Rate My Professor Lesley Brook

Lesley Brook serves as Research Adviser at the University of Otago, based in Room 230a of the Biochemistry Building, 710 Cumberland Street, Dunedin. She supports researchers in the Department of Biochemistry and the Centre for International Health. Holding a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Otago (1992), a Master of Professional Practice from Otago Polytechnic (2021), and a Diploma in Graduate Theology, Brook transitioned from more than 22 years of legal practice to specialized roles in research support and management within higher education institutions.

Prior to her current role, Brook was Research Projects Coordinator in the Research and Postgraduate Directorate at Otago Polytechnic, now part of Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology. Her responsibilities included organizing research events, editing publications such as the Relevant Research magazine, managing social media and webpages, developing impact plans, delivering workshops, and fostering partnerships with external stakeholders like businesses and communities. This work centered on research impact, aligning with frameworks from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's results-chain model and the Performance-Based Research Fund, which emphasize societal and environmental outcomes.

Brook's research focuses on evidencing research impact beyond academia and work-based learning in research management. For her master's project, she applied Q Methodology—using participant sorting of artwork images followed by semi-structured interviews—to evaluate emotional responses to contemporary environmental artworks in an exhibition. Analysis identified five viewer groups and themes of connectedness to environment, people, and self, informing pathways for behavioral change. She detailed the project's professional implications in "Extending the Professional Toolkit: A Case Study of Work-based Learning in Research Management" (Scope: Work-based Learning, 2021), demonstrating expansions in competencies like communication, knowledge creation, impact evaluation, and networking as outlined in Bayley et al.'s framework. This contributed novel applications to international arts research impact assessment.

Additionally, Brook co-authored "Publishing Rural Nurse Stories in a Book Has Impact" (Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 2024), drawing from a survey of 38 readers. Findings showed the book heightened awareness of rural nursing complexities across Aotearoa New Zealand, amplified Māori health narratives, and positioned it as a valuable teaching resource, with each physical copy reaching multiple viewers.