Alison draws on creative methods to research youth citizenship and participation in Disaster Risk Reduction. She was involved in the ESRC Urgency Project with Save the Children UK, Children, Young People and Flooding: Recovery and Resilience, and the Horizon 2020 project, CUIDAR: Cultures of Disaster Resilience among Children and Young People and has since gone on to work with the Environment Agency on various impact activities stemming from this research. Alison also has an ongoing collaboration with researchers in Japan, promoting children's voices in resilience building in Fukushima.

Alison has an MA in Theatre and Development Studies from the University of Leeds and a PhD in Theatre Studies from Lancaster. Her doctoral thesis, which drew on workshops with children in Uganda and the UK, made a case for a pedagogy of Theatre for Development in education and children as active participants in community development. 

Alison co-devised the participatory methods and tools used to engage with children and promote their voice in the Children, Young People and Flooding and CUIDAR projects. She has since gone on to develop a series of digital, educational outputs from the team's research with disaster-affected children aimed at increasing public understanding of disaster risk and recovery. 

Since 2016 Alison has been working with colleagues at Fukushima Medical University (FMU) in Japan, using participatory theatre to explore the role children and schools can play in community resilience building in the wake of the 3.11 disaster. Recent projects include the development of a teacher training programme in theatre pedagogy, accredited by the local Board of Education in Fukushima, and a 'creative health' project with children in Japan and other disaster-prone countries. In 2023 Alison was awarded the position of Specially Appointed Professor at FMU in recognition of her contribution to research on disaster recovery in Fukushima Prefecture.

Alison also has a Researcher post at the University of Hull where she is working on a number of national and international projects that use creative methods to engage youth and communities in disaster preparedness and resilience building. She has formerly held an Honorary Research Fellow position in the School of Arts, Languages & Cultures at the University of Manchester, contributing to the university’s In Place of War programme via a Theatre in Education consultancy for Children in Crisis Liberia.

Alison also works for Global Link Development Education Centre in Lancaster, using creative methodologies to run global education, heritage and community projects with young people and adults.