Dr. Christa Sathish

Passionate about Cultivating & Crafting a Positive Academia

Lecturer Management & Marketing @ University of Westminster
– School of Management and Marketing
Contact : [email protected]

ORCID: 0000-0001-9182-9559

#everylittleactioncounts

#positiveacademia

Work Experience

Positive Academia CIC

Co-founder

September 2023 – Present

CYGNA Women in Academia Network

CYGNA Lead Team Member

June 2023 – Present

University of Westminster

Lecturer Management & Marketing

2nd May 2023 – Present

Middlesex University

Visiting Lecturer Digital Advertising

March 2021 – April 2023

Self Employed

Private Tutor

Oct 2014 – Oct 2018

K Ramakrishna College of Engineering, India

English Training Officer and Literacy Coordinator

Oct 2013 – Oct 2014

CIFAL Scotland – United Nations Institute for Training & Research

Project Event Coordinator

Oct 2010 – Sep 2013

University of the Highlands and Islands

International Student Officer

Sep 2011 – Oct 2012

Bürgi Nägeli Lawyers

Legal Secretary

Jun 2009 – Oct 2010

Mepha / Teva, Switzerland

Laboratory Technician spec Galenics (Pharmaceutical Research & Development)

Jun 2008 – Jun 2009

Givaudan, Switzerland

Laboratory Technician spec Galenics (Pharmaceutical Research & Development)

Jun 2007 – Jan 2008

University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

Laboratory Technician spec Galenics (Pharmaceutical Research & Development)

Jun 2005 – Jun 2007

Novartis, Switzerland

Laboratory Technician spec Galenics (Pharmaceutical Research & Development)

Jun 2001 – Jun 2005

Education & Awards

Middlesex University, UK

Doctor of Philosophy – PhD, Media practices

Jan 2020 – April 2023

Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Master of Research, Business

Distinction

2018 – 2019

University of the Highlands and Islands, UK

Bachelor’s degree, Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services

Distinction

2011 – 2012

Brighton School of Business and Management, UK

Higher National Diploma , Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services

Distinction

2009 – 2011

Novartis AG, Switzerland

Swiss Federal Certificate of Competence, Laboratory Technician spec. Pharmaceutical R&D

2001 – 2004

Novartis AG, Switzerland

Professional Baccalaureate (Tech.), Tech.

2001 – 2004

Volunteer experience

Middlesex University, UK

Research Summer Conference Comittee member

Feb 2020 – Present

Middlesex University, UK

Student Voice Leader ACi

Feb 2020 – Present

Leadership and Advocacy

Promoting students' wellbeing

2022 is the Year of Positive Academia (initiated by Anne-Wil Harzing). I am promoting positivity during the sessions with my third-year undergraduate students.

We engage in short starter activities that aim to promote a positive attitude towards their learning, themselves, and others. The students’ engagement has been great, and the activities appear to motivate and encourage them towards the completion of their program.

The activities are based on topics like believing in yourself, managing time positively, self-care, caring for others, never giving up, happiness is key, gratitude, motivation, kindness, and writing for wellbeing.

I created posters, accessible on #positiveacademia and #positivesharedworld, featuring some of our Middlesex University students’ reflections about their wellbeing practices.

International Leadership and Management

 CIFAL Secured funding

As Project Coordinator at CIFAL Scotland (2010-2013), I have managed and lead an international team of students who acted as dreamcatchers as part of the Rio+20 My Green Dream Campaign. The students recorded videos about their Green Dreams related to their concerns about the global environment. I gathered the videos on a YouTube Channel linked to the campaign website. I managed to form strong relations in Darfur, India and across Europe.

I never gave up and held virtual conference calls and meetings at any time of the day. I was in contact with student groups across the globe and worked with them together in a team over distance. I was able to motivate students who had minimal technical equipment to record dreams and I am still so proud of that.

I travelled across Scotland and presented the campaign at various Scottish Universities and schools. I was commended by a Scottish councillor for my leadership and advocacy skills as I had impressed an audience of about 100 people in a school.

I achieved the critical target of gathering 1000 international dreams, as promised to the Scottish Government. As a result, CIFAL was able to secure £10,000 funding to run the business another year. 

LinkedIn Recommendation: Inclusivity

Christa is twice exceptional. Naively, I thought this was a nicer way of saying autistic. But – being my mentee since early 2020 – Christa has patiently taught me it is so much more. She is exceptionally bright, exceptionally dedicated, and exceptionally curious. But she is also hardworking, reflective, and responsive, and cares deeply about how her research can help others. This makes her a fantastic researcher.

But not only that: she is also a wonderful teacher; our Middlesex students like the fact that she is different from others, admire her knowledge and appreciate her well-planned and interesting sessions. Having nearly finished her PhD (in only 3 years), I am sure Christa has a bright future ahead of her in academia. I hope we can keep her at Middlesex, but any university that gets to employ her would be very lucky indeed. I look forward to seeing Christa flourish in academia!

Anne-Wil Harzing, 28.12.2021                                                                                                                                                Research Mentor, Staff Development Lead, Middlesex University

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