Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities

Biography

Professor Lisa Smith was appointed interim Head of the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities on 1 August 2023. She is a member of the Executive Board and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Prior to her current role, Lisa was Head of School of Criminology (2021-2023) and the inaugural Director of the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies (2017-2021). Lisa is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences.

Lisa received her undergraduate degree in Psychology (with a minor in Philosophy) from the University of Toronto, and an MSc in Forensic and Legal Psychology from the University of Leicester (by distance learning). She relocated to Leicester in 2006 and completed a PhD in Psychology before joining the School of Criminology as a Lecturer in 2011. She has held a number of roles in Criminology, including Admissions Tutor, MSc Course Director, PGR Director, and Deputy Head of School.

Lisa’s research focuses on the role of forensic science in the criminal justice system, and takes an interdisciplinary approach bringing together criminology, psychology, law, and forensic science. She was the principal investigator on the EU-funded INTREPID Forensics Innovative Doctoral Programme (2014-2017). More recently, she led a team of researchers, working with human rights organisations, to develop and implement new methods for collecting DNA evidence in low-resource environments to enhance access to justice for survivors of sexual violence, with funding from the Humanitarian Innovation Fund and the Ring for Peace Foundation.