Meet Our School of Social Sciences and Health Team
Professor Rob McCusker
Head of School – Social Sciences and Health | Head of Academic Delivery & Development
Rob is the former Head of the Division of Community and Criminal Justice (De Montfort University) and former Director of the Centre for Fraud and Financial Crime (Teesside University) and holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship (Charles Sturt University, Australia) and an Adjunct Professorship (UiTM in Malaysia). Rob provides strategic and policy advice to government bodies and international organisations, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, on any crime which crosses a border. He is a retained expert on ‘anti-money laundering’, ‘combating organized crime’ and ‘combating terrorism and its funding’ for the Economic Crime and Cooperation Division, Council of Europe, a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Centre in the USA, which provides research and analytical capability for the Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism at the US Department of State, and is a retained expert on ‘anti-corruption’ for the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative (European Union).
Prosperine Chibule
MA, BA ED, PGCE, A1 – Programme Manager – Health and Social Care
Prosperine began her teaching career in Zambia and taught at the secondary and university levels.
After moving to England, she pursued an MA in health and social policy while working for Westminster Mind as a befriender and Mencap as a support worker. An MA and social care experience enabled her to gain insight into the UK’s health and social care system.
Prosperine is also a qualified worked based assessor and has been assessing students in different care settings for the past eight years.
Prosperine’s interests are in contemporary issues in health.
Jack Adams
MSc, BSc, FHEA – Programme Manager – Social Sciences
Jack completed his MSc in Social Policy and Social Research from UCL, focusing on contemporary social problems, the policymaking process and research methodologies. He has since developed research interests in criminal justice, looking at cross-European comparisons of being on remand with critical reflections on policy differences and exploring restorative justice through trauma-informed practice. As a visiting lecturer in Criminology & Sociology at Buckinghamshire New University, Jack is also interested in the world of work, leisure and a Universal Basic Income as a new form of income distribution.
Pardis Asadi Zeidabadi
Dr, PhD, MA, BSc – Programme Manager – Social Sciences
Dr Pardis Asadi Zeidabadi has been a lecturer at the City University of London, Newcastle University and Goldsmiths University. She completed her PhD at Newcastle University in December 2019. Her PhD thesis seeks to explore women’s perspectives in feminist and women’s activism in Iran on important aspects of their political identity and priorities. Her research explores how women with different beliefs respond to their political and social changes. She is broadly interested in the area of gender and politics and the intersectionality of race, gender and class.
Professor Bruce Sheppy
MBA, FHEA – Senior Lecturer – Social Sciences and Health
Bruce is an experienced senior management professional having served as group Marketing director of a South African hospital group listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and as CEO of a pan-African medical insurance and health management group with offices in Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda. After moving to England in 2003, he changed his career to that of an academic, trainer and consultant. In England, he has also served as a director of an NHS Acute Trust, a Community Association and a Mental Health charity in London.
A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Member of the Institute of Directors, he is also a visiting lecturer at a number of London-based universities and colleges in the subject areas of strategy, marketing and leadership. He has an extensive publication record in peer-reviewed journals and is on the editorial board of a leading healthcare management journal, and is a director of an environmental management institute.
Kristina Ilieva
Dr, MSc, MA, BScEcon – Lecturer – Social Sciences
Kristina has completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Sussex, funded by the ESRC. She researches social movements, migration and humanitarian crises. Kristina conducted 11-month ethnographic fieldwork in a border town in Bulgaria located on the Balkan route travelled by those fleeing conflict and famine in the Global South. Her research documents a diverse spectrum of local responses to refugees. Before joining DGHE, Kristina taught sociology, criminology, research methods, international development, and environment modules at the University of Sussex. She holds an MA in Global Political Economy (2013) and an MSc in Social Research Methods (2016) from the University of Sussex.
Theona Elizee
Lecturer – Social Sciences
Theona brings a wealth of experience in advocacy, research, negotiations and administration, policy and management gained in quasi-regulatory roles and work environments which are focused on timelines and directly working with intergovernmental bodies and in collaboration with international organisations.
Theona possesses a strong background in both companies and intellectual property law administration having held a management position in the field for more than 10 years which involved trademarks, patents and company application examination and approval, including post-registration matters. As such, she has in-depth knowledge of branding, pharmaceutical patenting, and regulation gained through her PhD in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel University.
Busy or not, Theona plays and umpires in netball with social clubs in London and volunteers with non-profit organisations in the OECS Sub-Region on varied projects.
She is indeed grateful to be lecturing at DGHE as it allows her to utilise transferable skills to impart knowledge to varied groups.
Andrew Thomas
DipSW, BSc(Hons), MA, SFHEA – Lecturer – Health and Social Care
Andrew is a freelance educator working primarily in health and social care. Andrew worked as a social worker and senior social work practitioner with adults for seven years before moving into social work training. He has subsequently worked primarily within higher education, developing and delivering social work degree programmes at Havering Collee and the University of Essex. Andrew has provided safeguarding training for home care workers, cross-college training for teachers at Havering College and interprofessional training for medical students at Barts.
As an Advanced Practitioner at Havering College, Andrew conducted formal teaching and learning observations across curriculum areas, coached new teachers and developed a peer observation policy. At Essex University, he redesigned the selection process. Andrew became a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2016 and currently works in adult education alongside teaching HND courses in Healthcare Practice and Public Services.
Chay M. Burt
LLM, LLB, AFHEA – Lecturer – Social Sciences
Chay is currently completing his PhD in Law at the University of Sussex, where he has also completed his LLM in Law and LLB in Law with Business Management. His doctoral research, as an expansion of his undergraduate dissertation, focuses on different approaches to regulating assisted dying across various jurisdictions. Other research interests include comparative legal studies methodologies, socio-legal research, healthcare law, and criminal law & criminology. During his PhD, Chay has taught various modules in the LLB Law undergraduate course at the University of Sussex – specialising in Criminal Law. He is currently a Lecturer in Public Health MSc at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
