Joan is a Professor in Education Practice - Entrepreneurship in the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship (ICTE) at Coventry University. Formed in 2015, the Centre evolved from the Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship (IAE). Joan joined the IAE in 2009 and transferred to ICTE maintaining responsibility for the development and delivery of its academic programmes.

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 the Masters in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education and co-delivering the International Enterprise Educators Programme (IEEP). She has developed a range of modules that support enterprise and entrepreneurship skills development in undergraduates and postgraduates, regardless of discipline.

She is currently collaborating with Deakin University (Australia) to produce the first fully online Postgraduate Certificate in Entrepreneruship to be offered via FutureLearn.

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 external examiner at Plymouth University and has been external examiner at the Institute of Banking (Ireland) and Worcester University.