Our staff
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Louise Martin
Foundation Year Course Director
Louise’s Masters in textile design established the foundation for her design journey. From this platform, Louise started to build a career as an interior designer, regional design manager, stylist, and as a lecturer in fashion and textiles. Louise now has over 10 years' teaching experience as a lecturer. As a designer...
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Natalie Martin
Lecturer in Foundation Fashion and Textiles
After graduating with BA (Hons) Fashion Design from BCU Natalie has worked with brands such as Joseph Turvey and Hades Knitwear as a freelance designer, production assistant and illustrator as well as working on show production for presentations at London Fashion Week Mens. Working hands-on with small, luxury brands has enabled...
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Asha Marwaha
Senior Fashion Technician
Asha works as a Senior Technician for Fashion, where she can mostly be found in the Fashion workshop supporting students and demonstrating various garment construction techniques, using a wide range of industrial machinery including lockstitch, overlocker, buttonhole, walking foot and postbed leather. With over 20 years of...
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Kavita Najran
Evening Technician
Kavita graduated in Printed Textiles in 2011 at Winchester School of Arts, University of Southampton. After a year of interning, she then embarked on her teaching career and graduated in 2014 at BCU, in Education Studies in Design Technology. Kavita has been working at BCU for two years, as an evening technician, where her...
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Karen Nutton
Lecturer in BA (Hons) Fashion Design
After training for 4 years, Karen's graduate collection was sold through Craft Centre Cymru. A student placement gave Karen her first job as a technical developer where she trained on Gerber and worked primarily for Marks and Spencer on Lingerie and Soft Separates. She moved to London from Wales and after freelancing for 2...
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Dr. Dilusha Rajapakse
Lecturer in Textile Design
Dilusha is a Lecturer in Textile Design, and an active researcher in the areas of smart materials and dynamic textile design. Dilusha’s multidisciplinary practice-based research examines the fusion of smart materials and textile printing methods in order to integrate animated colour and pattern changing aesthetics onto...
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Alison Rapsey
Course Director - BA (Hons) Fashion Business and Promotion
Alison has over 11 years of teaching experience joining Birmingham City University as a lecturer in Fashion Retail Management in 2006. Following her years of dedication to the department, in 2012 she became Course Director for BA(Hons) Fashion Business and Promotion. Alison began her work in the fashion industry by working...
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Sian Riley
Lecturer in Fashion Design and Level 4 Co-ordinator
Sian studied her Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design Technology: Womenswear from the London College of Fashion, before completing her Master’s degree in Fashion Design and a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education at Birmingham City University. Prior to her work in education, Sian worked in the fashion industry for a large number...
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Claire Ritchie
Programme Leader MA Fashion Media Masters | Course Director BA (Hons) Fashion Branding and Communication
Working as a fully inter-disciplinary practitioner, Claire has been exploring the interface of fashion and a range of allied disciplines spanning the commercial and conceptual design fields. Following initial studies in applied fashion design, she has been busy styling spaces and bodies since 1995. Claire's academic expertise...
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Kelly-Marie Sifleet
Senior Technical Demonstrator
Kelly-Marie works for the School of Fashion and Textiles demonstrating a variety of practical skills to our students, including digital and screen printing techniques. She has a BA (Hons) degree in Textile Design (Surface Design) and a wealth of freelance experience teaching Screen Printing. Alongside a team of nine...