Who's who in NMES Professional Services: The Student Experience Team

Name: Lucy Ward

Title: Student Experience Manager

Bio: I’m Lucy, I’ve been working in NMES for a few of years now (cough-16-cough) and have held a number of different roles and been involved in a lot of random things. Before becoming Student Experience Manager in January 2020, I was the Faculty EDI Coordinator working on Athena SWAN and other related initiatives. When I’m not at work I can often be found reading books, running/jogging, or visiting historical sites. Most of my spare time is dedicated to convincing my 12-year-old that books, running and history are cool.

Bucket List: My bucket list consists mostly of goals and dreams, some are more achievable than others. I’d like to have my own library where I can read all the books, improve my running time and speed, and make sure that my son, Henry, is happy and healthy and loves history as much as I do. I quite like to visit royal palaces, so ticking the Winter Palace in St Petersburg off the list would be pretty special.

Role in the Faculty: I, alongside the wider student experience team, work closely with department education teams on initiatives to improve the student experience. Over the last few years, I’ve worked to bring some structure and oversight to a number of different areas such as student voice, communications and student support to ensure that each student receives the university experience that they want and that all NMES staff feel knowledgeable, enabled and supported enough to be able to provide that.

Name: Helen Chapman

Title: Senior Student Experience Officer

Bio: I’m Helen, I’ve been at King’s far too long (since 2011). When I started at King’s I worked in what was then the Centre for Telecommunications Research before I moved into the NMES Faculty Team (which was then much smaller) in 2014. Outside of work, we fairly recently moved out of London to Sussex so have been enjoying getting to know the area…mostly via its soft plays, play farms and beer gardens with playgrounds as I have a 5-year-old and two 2-year-olds.

Bucket list: I don’t have a bucket list as such, I would really like to learn to play the piano (I should have listened to my parents who kept trying to get me to have lessons when I was little), do some more scuba diving somewhere tropical (I did a little bit a long time ago), and more skiing (I’ve only been a few times but loved it). But until then just a holiday would be nice – a combination of pandemics, having twins and saving for a wedding has meant that my last proper holiday was far too long ago. Other than that, finally getting round to tiling the kitchen would feel like quite an achievement.

Role in the Faculty: My work in the wonderful Student Experience Team focusses on the Student Engagement side of things. This involves looking after student prizes, and organising our lovely annual prize-giving event, working closely with student societies, supporting departments with Welcome and inductions, and coordinating the annual rollover and update of student handbooks.

Name: Bel McIntosh

Title: Senior Student Experience Officer

Bio: I joined the King’s NMES team last March and this is my first role in higher education. I am learning lots of new skills and enjoying applying my previous experiences of working with young people to the work that I do at King’s. Being surrounded by hard working students and academics is a very positive, exciting and motivating experience. I started my career working in television advertising and have also worked in property development and more recently a secondary school as Head of Admissions and Transition where I found a love of working in the education sector with students and their families.

Bucket list: I need a very big bucket as there are so many things I love to do and would like to do more of over the next few years. Some of my favourites are: exercising (I have a new found love of the gym), reading (I have too many favourite books to list!), walking my dog (Reggie), and spending time with my family (I have 4 adult children & 2 grandchildren). These days I have more time to travel with my husband and went to Guatemala last year, I absolutely loved it! I can’t wait to go back and explore more of Central and South America.

Role in the Faculty: I manage the NMES student rep recruitment and elections as well as the module evaluation processes. I work with the Student Experience Team to develop and support student experience projects in the faculty and work closely with departmental staff and other relevant teams. One of the highlights is to attend the graduation ceremonies at the Royal Festival Hall twice a year. It is such a privilege to be part of such a joyful celebration of students’ achievements at King’s.

Name: Laura Hollywood

Title: Student Support Manager (Designated Safeguarding Office and Faculty Disability Liaison)

Bio: I’m Laura, I’ve just celebrated my first year at Kings (joined February 2023.) I’ve worked in Higher Education since 2016 previously as a Mental Health Advisor, Disability Advisor and Specialist Mental Health and Autism Mentor. I’m also a qualified Counsellor.

Bucket List: I’d love to visit Costa Rica and go and see all the wildlife especially the sloths!

Role in the Faculty: I lead on coordinating student support for the faculty. I manage the Student of Concern and Support for Study processes where there are concerns about student engagement or their mental health and wellbeing, providing training, guidance, and advice to staff.

As Faculty Disability Liaison I have oversight of the support offered to disabled students and work with departments and central services to ensure reasonable adjustments are put in place and to advise about the Equality Act. I am also Designated Safeguarding Officer – offering advice and guidance to staff about any concerns, escalating these and liaising with central services.