Hilary Wason

Hillary Wason joined Kingston University as an Adjunct Faculty Lecturer in 2004. She previously spent 15 years working in senior roles in the marketing and communications industry. In spite of the short-term, non-permanent nature of her contract, she has progressed to leading, planning and delivering a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate marketing and business modules with both national and international students. Her teaching practice is student-centred. She has designed a number of teaching innovations now used across her institution to deliver teaching excellence. These have had significant impact on students transition through their HE careers, specifically on the development of their critical thinking skills. Her career highlights include receiving runner-up in the Academy of Marketing Teaching Excellence Awards 2016 for a Marketing Downloads innovation and an Institutional Teaching Fellowship Award from Kingston University in 2016 for innovative pedagogic practice. The latter included funding to disseminate her work on critical thinking. She is pioneering the development of a new adjunct academic identity within Kingston, pushing the boundaries of the role from passive deliverer of teaching materials to a research-active educator for which she was specifically recognised during a recent prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation. Impact of work Hilary has disseminated her teaching innovations at seven national and four international conferences and through publication in four academic journals. Her Critical Thinking Skills Toolkit has been adopted at the University of Strathclyde, the University of Bedfordshire, the University of Boston, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina (Charlotte). Plans for the future Hilary plans to build on the national and international collaborations outlined in her application. A joint paper on critical thinking teaching in the US and the UK is planned with Dr. Melodi Guilbault from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. A follow-up session with the Office of Accreditation and Assessment from UNC Charlotte is planned to further develop the Advert diagnostic and discuss critical thinking testing. Finally, she will carry out further research to enhance curricula and improve critical thinking as required by employers.