Professor Julieanna Powell-turner

Biography

I am a Professor of Environmental Organisational Sustainability and serve as the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, as well as the Director of the Centre for Research into Environmental and Sustainable Transitions (CREST) in the Faculty of Science, Business, and Enterprise. In these leadership roles, I facilitate and lead interdisciplinary research and innovation aimed at advancing global sustainability using the UNSDGs, with a particular focus on environmental stewardship, resource security, climate change resilience, industrial ecology, and the promotion of community social cohesion. My responsibilities include the development and implementation of the university’s research, knowledge exchange, and civic engagement agendas. This involves overseeing critical institutional frameworks such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF), as well as managing our Postgraduate Taught (PGT) and Postgraduate Research (PGR) portfolios. I collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders to realise benefits and facilitate inclusive, sustainable transitions. With over two decades of international experience in teaching and researching environmental and organisational sustainability, I have led initiatives across various sectors, including defence, security, agriculture, and manufacturing. I have secured significant external funding, made substantial contributions to academic, intelligence, and policy literature, and successfully supervised numerous doctoral candidates to completion. My drive for leading, teaching, research and supervision addresses pressing environmental challenges and helps communities and ecosystems in the face of a changing climate.

Teaching and Supervision

My teaching relates to the challenges, vulnerabilities, and opportunities in environmental organisational sustainability from a systems and smart specialisation perspective. This includes using appreciative inquiry in the areas of industrial protection, climate change, social cohesion in communities, resource management, fragile and critical environmental networks (shade shift), geopolitical risks, leading sustainability, stakeholder dialogue, sustainable supply chains, LCA, product lifecycles, circular systems, through life capability management, and research methods.

Research and Knowledge Exchange

My research relates to the intersections between natural resources, society and protection through life. The through-life approach aims to apply strategic foresight to future threats and opportunities that may reduce the likelihood and/or impact of disruptions through risk identification (disruptions), assessment (occurrence and impact), action (strategy and mitigation), and monitoring (reduce risk). A passionate advocate for participatory action research (PAR) and smart specialisation processes, focusing on creating sustainable, cross-sector partnerships that drive meaningful change in the defence, intelligence, security, business and civilian domains where my vision and insight align with evolving sustainability challenges and opportunities. I have secured substantial funding from UKRI and other government partners and supervise MSc and Doctoral students in the areas of climate action, social cohesion, energy transition, decarbonisation and socio-economics, sustainable composites, green skills, and benefits realisation. My research allows me to produce and transfer knowledge, fostering an environment that enables sustainable growth. I use appreciative inquiry and shape shift analysis to guide and refine best practices.

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