Pam is a chartered psychologist (British Psychological Society) and qualified teacher with additional academic qualifications in history and education. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She joined Leeds Trinity University in 2013 as a senior lecturer, and was promoted to Reader in Childhood, Youth and Education in 2016. She has a keen interest in a multi-disciplinary research perspective, considering psychological, biological, social and historical perspectives. Her PhD research focused upon play-based learning in 4-6 year olds. She is an extensively published academic author whose edited book ‘Perspectives on Play’ has been published in three successive English editions, and additionally in Greek and Portuguese (Brazil) where it was adopted as a set text by the national teacher training programme.

She is also an active blogger and conference/training presenter, seeking to create accessible dissemination formats to bring insights from psychological and educational research to the attention of non-psychologist professional audiences, education professionals in particular; and to the general public. Her key focus is the well-being of children, young people and their families, and the development of social policy to support this. She completed her first degree in Psychology with The Open University while caring for her three young children, becoming a graduate psychologist in 1995, and between 1995 and 2019 taught psychology, sociology, social policy and child development in Higher Education, School, Further Education and Community Education. This includes over 20 years as an Open University tutor and resource writer.