How long have you worked at the Uni? What does your role involve?
I have worked at the University for about two and a half years now. Sometimes it feels like it’s gone in a flash and other times it feels like I’ve been here forever! My main role involves working across three areas. One is the Internal Communications team, mainly focused on staff communications, ensuring colleagues get the information they need in a way that they need it, and we’ve just had a new plan signed off to make improvements to that as a result of staff feedback. Also social media which we’ve really developed over the last year, and the Media Team. Their main role is to promote the work of our academics and their research, but also more broadly the work of the University in general.
What would you most like to achieve while at the University?
I think we’ve made some really big strides already in the way we work. However, I’d like to progress finding a way to position the University’s research which more effectively gets across the areas we really want to be famous for. I’m really interested in that because I think universities haven’t always been brilliant at articulating why they’re relevant to society. We have amazing, applied research here at Bath which is relevant and impactful, so we have lots of opportunities here.
I’d also love to do more with the local community, and more two-way communications and engagement in terms of internal communications. That’s quite a lot and I realise there are resource constraints, but in my ideal world, those three things!
Name one thing that makes you feel proud to work at the University of Bath?
So much! I think the main thing is, having worked in charities all my life, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I moved over to a different sector. It’s a real privilege to work with, and see the work of, so many incredibly bright people who are working on everything from cleaner engines, to sustainable homes, to tackling plastic pollution. It’s like working somewhere with 1,000 good causes, not just one.
How did it feel to be a Highly Commended nominee in the Staff Recognition Awards?
It’s always nice to get recognition when you work hard, but what really mattered and touched me, is that it was my own team who nominated me and put me forward for the award. I’m very proud of our team and I’ve rarely worked with a bunch of people who are not only incredibly talented but who are just lovely human beings. It’s a pleasure to come in to work, and work together every day. We’ve had some highs and lows as a team but we’ve really supported each other. It meant a huge amount knowing that my team wanted me to be recognised in that way.
Why do you think it is important for people to nominate their colleagues in these awards?
I think recognition is really important. The people I’ve met at the University come here to make a difference. People come here to make an impact on our students, to the broader society through their research, or through the really good work that our Professional Services colleagues do. I think that we all try to say thank you to each other and acknowledge people’s achievements on a day-to-day basis. But actually knowing your peers, your manager or your team have taken the effort to saying you’ve done a really fantastic job matters to people. It doesn’t take that long to fill in the nomination form, and just knowing someone else has thought good things about you and taken the time to fill in the form is a lovely feeling.
What piece of advice would you like to give to a student?
Thinking back to when I was at university, I was really bad at asking for help. I thought that to be strong meant you had to do everything by yourself, and actually looking back, it was stubborn and pig-headed on my part. Growing up a bit and having a bit more life experience, you realise that sometimes the strong thing to do is to ask for help. It’s not just trying to work harder or do more, it’s actually being strong enough to realise when you need your friends, family and the people around you to give you a hand. So I think knowing that, and knowing it’s ok to ask for help and reach out, is a really important life lesson.
Who was your most influential teacher/educator, and why?
I’ve been really, really lucky and there have been lots! Both my parents were teachers and they were hugely influential in different ways. In terms of formal teachers, there’s one that springs to mind and I’m still in contact with her. I did A Level Philosophy and Ethics and there were about 7 of us in the class. The teacher, Ali, could not have asked for a more diverse and ragtag bunch of people. But it was the first time in my life that it wasn’t about learning content and stuff, it was about learning how to think. In one lesson, she was teaching us about Descartes and it was such a cliff-hanger! She asked how you could know, as a human, that the world around you exists and that you could be certain that you existed. She finished the class and we all needed to know the answer! She was amazing, kind, funny and inspirational; we really wanted to be in that class.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a landscape architect, maybe not using that term, but I wanted to design gardens. For some reason, I believed a teacher who said it was a 4-year degree course that was quite difficult and girls didn’t really do that - I let that put me off. But I still love gardening and enjoy being out in the garden growing things. I find it incredibly therapeutic and satisfying.
What’s the one thing you know now that you wish you’d known when you were younger?
I think it is to understand the value of kindness, it’s really undervalued. I was really ambitious, focused on working really hard and my career and I think as you get a bit older, the people you love and being kind to the people around you is the thing that really matters in life. But I also don’t think you can know that when you’re young. Some life lessons are a result of making mistakes, going through hard times. Wisdom is earned and not something you’re born with.
What was your first job?
I had loads of jobs when I was younger, but my first was a ludicrously badly paid job at a local newsagent. You had to do 45 things at the same time and the wages were horrific. I think those service jobs are so important though. The people who treated me nicely were the ones who had done jobs like that, and the ones who treated you badly never had to do that kind of work.
If you could start your own dream business, what would it be?
I wouldn’t be very good at making money, so it would have to be something good for the soul like baking and having my own café. I was also told once, that as a female leader, you should never admit that you like things like baking. It made me furious, so it made me more determined to enjoy baking and tell people that I like it! So I’d own a café in the village that I live in, and bake and make people happy through food.
Where is your favourite holiday destination and why?
Probably Italy. I’ve been to Rome and I just keep going back. The first time I went, I just absolutely fell in love with it. The fact you can wander round the city and around every corner there is another incredible building. It’s breath-taking and it manages to be vibrant and exciting, without being too intense. I tend to stay in a place called Trastevere, which is just south of the river. They have amazing trattorias and cafés. It’s just my favourite place to stay, and I don’t think I could ever get bored.
What’s your favourite book or album and why?
At the moment I’m reading Wild Hares and Hummingbirds by Stephen Moss which I really like. It’s about a whole year in his Somerset village and the flora and fauna. It’s a gentle book, but I’m learning stuff and paying more attention to things around me. The book that had most impact on me was one of the first books I read when I went to secondary school. I was probably too young to read it, but it was The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It was quite harrowing and the kind that makes the world tilt on its axis for you.
Album-wise it depends what type of mood I’m in. The music I tend to come back to when I’m in a happy mood is Prince. If I want to dance round my kitchen it’ll be 1999 or Sign o’ the Times.
When are you happiest?
With the family, and what I love is going out on adventures with my other half and my stepson. There’s a lovely woods near us and, particularly in the summer, we like to climb up the waterfall and have a picnic afterwards. It’s the simple stuff, the snatched moments or days when you don’t have to get on with life admin or work, when you can appreciate the world around you and your family.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I hitched coast to coast in Canada. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and it looks much smaller on a map! We did take Greyhound busses occasionally, but the hitching was quite fun. We met some amazing people and spent time in back-to-the-land communities. You did things like chop wood, help wild crafting and collecting herbs in return for staying there. Canada is the most beautiful country with really amazing people. We did begin to regret it when summer turned to autumn and it started to get really cold. It was an incredible experience, over 8 months, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Tell us your favourite joke
My favourite joke is something that no one ever laughs at but I’m not changing my favourite joke for anyone!
Why do anarchists only drink herbal tea? Because proper-tea is theft.
The fact no one ever laughs at it makes it even better!