Dr Sally Chan

Profile

Sally has been a marketing lecturer for 35 years and joined the University of Leeds in 2006 after Manchester Metropolitan, Leeds Beckett and Plymouth universities. Frequently nominated for University Partnership Awards, Sally was the recipient of a 2026 Sustainability Service Staff Impact Award for driving behaviour change through responsible management education; 2023 University Recognition Award for services to the Sustainability Blueprint team, and Student Education Enhancement Award for her collaborations with industry. Externally, Sally’s Water Bottle Brief to support the University’s #2023PlasticFree campaign won a national award for the Best Campaign Supporting Sustainability.

Sally’s leadership as University Staff Sustainability Architect and certified Carbon Literacy Trainer had the biggest impact on staff and student engagement. She played a key role in organising LUBS’ sustainability-themed Research Staff conference; managing the first iteration of Faculty Student Sustainability Architects; introducing student engagement activities such as the provision of free vegan burgers on campus, and paddleboarding canal clean-up activities. Sally successfully led the Walking to Zero Project for the last three years, encouraging staff and students to connect with the changing landscape through art and photography. The resulting exhibitions of curated works – a collaboration with To Walk organisation and the poet Lemn Sissay - generated media interest from BBC Radio Leeds, Yorkshire Post, and University news.

Sally led the delivery of Carbon Literacy Project’s Carbon Literacy Training in 2021/22, which 80 staff and 600 students attended. She managed the Faculty’s development of its own Climate Action Training for staff and students in 2023-25, before acting as Facilitator for FutureLearn’s Climate Action Training or CAT course. In 2025, Sally worked with the Lifelong Learning Centre to develop a credit-bearing SOUL Climate Action Training module.

As Interim Sustainability Director, Sally introduced creative approaches to the Blueprint team’s strategy through innovative visualisations such as the wall art installation, and collaborated with the Leeds School of Design for the Faculty’s Sustainable Fashion Showcase. As a member of the Faculty’s EDI network, she advocates for inclusive pedagogies, integrating the Faculty’s Decolonisation Working Group with the activities of the Blueprint team. As PRME Lead, Sally not only promote the United Nations’ directive for Responsible Management Education through innovative pedagogy, but she also ensures Faculty activities align with the 7 Principles. As well as leading the annual Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) report, she is a founder and Steering Committee member for PRME Global Working Group on Arts for Impact, and promotes PRME Pedagogy Certification 2026 Programme.

Keen to support the creative industry’s diversity and inclusion agenda, Sally has experience in using historical advertising archives to engage students in racialised discourse in seminars and assessed work. Sally is a Trustee of the world’s largest advertising archive – the History of Advertising Trust – where she works with both academic and industry colleagues to foster archival research in universities and colleges around the world.

Responsibilities

• University Staff Sustainability Architect (since 2021)
• Climate Action Training Manager & Certified Carbon Literacy Trainer
• Chair of Marketing Department Advisory Board

Research interests

As a martial artist, Sally holds the position of 3rd dan in Shito-Ryu Shukokai Karate. She is also a 1st degree AMA Tae Kwon Do, 1st kyu in JKA Renshinkai Shotokan Karate, and a Chen-style Taiji (tai chi) practitioner. Sally's research interest is martial arts representational discourse. Examples of her work include Hai Karate and Kung Fuey and Bruce Lee's Influence on TV Advertising. Her PhD evaluates martial arts aesthetics and authenticity in Britain advertising over four decades (1960s-1990s). The research comprises archival analysis of paper collections donated to the British Film Institute, textual analysis of selected commercials held at the National Film Archive, and analyses of other related holdings at the History of Advertising Trust. Sally is currently working on projects to extend her martial arts expertise to management pedagogy.

As a member of the Hidden Screen Industries Network, Sally worked with Professor Emily Caston (University of West London) and Patrick Russell (Senior Curator of Non-Fiction at the British Film Institute National Archive) to bring together researchers and curators in screen archive research. Sally has also published and acted as Co-editor for a Special Issue on ‘Advertising China’ for Journalism Media and Cultural Studies (JOMEC). She was also a reviewer for Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture’s special issue on ‘Advertising for the Human Good’. During lockdown, Sally contributed to ISOLATEDTalks to help creatives in isolation, as well as PechaKucha Manchester's Migration event.

Sally’s consultancy experience includes observational research for KM Furniture Ltd, Asda Stores Ltd, focus group research for Dutch company Unimeta BV (with the Design Support Centre), and Yorkshire Dance. She was Director of KAN-GAR-ROO Ltd - an ideas and design company from 2012 to 2017, where she incorporated user research into educational furniture design and developed interdisciplinary workshops that enabled artists/designers to collaborate with marketers. Sally has considerable empathy for design, and her ability to generate visual data for use by designers led to the development of an innovative 'user' research methodology that evaluated how young children interacted with furniture.

Qualifications

• 2024 PhD Advertising, London School of Film Media and Design, University of West London
• 1998 Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methodology, Leeds Beckett University
• 1993 Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of Plymouth
• 1992 MBA, Cardiff University
• 1990 BSc (Hons) Business and Management Studies, Salford University

Professional memberships

• 2024 White Rose University Consortium Equity in Leadership
• 2023 Active Bystander Volunteer Facilitator programme- Protection Approaches
• 2022 Certified Carbon Literacy Trainer - The Carbon Literacy Project
• 2020 - 2025 Certified Management & Business Educator (CMBE)
• 2021 Certified Carbon Literate - The Carbon Literacy Project
• 2020 Advance HE Aurora Leadership Programme
• 2019 American Marketing Association (AMA)
• 1993 Accreditation of Teachers in HE (Staff and Educational Development Association -SEDA)

Student education

As Chair of the Marketing Department Advisory Board, Sally engages with practitioners to ensure degree programmes reflect changes in the industry in terms of content and student employability. As Module Leader in Advertising and Media Planning for MA Marketing and Advertising / Design programmes, Sally has a track record of engaging with advertising agencies and creative professionals, including organisations such as TBWAMCR, BKPL Productions, BBH London, Ear to the Ground, and Creative Resource. She also collaborated with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and History of Advertising Trust (HAT) to foster engagement between creative industries and Higher Education, as well as generating awareness in Prolific North. During lockdown, Sally joined The Drum, Canon, and the global creative community to support the Class of 2021 with a virtual artwork exhibition.

As Module Leader for Principles of Marketing and tutor for Fundamentals of Marketing, Sally regularly engages with speakers from industry, such as IMDb and organises field trips to MCFC to enhance the student experience. For the last 12 years, Sally was Head of Final Year for the BA Business Management with Marketing programme, where she introduced creative initiatives for finalists under her care. These included: Audience Rich Workshops with Leeds Arts University, Photoshop, and Digital Workshops, and agency-university collaboration via the annual Two+Two initiatives

For the past 16 years, Sally was Module Leader in Company Marketing Projects for MSc International Marketing Management students, where teams of students act as Marketing Consultants to businesses. Past clients have included BR Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Chain Bridge Honey Farm, Greencore Grocery Ltd, Crystal Maze Live Experience Ltd, and Leeds Kirkgate Market.

Sally's other duties include Dissertation Supervisor for BA, MA, MSc & MBA programmes and Placement Tutor (Disney ESPN, L'Oreal, Warner Brothers, Sky, The Body Shop, Nestle, M&S, Arcadia, Apple); Academic Mentor for Leeds Masters Scholars: Next Steps Mentoring Scheme; Realising Opportunities Tutor, and Access to Leeds Tutor.

Research groups and institutes

• Global and Strategic Marketing Research Centre