Teaching context and philosophy

I am an Associate Professor in Pathology and a teaching-and-research academic in the School of Biomedical Sciences, where I have taught since 2017. I teach across the Medicine and Medical Science degree programs, including Phase 1 and Phase 2 Medicine, and co-convened two third-year Pathology courses: PATH3205 – Molecular Basis of Disease (2017–2026) and PATH3206 – Cancer Pathology (2017–2023). Before joining UNSW, I practised as a clinician specialising in Internal Medicine (2007-2014) and taught Clinical Medicine at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. This combination of clinical practice, research and teaching shapes how I approach pathology education and allows me to connect fundamental disease mechanisms with their clinical consequences. My educational practice is supported by a Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education and Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. It has been recognised through School, Faculty and University teaching awards, including the 2019 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in the Early Career and Rising Star category.

My teaching philosophy is that integrating real-world applications with theory promotes deep learning. Pathology can appear to students as a collection of disconnected mechanisms, morphological changes and diagnostic facts. I therefore use authentic clinical problems and patient narratives to show how these elements connect and why they matter in practice. This approach encourages students to move beyond recalling information to applying it in clinical reasoning, interpreting evidence and understanding the experiences of patients. It also recognises that students enter our programs with different backgrounds, career aspirations and preferred ways of engaging with complex material.

My educational practice is evidence-informed and iterative. I begin by identifying a specific learning need through student feedback, assessment performance, observation or changes in the educational environment. I then design a response grounded in relevant educational principles, evaluate its effectiveness and use the findings to refine and sustainably embed successful practice. This approach underpins a cohesive body of work developing authentic, equitable and sustainable pathology learning, as demonstrated across the four domains of myEducation portfolio, with sustained impact on teaching practice within UNSW Medicine & Health.

My current focus extends beyond implementing innovations within individual courses. I use scholarship of teaching and learning to test assumptions about educational practice, disseminate findings through peer-reviewed publications and educational forums, and translate evidence into curriculum improvement. I also mentor junior educators and contribute to developing their teaching and educational research capability. Through my leadership in UNSW Human Research Ethics as the Presiding Member, I have worked to improve access to education-focussed ethical review, providing colleagues across faculties and campuses with an easier pathway to evaluate and disseminate their own teaching innovations.

Across these activities, my role has progressed from designing authentic learning experiences within my own teaching to supporting evidence-informed educational practice more broadly. The consistent purpose is to make pathology learning meaningful and accessible, demonstrate that educational approaches are effective and equitable, and create conditions that allow successful practice to be sustained and extended by others.