Elaine Gourlay
Research Culture Specialist (Communities & Collegiality)
As Research Culture Specialist for Communities & Collegiality, Elaine facilitates our researcher communities, networks, and mentoring programmes. Having gained her PhD at UofG, Elaine is passionate about finding ways to ensure that UofG staff and students are able to get the most out of their experiences at the university. Elaine is enthusiastic about fostering strong relationships and believes everyone can find their place in the UofG community. Therefore, her work is centered around ‘Collegiality’, which is a Research Culture priority for UofG.
Dr Danielle Barkley
Research Culture Specialist (Career Destinations)
Danielle leads on the design, delivery, and evaluation of 'Pathfinder,' a programme of career development opportunities, networks, mentoring and events for postgraduate researchers, and research staff. She brings experience supporting career and professional development in higher education, and has a keen interest in helping individuals explore options while making informed and empowered choices. Danielle has a research background in English literature and loves to collaborate with individuals from a wide range of academic disciplines.
Dr Cole Collins
BA ECR Network Project Officer
Cole is the Project Officer leading on the Scottish hub of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network. His role fosters new opportunities for researchers to further their professional development and collaborate across Scotland, and supports researcher-led initiatives in the SHAPE disciplines. Cole is an art historian with specialist interest in visual cultures of the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly queer and feminist art. As an editor, he has worked on scholarly, creative and reflexive texts. Cole is an advocate for parity in education and the cultural sector.
Dr Rachel Lyon
Researcher Development Specialist (English Language for Doctoral Writing)
Rachel supports University of Glasgow postgraduate researchers who are learning English for Doctoral Writing as an Additional Language (EAL-PGRs) to become effective, independent academic writers, through leading the design and delivery of a framework of initiatives and support provision for EAL-PGRs and their supervisors. Rachel is a writer, and her research background is in the field of creative writing, contemporary art history, and critical theory.
Karen Gordon
Talent Lab Project Officer
Karen leads on the Glasow Crucible and Flourish elements within the University of Glasgow suite of intensive Talent Lab research leadership development programmes. The Talent Lab houses initiatives that focus on developing leadership in research, and researchers as leaders, recognising the power of each of us to influence the research environment and the research culture in which we operate, and to create a place to work in which we can all thrive. Read more about Talent Lab here. Karen is passionate about the power of community and aims to bring this value to empower and encourage other researchers. Outside of this, she is completing her PhD in Psychology and teaches in the Widening Participation Team.
Dr Charmaine Lim
Community Knowledge Analyst
Charmaine is a Community Knowledge Analyst for InFrame, a Wellcome-funded collaboration with the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. InFrame aims to address the gap in our understanding of how collegiality can be fostered, recognised, and rewarded within research communities. As part of the InFrame team, Charmaine works closely with Community Knowledge Analysts across the three institutions. She provides analytical expertise, research, and evidence to develop a new framework for research leadership. Charmaine is an experienced qualitative researcher and policy strategist with a passion for collaborative work that delivers mutually beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders.
Dr Panagiota (Joulie) Axelithioti
Leadership Developer
Panagiota, aka Joulie, leads in co-developing a leadership training programme for the InFrame project, funded by Wellcome. Joulie is passionate about workplaces that invite colleagues to embody all their diverse identities, find or create a space for belonging, and lead with the flag of collegiality. In her role in InFrame, she aims to expand inclusive workspaces, empower colleagues to engage with opportunities for self-development, understand leadership beyond strict hierarchies, and initiate the culture change they want to see happening.
Joulie’s previous experience is in (a) culture and behaviour change around climate change, and (b) challenges of leadership around Equity/Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility (EDIA), and the challenges of taking on roles beyond that of a research expert.
Zain Ul Abidin
Community Knowledge Analyst
Zain is the Community Knowledge Analyst for the InFrame Project, a Wellcome-funded collaboration between the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and St Andrews. In this role, he leads stakeholder engagement, develops comprehensive support packages for applicants, and synthesises data and literature to inform best practices, ensuring initiatives are creative, innovative, impactful, scalable, sustainable, and evidence-based. His work is central to building inclusive frameworks for research leadership, democratising leadership roles, and fostering supportive, equitable research environments.
An alumnus of the Erasmus Mundus Programme on Education Policies for Global Development (GLOBED), a prestigious award funded by the European Union, Zain brings a global perspective to his work. His passion for community building, knowledge sharing, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration drives his commitment to creating research cultures that recognise and reward collegiality, promote inclusive leadership, and cultivate environments where diverse perspectives thrive and contribute meaningfully to research excellence.
