Dr Camila Devis-Rozental is a Principal academic in Socio-emotional intelligence (SEI) and Service Excellence at Bournemouth University.

She has been included in the Disability Power 100 list in 2022 and 2023. This list recognises the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK, and Camila has been included in recognition of her work in humanising education, as one of the top 10 people within the education category.

She has also been nominated for the 2023 Positive Role Model for Disability Award at the National Diversity Awards

Camila has over 20 years of experience in the field of education with a focus on humanising education, by exploring how metacognition, prosocial behaviours, emotions and social interactions affect teaching and learning.

In her current role as academic lead and culture leader, she is applying her expertise and research in educational psychology, SEI and humanisation to embed the university's values and service excellence actions throughout the university, with a focus on academic excellence.

In 2019 alongside Susanne Clarke (Head of Service Excellence), Camila was recognised for this work and was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Award for creativity due to the innovative ways in which service excellence is embedded across BU, including our digital resources.
As part of this project, Camila adapted the Humanising framework developed by Todres et al. originally for health and social sciences, into a tool for humanising higher education. Additionally, the head, hand, heart plaid which she developed as part of her doctoral work to illustrate practicing with an embodied relational understanding has been built in as part of BU's definition of service excellence.

As part of her role in the Business School Camila supervises PhD and Masters students and she is involved in research on positive organisational culture and learning gain alongside colleagues in the school.

She is a Senior Fellow, mentor and reviewer for Advance HE and a Professional Affiliate of the Chartered College of Teaching.

Camila is the author of various journal articles, chapters and three books: Developing Socio-emotional Intelligence in Higher Education Scholars; Humanising Higher Education: A Positive Approach to Enhancing Wellbeing, which she co-edited with Susanne Clarke, and The Student Wellbeing Toolkit: Preparing for college, university and beyond published in June of 2023 by Routledge.

Camila has presented her work at multiple national and international conferences and she has been the recipient of various grants and awards. In 2022 she led a research project funded by ODHE (organisational development in higher education) with various universities exploring Communities of Practice.

She was awarded the BU Learning and Teaching Fellowship to develop her research entitled: Mind the Gap: supporting students to have a successful transition from school to university, enhancing the current provision and further strengthening the support given to both students and academics to develop areas of SEI to enhance overall wellbeing. Following this she was awarded a grant to create digital resources for pre-arrival students to support them in their transition to university, developed with the aim of humanising our digital spaces.

Externally Camila is the wellness expert adviser of the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust supporting over 26 schools to enhance staff and students' wellbeing. She also sits on various, equity, diversity and inclusion committees both at BU and externally. She is director and trustee of the Lightyear Foundation, a charity breaking barriers for disabled children interested in STEM.

Camila is always happy to connect with others interested in her research.

Research

2017-2022
Research Themes
• Development of a virtual toolkit for academics to enhance their practice as they support students starting university

• Funded project sponsored by the director of student services to lead a small team to develop a virtual toolkit for students hosted in the university online platform based on my research around socio-emotional intelligence, positive psychology and the transition from school to university. Some areas of the tool have been co-created with current students involved in the project.

• Project lead of the funded project “Putting the heart back into Higher Education: reconnecting and learning from HE Communities of Practice to enable hybrid ways of working” in collaboration with 3 other universities

• Wellbeing strategies to support students in their transition to university

• Academic Innovations in PGRs research development provision in Higher Education during COVID-19

• Postgraduate Research culture in higher education

• Staff attitudes about their role in induction activities in higher education

• Humanising higher education through the humanising framework lens

• Mind the gap: supporting students in having a successful transition to university, Funded project to explore how to support students in their transition to university

• Developing socio-emotional intelligence in higher education scholars

Publications

Grants

Outreach & engagement

Media coverage

This page is a shortened version of a BU academic profile. To view the complete profile, visit our Staff Profiles site.