Miss Paula-Maria Cummins

About

Having qualified as a midwife, I predominately practiced on the Birth Centre, where I obtained a senior role. My specialism was supporting normal physiological birth and counselling women to make difficult choices outside of hospital guidelines. I also debriefed women affected by issues around pregnancy and birth.

I joined the midwifery department in 2018 as a lecturer and am working towards my FHEA recorded teachable qualification. I co-lead on one module and teach across other modules on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. My additional responsibilities include leading on the Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation. BFI ensures that newly qualified midwives are equipped with the basic knowledge and skills they need to support infant feeding effectively.

I am particularly interested in BAME student experiences in higher education and the national attainment gap and am currently undertaking the Diversifying Leadership programme. This programme identifies leaders and role models from a BAME background in academia and consequently I am part of a taskforce that will be addressing this topic within our courses. Kingston University has identified this as a key strategy and there is an understanding that positive role models from diverse ethnic backgrounds are crucial in initiating the necessary changes.