2022 winners and shortlist
Winner: Jill Childs
Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work; Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
“Jill is a pioneer in equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives. She leads a hugely important project, entitled 'Creating an anti-racist university experience' - the work she says she is most proud of. As a result of this award-winning project, Jill and her team have developed materials that can be adopted by Brookes to support actions on anti-racist recruitment and decolonising the curriculum. Jill's passion and energy to create change is inspiring.”
Jane Stevens Crawshaw
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
“Jane has been central to equality, diversity and inclusion in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, first as EDI Lead and now as Chair of the EDI Group. She has gone above and beyond to embed EDI in our processes and has offered guidance, support and help to those of us wishing to implement EDI in our practices.”
Sarah Ann Matthews
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
“I don't believe any one person has put so much effort into raising the subject of EDI within Humanities and Social Sciences, as Sarah has. Her gusto and enthusiasm is infectious and she is continuously delivering on the Faculty's objective to improve inclusion.”
Jo Duckett
UK Recruitment and Partnerships; Marketing, Recruitment and Engagement
“This academic year, Jo has managed to maintain engagement with 20 care-experienced young people in Years 10 and 11, facilitating webinars, trips to FE colleges and other events. The relative success of this new project is testament to the commitment Jo demonstrates in supporting disadvantaged young people.”
'Creating an anti-racist university experience' project team
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
“Headed up by Jill Childs, the team has done incredibly important work to create an anti-racist university experience. As a result of this award-winning project, the team have developed materials that seek to cultivate an environment that creates a sense of belonging for all staff and students, with the aim of supporting the success of students from historically disadvantaged groups.”
Winner: Wellbeing Information Team
Student Services
“During the pandemic and beyond, the colleagues I am nominating, have provided outstanding onsite support, signposting, containment and guidance to the whole Brookes community, promoting inclusivity by offering a human and empathic response to all requests for support, including acting as the first response for students in crisis."
Sports Operations Team
Estates and Campus Services
“I spent over 30 years in the private sector and have never worked with so many people who set out to develop such a positive culture. I have only been at Brookes 9 months and I have been made to feel valued and respected. It truly is a pleasure to come to work.”
Anand Thite
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
“Anand had a successful research profile but after a serious spinal injury, he chose to concentrate on teaching, helping his students develop their skills in a demanding and analytical area of Engineering. It is his generosity of spirit that makes him accessible to students and staff alike, despite the daily challenges he faces.”
Leander Reeves
School of Arts
“Leander has cared not only for my career progression, but also that of her students. I have regularly seen her take time out of her very busy schedule (juggling being a parent with completing her PhD and working full time) to meet with anxious students and provide them coffee and croissants and discuss their work.”
Marta Solsona
Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment
“Marta’s calm and compassionate manner ensures that students always feel better after they have spoken with her. Her kindness extends to staff as well as students - she often checks to see how people are doing, and she is the first to offer cover for colleagues when they are on leave or unwell.”
Mieke Tyrrell
Oxford Brookes Business School Research Office
“Mieke has been the administrator for the GetPublished! project since it began in 2016. She has been the glue that held the team together and is the font of all knowledge on the project. This year, she showed particular generosity of spirit when she organised the judging panel, despite being on annual leave over the Easter holidays.”
Winner: Mona Gerken
Oxford Brookes Business School Research Office
“In responding to student queries, Mona always looks for the human behind the email. She takes what can be an often intimidating bureaucracy and makes it warm and approachable for students who may be anxious or struggling, and always puts their wellbeing ahead of everything else.”
Brookes Print
Estates and Campus Services
“The print room team always provide a friendly high quality service. Always producing work on time, even when there are multiple demands on them. They’ve never let us down and always got large jobs printed. Never not friendly, a great team to work with that are always professional.”
Covid response team
University-wide
“The Covid response and recovery was possible because of all of the staff who volunteered to help, on top of their day job, or temporarily stepping away from their day job, at a time when things were already really tough; working around the clock - doing all of this because of their personal and professional dedication to the University, students, staff, community and public health.”
