Dr Felicity Healey-Benson
Phenomenological researcher. Ecosystem builder. Practitioner-academic.
I came into academia through the side door, and I have never regretted it.
Before I was a researcher I was a change agent. I worked in logistics and operations at Unipart, helped build one of the early e-commerce ventures in the UK, led learning and development for a large housing association, and supported Amazon’s then largest UK facility through its establishment phase. I spent years in the world before I spent years writing about it. That sequence matters. It shapes everything I do. That world-facing work never stopped. Across more than twenty five years I have designed and delivered leadership and management development, organisational development, and professional learning programmes across sectors from housing and local government to manufacturing, health and higher education. I have led ILM, CIPD and CMI programmes from level two to level seven. I have worked with teachers, headteachers, NHS professionals, council leaders and business owners. The question driving all of it has been the same: what does it actually take for people to think well, lead well and create value in complex conditions?
When I found hermeneutic phenomenology I found a way of thinking that could hold what I already knew. Not just facts and frameworks but the texture of how people actually experience learning, change, leadership and the messy work of becoming. I completed my doctorate while raising three young children, having recently lost my father, and navigating a significant health challenge. The thesis that emerged from that period became a Palgrave Macmillan monograph. The methodology I developed within it, Immersive Practitioner Inquiry, is now the foundation of my research practice.
I work at the edges where scholarship, practice and community meet. My research spans phenomenology, entrepreneurial learning and higher-order thinking. My practice spans schools, universities, community organisations and civic life. I build the infrastructure that connects them and I write about what that work reveals.
What I have built
Emergent Thinkers™ A living archive of research, reflection and practice writing, now in its seventh year and several hundred posts.
Cards of Insight A published CPD tool for facilitating higher-order thinking, used in Masters programmes and professional development contexts internationally.
Harmonious Heroes A school-community ecosystem project in Llanelli bringing primary and secondary schools, community organisations and civic representatives together to co-create curriculum-mapped learning for the whole town.
hanfod.NL A phenomenological networked learning community co-founded with Dr Mike Johnson, with a presence at the Networked Learning Conference since 2021 and a chapter in a Springer edited collection.
Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society Co-founded with Professor David A. Kirby, working to reframe entrepreneurship around people, planet and profit in equal measure.
Recognition and Awards
Best Paper, Enterprise Education Track, ISBE 2024, Sheffield. Finalist Best Paper, Enterprise Educator Track, ISBE 2025, Glasgow. Finalist Best Paper, Knowledge Exchange, ISBE 2025, Glasgow. Finalist Best Paper, Research Methods Practice and Inquiry, ISBE 2023, Birmingham. IEEC2023 Best in Track Award Winner. Shortlisted Best Concise Paper, ICDE World Conference on Online Learning 2019, Dublin, 800 delegates from over 80 countries. EntreComp Champion Award, European Commission, Brussels, November 2023. EntreCompEdu Teacher Pioneer, Bantani Education, 2020. Evidence Analysis and Decision-Making in Policy Award, March 2025. Part of UWTSD’s IICED team to achieve European Triple E Awards Entrepreneurial University Award. Nomination, We Are The City Rising Star in Education and Academia, 2020. Shortlisted, UWTSD Academic Member of the Year, 2019. UWTSD Feedback Champion, shortlisted, 2019. Faculty Change Management Silver, CIPD Awards Wales, 2018. Listed in Sam Conniff and Alex Barker, How To Be More Pirate, 2020. Learned Society of Wales ECR Colloquium Prize Winner, 2023. One of nine selected Early Career Researchers at the Learned Society of Wales Pathways to Peace Sandpit, February 2024.
Where I work
Doctoral supervisor, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Associate, University of Gloucestershire. Founder, Emergent Thinkers™. Co-founder, Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society.
Scholarly impact
Palgrave Macmillan monograph, 2026. Co-editor, Springer edited collection on phenomenology in networked learning, 2024.
“The book offers depth of insight with practical implications for educators in areas such as AI, professional development and navigating institutional structures. The author aims to create spaces for reflection, dialogue, and deeper attunement to the challenges and possibilities of facilitating thinking in higher education. It hits the mark on all of these counts. A must-read for the educator wanting to engage at a more fundamental level with the meaning of learning in higher education.” Associate Professor Andreas Walmsley, Plymouth Marjon University.
My published work sits across entrepreneurship education, phenomenology, higher-order thinking, educator development and sustainability. It is indexed through Google Scholar, ORCID and OpenAlex, and has developed a growing citation footprint across education, enterprise and practice-based research.
147 citations, Google Scholar. H-index 7. Generated without institutional research support or protected time.
Qualifications
BSc London School of Economics · PGCE · MBA · MA HRM · DBA · PG Dip CIPD · Dip NLP · SAC Dip · FHEA
Find me elsewhere
Google Scholar · LinkedIn · ORCID
For a full career biography, qualifications and professional associations, see my extended profile.
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Emergent Thinkers™ 