Professor Raffaella Folli
Professor Raffaella Folli is the Principal Investigator of the Architects of Change project. Professor Folli is a Professor of Linguistics and was previously Provost of Belfast and Jordanstown campuses from 2016-2021. She studied Philosophy at the University of Milan. In 1998 she completed an MPhil in Linguistics and in 2001 a DPhil in Linguistics at the University of Oxford.
She joined Ulster University in 2005 having previously held research positions at the University of Arizona and then the University of Cambridge where she was a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow from 2002-2005. Her main research area is theoretical syntax. In 2011 she received a Distinguished Research Fellowship award in recognition of her research achievements.
She is part of the linguistics team that in 2012 established the Ulster Centre on Multilingualism (UCoM), an information service for people raising or working with children growing up with more than one language.
She is involved in Language Made Fun, a programme supporting the language needs of multilingual and migrant children in NI, in collaboration with Barnardo’s and funded by Big Lottery Fund.
Jenny Jackson-Smyth
Jenny Jackson-Smyth is the Research Assistant and Project Lead on the Architects of Change Phase 2 project. She joined Ulster University in 2019 and has a background in Architecture after studying at University of Greenwich, London.
She has travelled and lived around the world, teaching English in Hong Kong where she was born. She is an artist and illustrator in her spare time and is interested in sustainability in the built environment and often uses this to influence her detailed pen pieces.
She had a solo art exhibition in 2018 at the Crescent Arts Centre where she displayed twenty original pieces and was selected as 1 of 100 finalists in Architizer’s One Drawing Challenge – both in 2020 and 2021, showcased on their online publications.
Lorraine Lavery-Bowen
Lorraine Lavery-Bowen is Ulster University's Schools Partnerships Manager, responsible for schools' outreach across our 3 campuses. Lorraine's current role develops School Outreach; to diversify the student body at Ulster University by empowering and supporting prospective pupils from underrepresented backgrounds to access university, including the new Ulster University Schools Discovery Academy — a fully inclusive, online initiative to enable "Outreach for All".
Lorraine studied Product Design & Manufacturing at Wolverhampton University and Interactive Teaching Technologies at Ulster University.
With over 19 years’ experience at Ulster University, in particular within Widening Access and Participation, Lorraine has held a number of roles including Adult Education Manager, External Relations Manager and E-learning & Academic Development. Lorraine has a strong interest in practice relating to equity and diversity in higher education, widening participation and barriers to student success/attainment. She holds a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, alongside holding a Board of Governor position for over 8 years with NICIE. She has been awarded the recognition as a Civic Ambassador of Ulster University.