Winner: Mental health advice team
Academic and Student Administration
“The team are highly creative, hardworking and giving of spirit to the students that they work with. It's clear that they have dedicated themselves to the work that they do with students, to not only retain them as registered students within the University but also working with them so they develop the skills and strategies to enable them to flourish and achieve their personal aims.”
Simon Smith
Oxford Brookes Business School
“When Dr Simon Smith (action man) joined Brookes, he took up his responsibility with vigour, enthusiasm, and a notable resolve to make things work. He is a solution provider and does this swiftly. He is very approachable and has other people’s interests at heart, demonstrating confidence in people and empowering them.”
Lisa Hale
Oxford Brookes Business School
“Lisa's confidence in people and new ideas, leading change and empowering others is remarkable. Her support for the Pathways ESD Project, race and racism work and improving assessment has been unwavering. She lives up to the note by her desk: ‘Be the change you want to see’.”
Winner: Helen Hall
UK Recruitment and Partnerships; Marketing, Recruitment and Engagement
“Helen demonstrates fantastic confidence in driving forward UK recruitment consistently and positively in challenging circumstances. Her leadership helps push consistent articulate messages about change across the university, delivering the changes necessary to enable our UK student recruitment to thrive in future.”
Winner: Student Records
Academic and Student Administration
“I have seen the Student Records Team use integrity and apply the very best of Brookes customer care to difficult situations involving very stressed parents and students. They diffuse these issues and concerns with grace and care. Year on year they do this – and with every day and every email they quietly apply and embody the University's guiding principles.”
HSS quality sub-group
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
“HSS quality sub-group colleagues have been relentlessly resourceful, creative, generous with their time, incredibly hardworking and endlessly patient to ensure hard-pressed academics can focus on teaching excellence. They have volunteered to pick up additional work without waiting to be asked, showing generosity and professionalism in everything they do.”
HLS student support
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
“The team not only do their job to an excellent standard, they are among the kindest people you could wish to meet. If I was an anxious or distressed student there are no nicer staff members I could wish for to help me. They have been continuously available throughout the pandemic to help and comfort our students with all of the increased disruption that this has caused.”
Alexander Jacoby
School of English and Modern Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
“Alex manages the Year Abroad portfolio for Japanese Studies.In the last year, with travel restrictions changing by the day, he communicated constantly with partner institutions, Student Central, and with often fraught students. Throughout he has been resourceful, kind and collegial, despite clearly working at unsociable hours.”
Joint winner: Jess Hill
UK Recruitment and Partnerships; Marketing, Recruitment and Engagement
“Every year, Jess goes over and above to provide high-quality support around higher education progression to young people, schools, parents and carers. She has embedded herself successfully in secondary schools, becoming a well-respected professional by a range of stakeholders. The feedback we receive from her schools is of such high praise.”
Joint winner: Jo Duckett
UK Recruitment and Partnerships; Marketing, Recruitment and Engagement
“I can’t thank Jo enough for all the hard work, dedication, and support she’s given to the team since she joined us nearly 2 years ago. Starting a new role that relies on being able to develop relationships with schools and external partners during a pandemic is not an easy feat! But Jo not only did it successfully but has also exceeded targets and driven forward new projects.”
Winner: CLOCK Team
School of Law and Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
“Through this programme, Oxford Brookes law students offer free help to members of the local community on court matters. The project has involved Ellen and Gayle in developing ongoing partnerships with the local courts, solicitors and barristers and Citizen’s Advice. These partnerships have also led to student placements, enabling our students to develop their legal skills through the experience of working in the real world.”
Public Engagement with Research Team
Research Office
“Anna and Ellie, with Beth's support for events, have transformed our Public Engagement with Research activities over the past two years. They find creative ways to help our researchers connect with the public through amazing events and activities - they took the Science Bazaar online during the pandemic and have developed it further into a series of Saturday events for children and their families.”
Technical Team at Wheatley
Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment
“Following lockdown, the technical team were the first back on campus to deliver live laboratory exercises (and had to work very hard to make the laboratories safe by creating setups with an ingenuity which they didn't even know they had). The School simply could not survive without their connectedness and their willingness to get involved."
