Leslie, Dacia Dr.

A former Commonwealth Scholar, Dacia believes that every individual can positively impact their world irrespective of their socioeconomic background and perceived incapacities . As such, she subscribes to the teaching philosophy that human development is an ongoing and continuous process, and her primary role as an educator is to support and expose students, with individual needs, to the theories, practice and methods of social policy analysis and development.

By adopting mix-method approaches in research and teaching, Dacia seeks to bring about positive and sustainable changes in the lives of learners while contributing positively to the wider society. Her current academic work is interdisciplinary, but her key interest is in ideas and good practices centred on offender management and human development. She is particularly interested in social inclusion as a basis for securing the effective [re] integration of Jamaican ex-prisoners returning to Jamaican society including persons repatriated by overseas governments.

As a former Regional Coordinator of the Commonwealth Scholars' Wales and Northern Ireland Regional Networks (2011-2014), Dacia is keen on creating opportunities for networking, collaboration and the cross-pollination of ideas. As such she gladly welcomes invitations to work with researchers with similar interests from other academic disciplines and jurisdictions