Lizana OberholzerLizana Oberholzer is Principal Fellow of Advance HE and an Executive and Leadership Coach and Programme Director of the Masters in Education and Programme Director for the National Professional Qualifications for School Leadership. Lizana specialises in Teacher Education and in particular in professional learning, teaching and learning, assessment, special education needs, curriculum design, school improvement, English, Media Studies, Leadership Development, and Coaching Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton’s Postgraduate provision. In her role Lizana leads on the coaching of Senior Leaders, Headteachers and Executive Leaders in Education, drawing on principles of coaching psychology. Lizana works closely with executive leaders across disciplines to strategically lead and support their teams to unlock their potential. She is passionate about professional learning, coaching psychology, leadership development, inclusion, governance and teacher development. Lizana supports the BELMAS Research Interest Group for Governing and Governance as a Convenor. She is also BELMAS Vice Chair and Trustee as well as a BAMEed Trustee. Lizana works with WomenEd as a regional lead in the West Midlands. She is currently the IPDA England Chair, as well as Chair of the IPDA International Committee. She chairs UCET’s CPD forum and is a member of the UCET Executive Committee. Lizana is a member of the APPG for the Teaching Profession, and Chairs the APPG SIG for Teacher Development. She is a proud trustee of a Multi Academy Trust, and is a committed educator, striving to provide learners with learning opportunities and life-chances. Lizana is actively involved in the British Psychological Society’s Division of Coaching, and she is the Past Chair of the division. Lizana is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching, an IPDA Fellow as well as a CMI Fellow. Her research interests centre around professional learning, mentoring, coaching, coaching psychology and leadership development within education, and other disciplines.
As a committed member of the BELMAS community, I served as a Research Interest Group Convenor for Governance and Governing for a number of years and worked closely with esteemed colleagues on building on the work of the RIG, as well as contributing to the field. BELMAS as an important association and organisation providing a home for educational leadership research and practice, where researchers and practitioners can come together to enable each other, share ideas, develop new ways forward and find solutions to enable others. I had the privilege to serve on the trustee board for the past 3 years, and in my role as Vice Chair of the Awards, Bursaries and Grants Subcommittee (ABG), I worked with a committee of committed colleagues, to ensure that Grants, Bursaries and Awards are made available to all BELMAS’ members, to enable them to create these spaces and opportunities to extend and develop their work. Annually, opportunities are announced to members, which are carefully reviewed by peer review panels in the field, and opportunities are created for all to have a chance to engage with this important membership benefit offered by the organisation. In addition, I work in collaboration with the ABG committee to ensure that the processes are clear, clear guidance is provided and that all members can engage. These Awards, Bursaries and Grants, not only help new researchers to start projects, it also enables opportunities to engage with doctoral work, events, as well as recognition for outstanding work. I actively support experienced and new colleagues to BELMAS to engage with these opportunities by leading on webinars and workshops as well as providing mentorship to enable others to move their work forward. As trusteed board member I not only bring my experience and expertise of the above role to the board, I also draw on my wide range of experience as a trustee and director of a MAT, Trustee board member for other charities, and as a governor. I am passionate about the field and the organisation and its work, and believe that it makes a profound difference to its members’ work and lives, and continues to inform the field of current research, practice and new ways of working. It will be a privilege to continue to engage with the board and to be of service as trustee to the BELMAS community to continue with the work of the ABG committee and beyond.
