Sandy has a background in Food Microbiology, and studied for her PhD at the University of Guelph, Canada. Returning to New Zealand in 2012, Sandy was a Senior Scientist at ESR in Christchurch, prior to moving back home to Hamilton to lecture at Wintec.  During her 7 years at Wintec, Sandy coordinated the Applied Science Work Placement Programme, before being promoted to lead the academic teams for the Applied Science and Animal Technology Programmes.

One year ago, Sandy was appointed to the newly created role of Work-Integrated Learning Manager at the University of Waikato, where she is relishing connecting organisations, staff and students, as well as developing new processes to ensure the success of this compulsory element of a Waikato undergraduate degree.