Education Committee
Secretary: Dr Lindsay Murray - l.murray[at]chester.ac.uk
Education Officer: Charlotte Evans - education[at]asab.org
Evie Bentley, Hurstpierpoint, UK
Dr Becky Verspoor, University of Liverpool
Naomi Latham, Langford Village Community Primary School, UK
Sophie Mulcahy, Monmouth School for Girls, UK
Dr Alan McElligott, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Professor Julia Myatt, University of Birmingham, UK
Nicki Phillips, University of Lincoln, UK
Alex Goodland, Bristol Grammar School, UK
Sophie has been a secondary school science teacher specialising in Biology since 2016 and became a member of the ASAB education committee during her NQT year. Prior to teacher she completed her Zoology Hons degree in Aberystwyth University and worked as an outdoor education ranger.
Alan graduated with a BSc in Zoology from University College Cork (Ireland), and a PhD in Zoology from University College Dublin. His research group has carried out animal behaviour and welfare research over the years from fallow deer to cattle, goats and even kangaroos. The current main model species for their research are goats, dogs, cattle, poultry and buffalo. Twitter ID: amcell
Charlotte is the Education Officer for the Education Committee. She spent 12 years as a full time secondary science school teacher and then left to have adventures. Now working as an educator, facilitator and communicator, she is ASAB’s go to for the education committee - email her education@asab.org with your ideas, questions and news. The handsome beast in the photo is rescue collie - Big Dog Brody
Julia is the Director of Sustainability Education and a Professor of Collaborative Education at the University of Birmingham. Her background and research expertise lie in behavioural ecology and morphology and she currently focuses her teaching onto how we can better understand how animals are adapted to their natural environments to see how they may cope with adaptation to human induced change (i.e. climate change). She is an experienced field biologist, with time spent working in Indonesia with orangutans and Botswana with African wild dogs, lion, leopard and cheetah. She’s even been known to spend some time GPS tagging sheep in the past as well. Her research has mostly focused on biomechanics and locomotion, but also extends to the social structure of groups and how they interact (e.g. during cooperative hunting). She also has a strong interest in captive welfare and ensuring that individuals are able to display wild-type behaviours through modifications to their enclosures. These days though she is more often found applying her knowledge of collaborative animal behaviour to education, working to design and develop innovative and cross-disciplinary education programmes to ensure the next generation have the skills needed to operate in a complex, interconnected landscape.
After decades teaching Biology and Psychology in sixth form colleges and further education colleges, Evie now works as a private tutor. She is a regular contributor to publications of the Association for the Teaching of Psychology and the European Federation of Psychology Teaching Associations conferences. Her interest in animal behaviour began with getting her first cat when she was four. Currently she shares her home with one cat, three Polish bantams, two hives of bees and a garden full of insects, spiders and birds.
Lindsay is a Senior Lecturer in Animal Psychology at the University of Chester. Her research interests are predominantly in primatology, particularly personality, laterality, social behaviour and self-recognition, but also extend to wider aspects of animal behaviour, including elephant grief, human impact and ecotourism involving brown bears. She is on the Council of the Primate Society of Great Britain, where she is Editor of Primate Eye, and the Virtual Networking Scheme Committee and Education Committee of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, and is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. At home, her nonhuman menagerie currently includes two dogs, five cats, a tortoise and a hamster!
Naomi is the Head of Science at Oxford High Prep School. Her route to teaching has been a rather circuitous one… via almost a decade in animal welfare research and several years as an education officer at a commercial livestock farm (with a focus on ethically- and environmentally-friendly farming practices). Naomi lives with her family and has been adopted by two characterful rescue cats. Although her work has revolved around smaller animals, Naomi has always had a special place in her heart for elephants.
Becky is a lecturer in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool, with a Bsc (Hons) in Zoology and PhD in Behavioural Ecology. Becky teaches on a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including animal behaviour, ecology-based field trips, bird identification and statistics. Becky is currently training for her ringing licence in her spare time which will aid with teaching in the future. She is an avid cook, bird-watcher and has a rescue lurcher called Bolt.