Sally became interested in the role creativity can play in children’s learning and development whilst working as a Primary School teacher. Moving into the commercial world she worked in sales, marketing and communications for 15 years in the art education supplies industry. During this time she continued to build links with the education community,  promoting the value of creativity and the arts in the curriculum through commercial sponsorship and support for a number of organisations working to deliver creative activities in schools, galleries and museums.

She then moved into the public sector to work for East Midlands Development Agency where she led large scale economic development projects to promote the improvement of skills across the region. Her particular interest has been in promoting the value of enterprise skills, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills to young people to help equip them for rewarding careers and roles in society. During this time she helped Arts Council England to engage with local authorities and other key regional cultural partners. Sally now works for The Government Property Agency supporting Civil Service wide transformation and innovation through new Ways of Working.

Whilst working for Crayola, children’s arts and creative products,  Sally came into contact with The Creativity Centre Educational Trust, becoming  a Trustee in 2003. She has continued to work with the Trust drawing on her wide experience of cross-sectorial working to support the organisation and became its Chair in 2019.

Coll is passionate about developing people. He has over twenty years in the field of education and training, working with individuals, communities, organisations and professional groups. Across the social spectrum Coll offers in-depth experience as a practised mentor for young people starting out, through to coaching senior leaders at the top of their careers.

Coll is currently senior manager in Professional Development at NHS England and is an experienced People and Organisational Development practitioner.

Iain has a 50-year highly successful track record in creativity, with early work in music, painting and performing arts. He studied Engineering Design at the University of Bath winning a National Student Design Prize. His career began with designing nuclear power stations. At 26, he was one of the lead designers of the pioneering World’s first air-cooled Nuclear Fuel Store in Wales.

IBM headhunted Iain as one of the UK best young Engineering Designers to demonstrate advanced CAD CAM systems. He worked with design teams in Automotive, Ships, Bridges, Manufacturing, Trucks, Nuclear Power, Consumer Goods and more. His IBM career took him from heading the UK Geographic Information Systems team into sales of Large Systems, creating complex proposals up to $40M in every private and public sector. Iain led marketing teams in the UK and Europe for $12Bn revenue before leading the global IBM effort to create the largest sales process for 120,000 sales people in over 100 countries with benefits over $1Bn/Year.

Iain is now a private Consultant and Mentor in such diverse areas as Process Design, Sustainability (created world’s first report demonstrating how more IT could reduce global emissions 15%), Green Data Centres, Product Innovation, IT, HPC, Web Design, App Development and Marine/other Inventions. A leader in creativity, Iain has always had a passion for growing teams’ creativity capabilities as well as for his photography and teaching advanced sailing and navigation. He is also an Enterprise Innovation Consultant and an active member of the Education Advisory Board for 8billionideas. He recently completed two Masters degrees in the use of IT to reduce Global Emissions by 10% and in Artificial Intelligence.

I am the Programme Lead for the MA Education at Plymouth Marjon University and have worked in higher education for 19 years. My teaching experience spans a wide range of education programmes, including Foundation Degrees, Bachelor’s top-ups in Early Years and Teaching and Learning, and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) through the PGCE.

My role has involved curriculum design, module leadership, dissertation supervision, and extensive academic and pastoral support, particularly within widening participation contexts.

Over nearly two decades in HE, I have had the privilege of working closely with a diverse and inspiring student body. These relationships have been central to the evolution of my practice and have shaped various student-led and collaborative academic initiatives. My teaching philosophy is grounded in inclusive pedagogy, critical reflection, and nurturing academic confidence, particularly through engagement with academic writing and professional identity development.

In addition to my teaching, I have published academic book chapters on a range of themes, including reflexivity in practitioner research, feminist mixed methods methodologies, the impact of toxic masculinity on professional identity, and the intersection of personal and professional development in education. These publications reflect my commitment to critical and socially engaged scholarship.

My current research includes a cross-cultural project with a colleague in the UAE exploring comparative pedagogical approaches between the UK and UAE higher education contexts. This study explores how differing cultural, institutional, and policy contexts may shape teaching practices, student engagement, and academic identities.

My primary research interest lies in academic identity within college higher education (CHE). I recently completed my PhD, entitled ‘An Exploration of College Higher Education Academic Identity using The Bead Collage Technique’. This study employed an innovative arts-based visual methodology to uncover the nuanced, often marginalised experiences of academics working within a CHE context. The research contributes to broader debates around professional identity, recognition, and legitimacy within a traditionally university-dominated sector.

Through both my teaching and research, I remain committed to advocating for the visibility and value of CHE, championing creative methodologies, and fostering meaningful academic dialogue across institutional and cultural boundaries.

Caroline Fryer is the Chief Executive of the Creativity Centre Educational Trust. She has over 30 years’ experience of team leadership and facilitation in creativity development and problem solving for a wide range of organisations in the UK and overseas, and has contributed to creativity in education projects for the DfE and QCA. She is also an experienced researcher, internationally published academic author, conference and events organiser.

She has presented at many conferences and also organised the first international ‘Creativity & Cultural Diversity’ conference in the UK, featuring key creativity pioneers from around the world.

Caroline is Co-Editor of the Creativity & Human Development International eJournal at www.creativityjournal.net.

Marilyn Fryer BA(Hons) PhD GradCertEd CPsychol AFBPsS FRSA, is a qualified teacher and chartered psychologist. She is Programmes Manager for The Creativity Centre Educational Trust (CCET), which she co-founded with Caroline Fryer in 2000. Marilyn was formerly Reader in Psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Her PhD research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council is reported in the second edition of Creative Teaching and Learning coming out soon.

At Leeds, she developed a number of accredited Applied Creativity courses accessed by a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate students, and supervised research in this field. She also undertook commissioned work for the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA) which contributed to their publication ‘Creativity: Find it, Promote It!’ which was distributed to all schools in England.

She also undertook commissioned work for the National Advisory Committee on Creative & Cultural Education (NACCCE) led by Sir Ken Robinson. This included commissioned papers on the transferability and assessment of creativity as well as invited comments on all drafts of the publication, ‘All Our Futures: Creative and Cultural Education’ with regards to creativity development. She then produced staff development materials on creativity for the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE).

Marilyn’s work has been published internationally, including by the European Union. She has delivered keynote presentations on creativity development in Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, Japan, and Malaysia where she spoke at the International Forum on Creativity in conjunction with the opening of the Nobel Prize Centennial Exhibition. She has served as external examiner for PhDs in the UK (Institute of Education) and Australia. She is a recipient of the 105^th Birthday Torrance Lifetime Creativity Award.