Advisers - Universal Learning Solutions

Elizabeth Nonweiler

Elizabeth Nonweiler is a consultant and trainer in the initial teaching of reading and writing. She has advised authorities and provided training in hundreds of venues around the world.

In England, she is a member of the English Hubs Council and advises the Department for Education as a reading expert.

Internationally, Elizabeth has worked in many countries, particularly in parts of Africa and the Caribbean. She was a member of the critique team for the new Nigerian English Studies Curriculum developed by the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council of Nigeria. She was central to the implementation of synthetic phonics teaching in Cameroon and the five year “Leading for Literacy ” project in Trinidad and Tobago. She has also provided training for teachers in Uganda, Kenya, Morocco, Qatar, Slovakia, France, Spain, Germany, Holland and China.

Elizabeth spent many years as a classroom teacher and so she understands what it is like to teach small children. She has taught older children and adults who struggle to learn to read and write and so she understands the difficulties they face.

Elizabeth offers training and consultancy through her organisation ‘Teach to Read’ teachtoread.com.

Judy West

Judy gained her teaching qualification at Cambridge University. After that she taught English in Sweden and Bahrain before completing her MA in English for Speakers of Other Languages at the London Institute of Education. She has since co-authored a number of books for Macmillan publishing including a major course for children, Bravo. For many years she was a Senior Lecturer for Teacher Training in a London College, whilst also visiting many countries for training and research. She is currently a freelance author, teacher and trainer. She has a special interest in literacy development in Primary age learners and has written three children’s picture books.

Publications include:
Hello English for Egypt (levels 123, 456) Balberry Publishing; Super Starters, Delta Publishing; Sunrise English for Kurdistan, Macmillan Education; English for Palestine, Macmillan Education; Smart Beginner International, English for Teenagers, Macmillan Education;

Prof. Pauline Dixon

Pauline Dixon is a Professor of International Development and the Co-Director of the Global Challenges Academy. She is Newcastle University’s lead for the Global Challenges Summit.

She has extensive experience working in Asia and Africa. Her major research interests are the theory of Austrian Economics, spontaneous order in economics, school choice, children’s literacy, giftedness and creativity. She also is involved in research that considers interdisciplinary issues around informal settlements including health, gender, water, sanitation and nutrition.

Pauline is the PI for the “Women in Development” Network within the Global Challenge Academy a member of the Centre for Research on Entrepreneurship, Wealth and Philanthropy (REWP). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. A Member of the Peer Review College for the ESRC/UKRI. She has published three books and over 55 peer reviewed journal articles and chapters. She is currently a Co-Investigator on the £20 million UKRI GCRF Water Security Hub – India, Colombia, Ethiopia and Malaysia, Co-Investigator 2019-2020.

Sue Lloyd – MBE

Qualifying as a teacher in 1964 Sue originally taught using the ‘look and say’ method with her primary school pupils. Her head of department changed the method to ‘synthetic phonics’ and the school noticed a vast improvement in reading and spelling with the children achieving average or above average ability.

In 1990 Sue met Chris Jolly the founder of Jolly Learning, who was also interested in the structure of English language and how the alphabetic code worked. As a small independent publisher the two worked together to produce ‘The Phonics Handbook’ in order to share Sue’s teaching methods. Retiring from teaching in 2003 Sue concentrated on Phonics training and has since trained teachers in 29 different countries. Sue is driven to support the learning of the 20% of children who find learning to read and write very difficult. These children can be supported and achieve results if they are taught with the synthetic phonics method and decodable readers. Sue’s passion for the teaching method has recently led her to be awarded the MBE for introducing synthetic phonics which has now been made government policy in the UK.

More recently Sue is devoting her time to create a synthetic phonics website to explain what should be taught and why some children struggle and how to support them.

Professor (Mrs) Comfort Memfin Ekpo BLS, Ed. M.Ed. Ph.D.

Prof Comfort Ekpo commenced her career in March 1981 as a part time lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and was appointed Lecturer III in January, 1983 in the then College of Education, Uyo which later became the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS), today knows as the University of Uyo in 1991.

Prof Comfort Ekpo worked steadily in the university system and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998 and Professor (the first female Professor) in the University of Uyo on October 1, 2001.

She is a teacher trainer and has taught many courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, served as an External Examiner to various Universities and supervised numerous undergraduate and postgraduate projects. Prof Ekpo is a member of many professional bodies locally and internationally. She has produced many instructional media packages and programmes for teaching and learning and has more than sixty publications including books, chapters in books, journal articles and monographs to her credit.

Prof. Comfort Ekpo has served the nation of Nigeria as member of the Governing Council of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1993 to 1996, RITMAN University from 2015 to date, and is a member of the Common Wealth Scholarship Interview Panel. She has served the education industry as team leader for the National Universities Commission (NUC) in regulating accreditation and as a panel member for drawing up Basic Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) in Education for Nigerian Universities.

She has also served the University of Uyo as Head of the Department of Educational Technology and Library Sciences (1993 to 1999), as Director of Institute of Education (2000 to 2006), as Chairperson and member of various University committees including Communication Officer for Science Technology Education Post Basic Project UNIUYO (Step-B Projects); and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) 2006 to 2008.

She is the team leader for the collaborative research on Synthetic Phonics, the Jolly Phonics Read and Write Now (RAWN) Project. Her research interest is in courseware development and management of instructional media. By her appointment as the Vice Chancellor in December, 2010, Prof Comfort Ekpo made history as the first female Vice Chancellor and the fourth substantive Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo.

Prof. Comfort Ekpo is a married to Prof. Memfin D. Ekpo, a Consultant in Clinical Pathology and has children. She is passionate about the quality of education and is a strong advocate for female empowerment and youth development, maintaining that these are essential for building a strong, united and prosperous nation. She is a disciplined administrator and academic who has impacted greatly on the lives of youths and women through her brainchild Women in Total Development (WIT-GIRL).