What’s your job title and how long have you been at Loughborough?

I’m a Senior Lecturer in Technology and Entrepreneurship, focusing on social entrepreneurship and community leadership. I’ve been at Loughborough for 10 years now in roles on both campuses, working with students and community partners to understand how entrepreneurial approaches can create positive social change, especially for people on the margins.

Tell us what a typical day in your job looks like?

My days vary enormously, which is part of what I love about academic life. I might start with a research meeting with partners from refugee support organizations, discussing how their mentorship programs are developing. Later, I could be teaching entrepreneurship concepts to students, often bringing in real-world case studies from my fieldwork. I regularly collaborate with social enterprises and philanthropic foundations across Europe and Africa on evaluating their impact. At some point, I’ll likely be writing, whether that’s academic papers, policy recommendations, or guidance for practitioners. What ties it all together is working with people who are using entrepreneurial approaches to create meaningful change in their communities.

What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on?

I’d have to say it’s a project that started as a small evaluation of TERN’s (social enterprise) support for refugees and grew into something much bigger. Our findings ended up informing Home Office policy on business support for refugees, which was pretty incredible to see. The work has since expanded across Europe and East Africa. One of the most rewarding aspects has been bringing together stakeholders from across the refugee sector to create a community-led network. Before this, many support organizations were working in isolation, but now they share knowledge, develop best practices together, and collaborate on funding opportunities. It’s a perfect example of what academic work can achieve when it bridges research and real-world practice.

What is your proudest moment at Loughborough?

I’m most proud of the relationships I’ve built with communities that often face stigma and marginalization. There’s always a delicate balance in research between sharing findings and protecting people’s dignity and privacy, and I’ve worked hard to get that right. My work in the Kakuma refugee camp really stands out for me. The opportunity to do research there didn’t happen overnight, it came after years of building trust across the refugee sector. When I finally arrived in Kenya, the local refugees and their business mentors welcomed me into their community because of that foundation of trust. This allowed me to document insights that might otherwise have remained hidden and to highlight the remarkable resilience and innovation happening in communities that rarely get the recognition they deserve. Seeing my academic work help amplify these voices has been incredibly meaningful.

Tell us something you do outside of work that we might not know about?

When my children’s school expanded from a middle school to a full high school, I put my entrepreneurial hat on and established the school’s first PTA. That involved establishing charitable status for a new organization, recruiting community volunteers, and starting to host fundraising activities and events. We have been going less than a year, but have already funded a sensory room for students with additional developmental needs, equipped departments with up-to-date resources for their GCSE students, and we’re currently fundraising to refurbish the library. It’s another example of seeing real-world impact, using the same principles I teach and research to create something valuable for our local community.

What is your favourite quote?

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards – Soren Keirkegaard

If you would like to feature in ‘5 Minutes With’, or you work with someone who you think would be great to include, please email Lilia Boukikova at L.Boukikova@lboro.ac.uk