Dr Anne Macdonald
Associate Tutor
Background
My professional background lies in industry. I enjoyed an 14-year international career with the sports retailer and manufacturer Decathlon, beginning as a student intern and closing this stage of my career as UK Head of People.
Deciding I wanted to develop my expertise in helping people flourish, I went on to complete an MSc and PhD in Performance Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. A PCC level ICF executive coach, I have been practicing since 2012 to help purpose-driven leaders in business, sport- and education-related institutes and organisations.
Harnessing my teacher training in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction, I specialise in embedding mindfulness-based approaches into workplaces to enable wellbeing and transformational change in people and organisations. This is also the area of my research.
Whilst rooted to my family in the Hebrides and Edinburgh, I love outdoor sports, adventure, and exploration.
Qualifications
- PhD in Mindfulness-based Programmes for Workplace wellbeing and performance
- MSc Performance Psychology, University of Edinburgh
- Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Teacher, University of Bangor
- PCC level ICF accredited Executive Coach
- Masters in International Business, Grenoble Ecole de Management
- BA (Hons) in German and Business, University of Leeds
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Associate Tutor - Moray House School of Education and Sport
- Research Associate - Physical Activity for Health Research Centre
- Mindfulness teacher - University of Edinburgh Chaplaincy
Postgraduate teaching
MSc Performance Psychology dissertation supervision
Professional Skills in Development Areas
Conceptualising Research
Research Process
Current research interests
My current research interest is in advancing both knowledge and practice in creating behaviour changes in workplaces which foster a healthy organisational culture.Past research interests
My PhD research explored the process of designing an accessible mindfulness-based programme to facilitate workplace behaviour change.Knowledge exchange
PhD industry partner Decathlon.
Past project grants
• Student Partnership Agreement Funding (2022) for delivery of Mindfulness-based Wellbeing for Doctoral Researchers:
https://www.teaching-matters-blog.ed.ac.uk/mindfulness-based-wellbeing-f...
• Student Experience Grant Funding (2021) for delivery of Mindfulness-based Wellbeing for Sports Union Students
Invited speaker
- Preserving the integrity of mindfulness-based programmes: An exploratory case study in a retail setting (Macdonald, A., Martindale, A. & Loretto, W., 2023), oral presentation at European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology Conference, May 2023
- Adapting Mindfulness-based programme: An exploratory investigation in a retail setting (Macdonald, A., Martindale, A. & Loretto, W., 2021), oral presentation at International Conference of Mindfulness, July 2021