Gioia Panzarella

Global Sustainable Development

Gemma Gray

Department of Psychology

Bryan Brazeau

Liberal Arts

Gioia is an Assistant Professor (Teaching) and Director of Student Experience in the Global Sustainable Development (GSD) department at Warwick. Gioia was Senior Tutor for GSD from 2018-2021. As department Senior Tutor, Gioia took pride in working with personal tutors to provide the best support for students developing a GSD Personal Tutor handbook which is tailored to the GSD curriculum.

Gioia describes her main objective as a personal tutor ‘to empower my students to accomplish their academic objectives, as well as their wider plans beyond university’. Her commitment to encouraging students to work towards independence, building on their existing skillsets has led her to undertake a one-year part-time postgraduate certificate in Coaching, to enable her to develop materials and resources to share elements of coaching with colleagues and students.

Gemma is an Assistant Professor, Deputy Director of Student Experience and a personal tutor in the Department of Psychology. Gemma was recognised for her welcoming and inclusive approach to personal tutoring. She engages with tutees pre-arrival through a Padlet, introducing herself and encouraging students to do the same, an approach which she has shared with other personal tutors in her department. She encourages tutees to be honest about areas they find difficult and has developed a series of skills support sessions for students in the department to support, essay writing and general academic skills advice.

Through her work on supporting disabled students, Gemma adopts a person-centred approach, appreciating the individual impact that a disability can have, and providing reassurance and guidance on approaching academic work with this in mind. Her experienced supporting students has led to an IATL funded project exploring the experiences of students with Long Covid and/or Chronic illness, with the view to creating supportive resources, both for students and their personal tutors.

Bryan is an Associate Professor in the Liberal Arts department where he is Director of Student Experience, Senior Tutor and a personal tutor. Bryan’s commitment to fostering the “growth needs” of the student, through an inclusive and supportive approach is appreciated by his tutees and contributes to student success. Building on this approach, Bryan has developed a range of video content for new students in Welcome Week and co-created, with students a Study Skills and Community moodle page providing support for assessments, skills development, and helpful resources across the entire course.

As Senior Tutor, he champions personal tutoring excellence at the departmental level by encouraging the development of his peers. An example of this was an away day that he led for colleagues in collaboration with Wellbeing Services and the Faculty Senior Tutor to encourage staff to reflect on successes and challenges in the PT role and to learn how to better facilitate conversations around wellbeing.