Centre Director
Kevin Conroy
Kevin has been Director of INTO Newcastle University since our launch in February 2007. Prior to that he was the Director of the Language Centre at Newcastle University and has been in Newcastle since 2000. Since completing graduate studies in the U.K. and the U.S.A. in the late 1970s, Kevin has taught and managed in international higher education for over 25 years in a wide variety of situations in the U.K., USA, Africa and the Middle East. During this time he taught widely at tertiary level, ran university programmes and departments, managed projects in teacher education and course book development for international universities, ministries of higher education and for the UN. His academic background is in English, Applied Linguistics and Educational Management (with postgraduate degrees in those three areas). Kevin has a particular interest in educational management, international collaboration, curriculum design, assessment, teacher education and staff development.
Academic Director
Helen Douglas started her working life after graduation as a Human Resources Officer for a computer manufacturer. She then moved to what is now Manchester Metropolitan University, combining her job as a lecturer with studying for her MSc at Salford University. Helen then worked at Northumbria University as a Principal Lecturer in Human Resource Management where she had the opportunity to work in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Kuwait. She joined INTO Newcastle in June 2007 and is currently combining the demands of her roles as Academic Director and Programme Manager for Business with completing her PhD from Durham University.
Head of Student Services and Systems
Rachel is a graduate of the University of Plymouth with a BSc in Politics, having more recently studied for a Graduate Diploma in Law at
Programme Managers
Chris has been working with INTO Newcastle University since the transfer from the Language Centre, where he worked for four and a half years. He was initially appointed as an EAP/EFL teacher but soon promoted to Pre-sessional Academic coordinator. In 2006 he became Programme Manager. Chris is an experienced Teacher Trainer with International House and previous to that worked in the state secondary sector. He spent 4 years in Sicily and a number of years working as Course Director for ILC International House.
Sriyani Jayaweera
Sriyani graduated in Chemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and completed her PhD at Newcastle University in Organic Chemistry. Having spent several years as a post-doctoral researcher at Sheffield University, Sriyani entered the teaching profession following a PGCE in Science and Technology. Before joining INTO in August 2007 as the Academic Programme Manager for Science & Engineering, Sriyani was the Programme Manager in Science, Mathematics and Computing at Newcastle College.
Marketing Manager
Lynette is a UK national and graduate of theUniversity of Leicester with a BA Honours and the University of Southampton with an MBA. She has a CIM Professional Diploma in International Marketing, accredited by the British Council. Lynette has four years’ experience in international marketing and student recruitment within the UK higher education sector. From 2003 to 2005 she was international officer at the University of Southampton and from 2005 to 2007 was marketing manager for London IBT.
