Aileen is a lecturer in international fashion branding and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Aileen teaches both undergraduate and post graduate students in strategic fashion branding, brand development, fashion industry practices and CAD. With a background in garment technology and product development ‘Live’ industry projects and project based learning (PjBL) is the focus of Aileen’s teaching practice. This has seen Aileen work on a number of consultancy projects, as well as leading student projects with international companies such as, Nike, Macy’s New York, Gant, Tendam, Harris Tweed, Beatson Cancer charity and 18 Montrose.
Aileen has previously undertaken leadership roles at both department and school level i.e. as the Under Graduate Programme Portfolio Lead (UGPL) in the Glasgow School for Business and Society with responsibility for leading and coordinating 18 Programme Leaders in the development and organisation of their programmes and as the Programme Leader of the highly successful BA(Hons) International Fashion Branding programme.
Practice based teaching is the focus of Aileen’s Professional Doctorate studies with research being conducted on the relationships that take places between stakeholders (tutors, students and industry partners) during PjBL. Aileen’s subject specific research focuses on sustainable fashion, fashion brand extensions in the luxury fashion market in relation to consumer buyer behaviour, with her work being presented at International Conferences.
Aileen is also an investigator on the Erasmus + funded project, Sustainable Fashion and Employability Skills (SFES) where she is collaborating with staff and students from GCU, Madrid, Valencia, Nice and Madeira.