Sandra completed a first degree in psychology and post-graduate teacher training in London, and continued to work in inner city primary schools and special provision as a teacher between 1981 and 1985. Sandra finished her educational psychology training at UCL in 1986.

She has worked as an educational psychologist in four different local authorities in the South East of England. Sandra has been involved with the training of educational psychologists at UCL since 1990, first as an Academic and Professional Tutor on the MSc programme, between 2005 and 2015 as Co-Director of the Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology and since 2015 as Director of the Educational Psychology Group. She is also Co-Director of the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) for Children and Young People programme (Certificate, Diploma and MSc courses are offered).

Sandra was awarded the Provosts Teaching Award in 2009 in recognition of her achievements at UCL and is a Fellow of both the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and the British Psychological Society (BPS). She is past Chair of the British Psychological Society Division of Educational and Child Psychology (DECP) and is the current Chair of the South East, East and London (SEEL) Consortium of universities and regional local authority placement providers.