Peny’s main interests lie in EDI considerations in HE, with a special focus on issues related to race and ethnicity. Her areas of specialisation involve mixed methods research designs, impact and theory-based evaluations. Peny has been involved with a wide array of projects, including:

• Using Theory of Change to assist universities to design, develop and evaluate interventions related to reducing the ethnicity degree awarding gaps.
• Reviewing institutional reporting and complaints processes.
• Undertaking sectoral literature reviews to address EDI issues (e.g. UKRI report on EDI barriers to doctoral funding).

Peny also has extensive experience in evaluation, leading on Advance HE’s internal programme evaluations (e.g. Aurora alumnae), in addition to those embedded to bespoke consultancy projects (e.g. Wellcome Trust and Advance HE’s “Success on the Board” programme). She has also been heavily involved in the production and dissemination of Advance HE’s annual Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Reports, as she loves to engage in outreach activities promoting EDI considerations to various audiences.

Peny completed her PhD in Human Geography in 2018, exploring Greek pre-service teachers’ multicultural competence and factors influencing its development at Loughborough University, before working as a part-time Geography lecturer there. She then moved on to work as an evaluation researcher for Prosper project at the University of Liverpool, before joining her current role as a mixed methods researcher for the Insights team in September 2021.