Felicity took her Batchelor and Doctoral degrees at Oxford University, before moving to the University of Glasgow in 1974 to take up a lectureship in Zoology. She was promoted to Titular Professor in 1994, retired in 2011 and now holds an honorary research position, still in Glasgow. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Acadamia Europea, has served as President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour and of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles and has received a number of other honours. She is a behavioural biologist with a special interest in consistent individual differences in behavioural and physiological responses to challenges (sometimes referred to as animal personalities). Her work has focussed on fishes, with the aim of using fundamental behavioural knowledge to promote health, welfare and production in cultured fish, and thus to support sustainable aquaculture.

Felicity has been a Council member since 2020.