Cathy Willatt

Learning Designer

Cathy has worked for the University of Portsmouth since 2014. Prior to joining the CADI team, she was a Teaching Fellow in Learning Development based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She has worked with an extensive range of students over the last 10 years, in 1:1 tutorials, bespoke workshops, and timetabled classes. In addition, she has contributed to module design, created accessible learning materials, and applied pedagogic research to enhance student attainment. Before moving into teaching she worked in the public sector for 14 years (NHS and local government), which included working as an internal consultant, conducting service reviews, facilitating service redesign, and working with teams to improve performance outcomes.

As part of her MA in Education, Cathy undertook practice-based research to explore the use of coaching approaches in 1:1 teaching, evaluating short-course training programmes, and organisational learning processes in HE. She also holds an MSc in Professional Research Methods, which included research on the use of narrative approaches to engage marginalised voices in education.

Individual, team, and organisational learning have been a thread throughout her career, and in her role as Learning Designer Cathy remains committed to designing and supporting meaningful learning experiences for students and staff.

When not at work, Cathy can usually be found hiking the National Trails.

Areas of interest:

• Promoting inclusivity in higher education
• Building capability and confidence in learning
• Personal narratives of learning
• Using feedback for continuous improvement