Adrian Thomas
Oxford Brookes Global; Marketing, Recruitment and Engagement
“Adrian’s innovation and strategic thinking has taken international recruitment from decline to growth through integral changes such as the introduction of a regular international scholarship and support to applicants joining us from red-listed countries. Adrian also works tirelessly to support his team’s personal and professional development.”
Marc Slatter
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
“Marc has demonstrated enterprising creativity by identifying a problem and working autonomously to come up with a solution that works. Most recently we needed to record Off-Venue Activities for the HESA Return. Marc has completely rebuilt the system in Microsoft Access so that we can export all the data we need.”
Winner: Verena Kriechbaumer
Department of Biological and Medical Sciences; Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
“Verena is an exceptional educator. She has excelled at creating an engaging, outward-facing curricula with a strong focus on students developing their employability and community spirit. This has led to some amazing results, including a children's book by a student on her science communication course. This is now being used in a national schools programme educating children about butterflies and their perils.”
Examinations Team
Academic and Student Administration
“In June and July 2022, the Examinations Team found itself at drastically reduced capacity just ahead of the team's busiest time of the year. They were required to plan and deliver thousands of exam sittings, without a full complement of invigilators and without full training. Using a variety of innovative solutions, the team ensured that all exams were delivered in accordance with the timetable and the regulations.”
Winner: Geo-Thermal Team
Estates and Campus Services
“The team successfully completed the geo-thermal project aimed at decarbonising our activities on Headington Campus by reducing the use of fossil fuels. This was a pioneering project with Brookes being the first university to install such a system, and with funding conditions dictating a very tight timescale. The team did an outstanding job in completing the project successfully.”
Think Human Team
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
“The team delivered Think Human in 2022 having planned and progressed it through Covid, lockdowns and rapid change. They were enthusiastic, committed, engaged, creative, and inspiring. Their hard work and support delivered a festival programme that promoted the faculty’s exciting research and knowledge exchange.”
Winner: Ellie Beaman
Directorate of Research, Innovation and Engagement
“Ellie should be recognised across the University as an inspiring role model. The Butterflies Under Pressure project is a fantastic example of what can happen when a person like Ellie really gets behind a project and goes that extra mile. She has been the project’s number one cheerleader; promoting connectedness across the project team and wider community.”
Jody Bell
Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work; Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
“Jody is a model of humility, and truly embodies an authentic expression of the Brookes guiding principles. As a graduate of Brookes and now a staff member, she has true integrity and commitment to creating an education for the students she serves and the colleagues she supports, that is inclusive, generous, connected, confident and creative.”
Sylwia Ciuk
Oxford Brookes Business School
“What makes Sylwia stand out as a potential Colleague of the Year is her level of excellence in all areas. There is excellence in teaching and learning, as well as doctoral supervision. She has had great success too with external funding. And then her research outputs are world leading - and she delivers this level over and over again.”
TDE Technical Team Headington
Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment
“The technical staff are generally in 5 days a week and easy to approach, so very strong nurturing relationships are established with students. This is evidenced by the comments from students, such as the technophobic student expressing amazement that, after one-to-one support with the Technical Team, they were now confident enough to edit their videos independently.”
Brookes Nursery
People Directorate
“I would simply not be able to perform my role as an academic without the support of Brookes Nursery. They have gone above and beyond in delivering care to my daughter from 6 months old, and I have been able to perform my duties knowing, with confidence, that she is well looked after and loved.”
Winner: Formula Student Competition staff team
Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment
“The Oxford Brookes Racing teams have done extremely well in this year's Formula Student Competition, collecting seven prestigious awards. Without taking anything away from the students’ immense dedication, this high level of success would not be possible without Gordana’s exemplary leadership and the hard work and enthusiasm of the staff members involved, both academics and technicians.”
Research Degrees Team
Research Office; Academic and Student Administration
“The team has done a great job of ensuring a smooth transition when the (amazing) head of the Research Degrees Team retired. They worked tirelessly to support students and supervisors, and to find a balance between fairness with regulations and creative solutions to meet individual needs. They are also patient and kind with the many difficult queries that postgraduate research tutors like me bring their way."