Briefly, tell us about your background and career up to this point?
My first career was in media: advertising, PR and TV (personal assistant and production roles). My second career was meant to be in international development, but life had other plans. After I completed my Anthropology degree at Goldsmith’s (as a mature student following an Access course), I visited the careers office with a one-year-old baby in my arms, looking for a Plan B and thought, “This job looks cool”, after meeting with a careers consultant. The rest is history.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Be brave, stay curious, and dare to dream; you never know what opportunities might arise along the way. We grow most when we step outside our comfort zone. As the saying goes, “Fortune favours the brave.” This idea aligns with the careers theory Planned Happenstance, which suggests that careers evolve through both planned and unexpected events, and those unanticipated moments often become powerful learning opportunities. Many of the best experiences in my life have come from embracing this approach. So, go on - trust your instincts and take a chance, big or small. Your future self will thank you.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
Sue Moseley (Careers Consultant, PGT) and I recently helped shape and launch the School of Bioscience Education Employability Committee, chaired by Professor Esther Bell. Working alongside academics with the additional responsibility of being Department Careers Education Leaders (DCELS), our aim is to embed career readiness and transferable skills into every programme. This approach will create consistency across the school and provide all students with a strong foundation to plan their careers, identify opportunities, and develop the skills needed to succeed. By integrating employability into the curriculum, even students unfamiliar with the UK graduate job market will gain the knowledge and confidence to compete effectively. It is an ambitious initiative, but one we believe will benefit every student by fostering a more inclusive approach to careers and employability.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
With a second grandchild on the way, I look forward to having more family time and helping my son and his partner out with free childcare. Ideally, I’d be planning a family holiday for us all somewhere in the Caribbean in celebration of a new decade and chapter in my life.
What do you do with your time outside academia/work?
I am a volunteer with Fine Cell Work, a charitable organisation that teaches embroidery and sewing skills to ex-offenders and people in prison, who then use these skills to create amazing products for sale to the public online. Once a month I run the central workshop where ex-offenders are apprentices working towards an OCN qualification and gaining employability skills. When work commitments allow, I try and get to a few graduation ceremonies. Although very different to a King’s graduation ceremony, it can be equally joyous and emotional, as it is often the first time many apprentices have ever received a qualification, therefore is a significant achievement. In the new year I will be working on a new project to strengthen Fine Cell Work’s partnerships with Ban the Box employers. The aim is to remove the stigma that ex-offenders often face when seeking employment, ultimately improving the pathway to paid employment for our graduates.
Work family and friends keep me super busy, but if I want to completely relax and recharge, I will switch off my phone and zone out sewing myself something new to wear, or go fabric shopping in the golden triangle of Brixton, Soho, and Shepard Bush.
What is something positive that happened to you over the last year?
This summer I took a solo trip to Japan (Tokyo – Kyoto – Osaka - Tokyo). It was incredible!!! I had never travelled abroad alone before and absolutely loved the experience. I felt all grown up and liberated. More importantly, I fell in love with Japan – the culture, the history, the food and the oh-so-stylish, friendly and polite people. The experience completely blew me away and I definitely plan to return, this time with my bestie in tow to share the adventure.
What is your favourite part of your role?
The favourite part of my role is the variety. Working with students, academics and employers’ means there is never a dull moment. On a micro level the best part is when I have spent time coaching a student through a competitive recruitment process and then receive an email from them telling me of their success. It’s incredibly rewarding. On a macro level it is when my colleague, Sue Moseley and I get project proposals approved that will benefit many students, such as the See It to Be It project and the KURF resource review. Contributing to initiatives that enhance the student experience at King’s is what makes my role so meaningful.
QUICK-FIRE:
Favourite season:
Summer! As a Londoner, I love London in the summer. It’s such a vibrant and happy place. There’s something so delicious about long days and balmy evenings that just energises me. I’m up as soon as the sun rises and could stay up all night long, out and about socialising or just sitting in the garden chatting. Summer is when I recharge my batteries.
Favourite book:
It was difficult to choose just one, so I’m choosing two.
The first is Wide Sargasso by Jean Rhys. I have returned to this book countless times. The first was under a mango tree in Jamaica, with the deafening sound chorus of cicadas in the background. As a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, it explores Antoinette’s life before she became the ‘madwoman in the attic.’ Set in Jamaica during the turbulent years following emancipation, it offers a hauntingly beautiful portrayal of identity, isolation, and the slow unravelling of colonialism. I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy your beauty tinged with sorrow and melancholy.
My second choice is Toni Morrison’s Recitatif. This short story explores race, identity, friendship, and memory by deliberately removing racial markers. This forces us as readers to confront our own assumptions and biases, as the races of the two main characters, Twyla and Roberta, remain ambiguous. No other book I have read so powerfully illustrates the idea that race is a social construct; something shaped by perception and context rather than biology. By doing so Morrison urges us to look beyond racial categories and focus on the shared humanity that connects us all.
[Hardly ‘quick fire’ but, as a book club host, I couldn’t resist 😊]
Coffee order:
A hot, black, Americano (preferably in a China or porcelain cup). No fuss, just fuel.
One thing you could not go a day without:
My morning 10-mintue meditation.
Most-used emoji:
The pink flower.
The superpower you would choose if you could:
Flight. How incredible it would be to soar above the world and have that bird’s eye view.