The Open University

Professional biography

Max joined the OU in 2021 as a Lecturer and Student Experience Manager in the Faculty of Business and Law. Her role is focused around the Leadership and Management programmes UG and PG. A thought leading pracademic, she has worked in industry for over 30 years as an Events and Marketing specialist undertaking positions in the public, not-for-profit and private sectors. She began her teaching career at Halesowen College in 2008 as a HE Course Leader and taught exclusively on their Chartered Management, Chartered Marketing and Business Management degree programmes. Prior to coming to the OU, Max spent nearly a decade as a Prison Education Manager at the largest prison in England at the time. She was responsible for the introduction and management of Distance Learning and the Open University provision, supporting over 2000 students during that time.

Research interests

Max's research is focused on Black Women Academics in the UK. Her Doctorate proposal is centred around the introduction of career and talent programmes for black women academics in the UK and the impact they can make in the historically flawed landscape of Further and Higher Education. By actively trying to break a systemic glass ceiling, using a variety of learning methodologies, interventions, historical accounts and career theory, she would like to lead more black women closer to an equitable, fair and celebrated presence in academia.

Teaching interests

Specialist subjects are Marketing, Events Management and Business Start-Up. At previous University institutions, she has written and delivered 20 credit module materials for, Coaching and Mentoring, Salon Management, and Work-based Learning. She believes in enabling people reach their potential regardless of their circumstances and her practice is very student centred. Inclusivity and empowerment are evident in her work. She teaches vocational subjects, directly linked to self-employment as well as enabling people to have more employability choices. She has chaired exam boards for Business HNC, Business HND and FD Media Studies.

External collaborations

As part of Max’s commitment to developing her academic practice and performance, she is a member of Women’s Higher Education Network (WHEN) and a participant in the 100 Black Women Professors Now programme. The programme provides opportunities to collaborate with an elite team at the Open University that includes the VCE. She also collaborates with academics and professionals at other institutions in the UK and America to create and explore research and scholarship opportunities, that can make an impact on the awarding gap.

Outside the workplace she sits on the *ACE Dance and Music Steering group. The group are responsible for fundraising, community activities and events that benefit children and their families through the power of dance.

_{*ACE (African Cultural Exchange have been running for 27 years in Birmingham and are the leading African contemporary dance company in the West Midlands}