Faces of Reading

I now live in London, and I have two children. My work schedule was set up to balance being a mother and a lecturer, so I was able to start early in the morning and work in Reading three days a week. I would creep out of the house quietly so as not to wake my children! Now the children are older and they don't need so much of my attention, I also work from home two days a week. This requires that I am very reactive on the days I'm not in Reading and also that I am flexible about the days I choose to work from home.

I also act as carer for my mother and mother-in-law. It would be fair to say that I've always had significant care responsibilities, but have always managed to balance them with my work because the University has been flexible. I never missed a parents’ evening and made it to most school events.

I was encouraged by my first manager to use my initiative, to have the courage to develop new processes, to learn about different roles within the wider team and to volunteer for new opportunities – and this is a philosophy I have carried throughout my career. Early on I was also encouraged by a colleague to apply for a secondment, something I would not have independently considered. When I secured my first secondment, I was able to expand my knowledge, my experience and my network further.

Over the past 13 years I have held five different roles, ranging from school-based administration to centralised quality assurance and exams, and now as Head of Timetabling and Booking. I have always enjoyed the huge variety of the roles I have held. No one day is the same and I work with a range of colleagues from both academic and professional services.

I have been teaching pharmacy students since the Reading School of Pharmacy was established, with our first intake of less than 50 students in 2005. Now I am very happy to see how it developed into a very successful department delivering many undergraduate and postgraduate programs with several hundred students each year. 

Currently, I am Professor of Formulation Science and I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and also contribute to the Graduate School with a course on ‘How to write a paper’. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I supervise a large and very interdisciplinary research group, which includes postgraduate students and researchers from many countries. I am also a Programme Director for MSc by Research for 3 different programmes in Pharmacy and in this role, I oversee the delivery of teaching to our taught postgraduate students. 

I widely collaborate with researchers from many countries, which means that each year I travel to different institutions to deliver lectures, conduct joint experiments and attend research conferences and meetings. I am glad that the University of Reading provides a flexible working environment that helps to manage all my academic activities, including teaching, research, administration, and visits to collaborators in many countries. 

My previous job was in retail so it was quite unsociable and involved long hours. My department gives you flexibility, you have to be in for core hours but you can come in early and then you're off again, it's fantastic.

Following the Professional and Administrative Services (PAS) review, I got the job here as Programme Administrator in August 2016. I work with a good group of people - we all bounce off each other, dig in and help each other out.

There is definitely a focus on staff development - I've recently finished the Springboard Women's Development Programme. My manager gave me the time to go on that course because it was important to me and being part of that cohort was really fulfilling.

I'm also an LGBTQIA+ Ally. I've always considered myself a diversity and LGBTQIA+ ally, mainly because I have a brother who is transgender, so it is something close to my heart. As soon as I heard about the Ally programme, I was very keen to be part of it.