Professor John gained a BSc in Biology from the University of Sussex, an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London and a PhD in Plant Ecology from the University of Alberta, Canada.  She won a Killam Post-doctoral Fellowship enabling her to continue her research based at the University of British Columbia before returning to the UK to take up the post of Lecturer in Ecology at Sussex.  She progressed to Senior Lecturer and Head of Department, running the Department of Biology and Environmental Science for 7 years.  On moving to The University of Lincoln, Professor John became Faculty Director of Education, then founding Head of the School of Life Sciences and was promoted to Professor and her current position in 2017.

Professor John’s educational experience includes extensive personal engagement in teaching, running modules and degrees, developing new degrees and whole curriculum areas, admissions and student engagement, and in leadership roles, improving the performance and educational outcomes of whole departments.

In research, Professor John has supervised 14 PhD students to completion, has published over 50 articles and book chapters and has been awarded over £800K research income.

In the wider community, Professor John was a trustee and Honorary Chair of Education for the British Ecological Society for which she was awarded the BES Award, has held several external examiner posts and curriculum review posts at UK universities, was on the Peer Review College of the Natural Environment Research Council and is currently Chair of the Biology Curriculum Committee of the Royal Society of Biology.  She is a governor of the Lincoln University Technical College.  She has recently taken up the role of President of Sir Joseph Banks Society