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Jessica Dunn

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

Staff Group(s)
Psychology

Role

Jessica Dunn is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences.  She lectures on the department’s MSc Occupational Psychology course as well as on the BSc Psychology (single and joint honours). Her broad research interests and research supervision surround the changing nature of work, stress management and organisational learning and development.

Career overview

As an occupational health psychologist and practitioner, Jessica’s work focuses on examining the nature of work engagement among various occupational groups and the impact of change on worker wellbeing outcomes, including identifying factors that have both positive and deleterious effects on physical and mental health. Her more recent work with organisations surrounds people management and change associated with automation.

Jessica holds a PhD in Applied Psychology and an MSc in Occupational Health Psychology from the University of Nottingham as well as a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Her PhD examined the nature and impact of high-risk frontline policework, using stress biomarkers and self-report data to better understand the relationship between occupational stressors, psychological strain and ways of coping in this population.

Jessica has held academic positions at the University of Nottingham’s UK and Malaysia campuses and has taught and conducted research in applied psychology in the UK, Malaysia and the Caribbean. She is a certified psychometric test user, at Level A and B, registered with the British Psychological Society and periodically works as a psychometric test item writer. Alongside her academic career, Jessica spent 6 years in the field of higher education accreditation, including as a policy analyst specialising in transnational qualifications frameworks.

Research areas

Jessica’s research interests and research supervision surround the changing nature of work, stress management and organisational learning and development. Her experience as practitioner has inspired research inquiry into the lived experiences of various occupational groups; centrally the police and other emergency response personnel - looking at issues such as exposure to violence and aggression, critical incident-related trauma, gender differences in the experience of work culture and ways of coping.

Having worked in the field of quality assurance in higher education, Jessica has published and presented research on the institutional self-study process and organisational effectiveness.

External activity

Jessica’s international network guides her external activity and collaborations. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, has served on a number of institutional accreditation panels and is a doctoral external examiner for Bakke Graduate University, Texas.  She holds professional membership with the American Psychological Association (APA), and membership with the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology (EAOHP).

Sponsors and collaborators

Professor Shona Kelly, Sheffield Hallam University

Professor Clemens Kirschbaum, TU Dresden

Dr Angeli Santos, University of Nottingham

Dr Nigel Hunt, University of Nottingham

Dr Roy Khong, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

Publications

Hayle, C. & Dunn, J.S. (2021). The UCJ's role in supporting continuous quality improvement in higher education institutions. In S. Gift (Ed.), Caribbean Quality Culture: Persistent Commitment to Improving Higher Education (pp. 329-341). Mona, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press.

Khong, R.W.L., Dunn, J.S., Yap, W. & Lim, C.M. (2016). Why do students attend lectures? Exploring justifications for attendance among undergraduate students from a British university in Asia. Journal of Developing Areas, Special Issue, 50(5): 497-506. doi:10.1353/jda.2016.0059

Santos, A., Leather, P., Dunn, J. & Zarola, A. (2009). Gender differences in exposure to co-worker-initiated and public-initiated violence: Assessing the impact of work-related violence and aggression in police work. Work and Stress, 23(2):137-154. doi: 10.1080/2678370903087934