McKenna joined Sunderland in 2015 as head of the school of education, and was made dean in 2018. Last year, Sunderland became one of the first five providers piloting IQTS, to “export [England’s] excellence in initial teacher training” across the globe. She was one of many to challenge the initial teacher training market review, which compelled every provider to apply for reaccreditation based on new standards. Entrants to initial teacher training dropped from 36,159 in 2021-22 to 26,955 in 2023-24. One of those was Durham University, which had been a teacher training provider since the early nineteenth century and was rated ‘outstanding’.