Joan is a Professor in Education Practice - Entrepreneurship and Head of the School of Strategy and Leadership (SSL) at Coventry University. 

Joan is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Adademy (SFHEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Sociery and Arts (FRSA). She has worked in Higher Education for 15 years, prior to which she worked in industry (in product development, testing and certification) for over 10 years and consultancy for 12 years. Her teaching experience covers the full spectrum of accredited and non-accredited programmes (undergraduate; postgraduate to doctoral level; professional development and vocational). She is an experienced  enterprise educator, leading on the development of a wide range of educational and training programmes for students and staff, regardless of discipline.

She has experince of developing fully online asynchronour qualifications.

She has successfully led on / contributed to a number of European projects, with a total value of over 5 million Euros, including:

• KNOW-ECO (2011-2013) ERDF, INTERREG IVC Mini-programme DISTRICT+ (Project Leader)
• European University Enterprise Network - EUEN (2011-2013) (Project Leader)
• Innovation University Enterprise Network- I-UEN (2011-2016)
• TRADEIT (2013-2016) an FP7 Project (Work Package Lead: Technology Transfer)

Projects with the British Council in Occupied Palestinian Territories included developing intrapreneurial skills in Palestinian Graduates and in Ghana on business incubation.  In she has also worked on projects in Oman, South Africa, China, Nigeria, Ghana and Malaysia, principally on curriculum design and staff capacity building. 

Research:

Joan's research interests embrace entrepreneurship in a range of contexts, but with a focus on the transformative effect of entrepreneurship through education, leadership and innovation. She is particularly interested in minority and disadvantaged groups.

She is currently external examiner at Portsmouth University and Buckingham University.