Administration
Researcher Development Administrator
Research Culture Administrator
We are currently recruiting an administrator to support the Research Culture Team across priority projects that address the 5 University Research Culture priorities. The role include supporting our Pathfinder Career Narratives blog posts series, and Pathfinder LinkedIn page, as well as event and budget management for the team.
Interns
Fátima Sal
Research Staff Events Intern
Fatima, currently undertaking a PhD in International Law will be coordinating key development opportunities and initiatives for Research Staff. These include leading on Coffee Connect, coordinating a annual programme of hybrid Research Staff Assemblies and supporting a growing workshop programme. As Research Staff Events Intern, she hopes to create meaningful opportunities that enrich the experiences and support the professional development of Research Staff.
Fátima's research is delving into the fascinating role of nomadic peoples in a globalised world of illusory borders. With a background that spans management, policy consulting, and communications, she bring a hands-on, people-focused approach to everything she does.
Silvia Renon
PGR events Intern
Silvia is the PGR Events Intern for 2024-2025. She will coordinate and manage events targeting UofG PGRs including the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, the Visualize Your Thesis event, This PhD Life conference and other events during induction weeks.
Silvia is very passionate about improving the research experience for postgraduate students and contributing to building a strong academic community. She believes in embracing diversity and in the role that university can have in creating equal opportunities for all researchers. She also believes in the power of connections and in the importance of creating meaningful relationships and long-lasting collaborations. Outside her role as Intern, she is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering in the field of cardiovascular applications. She loves reading and baking and enjoy hosting art classes every two months for people to get creative.
Freya Walker
Research Communities Intern
Freya is the Research Culture Intern for Research Communities. She is responsible for assisting Dr Gourlay in the running and administration of the Thesis and Catalyst mentoring programmes, as well as the Research Professional Staff Network. She is also the President of the PGR Society and has taken part running conferences for the School of Culture and Creative Arts. She is eager to widen participation within the PGR community and make lasting community connections. Additionally she is, in the second year of her PhD in Art History/History researching depictions of the British Empire in Visual Satire.
Dan Perry
Pathfinder Career Destinations Intern
Dan is the Pathfinder Career Destinations Intern for 2024-25. He is responsible for supporting the scheduling, delivery and communication of Pathfinder events. Increasing visibility of Pathfinder, supporting with securing, editing and promoting the Pathfinder blog series on the Auditorium and compiling and maintaining Career Destination Data and Resource Bank. Dan is passionate about hearing, learning and sharing from career and educational journey narratives. Outside of his PhD in Education, Dan is a volunteer mentor, enjoys walking, listening to music, watching films, reading fiction, writing poetry, arts and culture and is learning three languages. He has recently started learning Salsa and Bachata dancing.
Sumayya Usmani
Writing and Communications Intern
Sumayya (DFA Creative Writing) is the Writing and Communications Intern for 2024-2025. She supports the PGR blog, writing workshops and retreats, the University's annual writing festival, 'Write of Spring'. Sumayya is passionate about the written word and community building around books and creating a welcoming space for all to explore with words and literature. She firmly believes in equality, diversity and inclusion, and that every voice has the right to be heard.
Sumayya is a PhD student researching the culinary legacies of India’s Partition in 1947 and how oral recipe sharing preserved cultural memory and identity. In her spare time she loves to cook, listen to very eclectic music and runs a writer’s community.
Key Partners
Samantha Oakley
Research Governance and Integrity Manager
Samantha sits within the Research Policy, Governance and Integrity portfolio in Research Services. She leads the Research Governance and Integrity team to deliver policy, training and support structures, for PGRs, for Supervisors and PIs, and for Research Staff. Sam and her team play a key role in developing researchers and in supporting research that is conducted to the highest standards of academic rigour, to increase the quality of, and trust in, our research record.
Valerie McCutcheon
Research Information Manager
Valerie sits within the University Library and leads on the areas of Research Data Management and Open Access publishing for the University of Glasgow and plays a key role in supporting transparency, rigour, and reproducibility through facilitating early sharing of research data, software, code, and materials to a wider audience.
Suzie Shapiro
Wellbeing Lead (Student Support and Wellbeing)
Suzie leads the University Wellbeing Team within Counselling & Psychological Services. She is the key University contact for PGR Mental Health. Suzie is passionate about building mental health literacy through accessible and engaging communications and activities, and supporting UofG PGRs to build their self-knowledge and access the right workshops, services and support. Suzie can be contacted by PGRs and their Supervisors.