ROEDEAN’S FESTIVAL CELEBRATING INSPIRING WOMEN
Speakers Melanie Aram 1 Zion Lights 10 Victoria Ball 2 Pinky Lilani CBE DL 11 Professor Janice Barton 3 Emma Lowndes 12 Aline Cerqueira 4 Natalie Nzeyimana (OR) 13 Dr Gillian Forrester 5 Dr Ria Perkins (OR) 14 Jo Furniss 6 Hazel Reeves 15 Lizzie Hodgson 7 Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE 16 Thea Jourdan 8 Lady Jillian Ritblat OBE (OR) 17 Captain Katherine Lambert 9
The world is changing. Women have more opportunities in society. However, they still very often face inequality, and struggle for parity with men. Roedean was founded by the Lawrence sisters to provide girls with an education at least as good as that available to boys, and this vision still underpins the School’s ethos. Despite the changes in society, young women need exposure to inspiring and successful female role-models to empower them and confirm their belief that they will make a difference in the world. To mark International Women’s Day 2020, Roedean is proud to hold its Festival Celebrating Inspiring Women on 5 March. The School is delighted to welcome a diverse group of seventeen speakers to this event, all women, who are addressing the students on topics ranging from elite sport to literature and acting, from mechanical engineering to marine environments, and from animal psychology to artificial intelligence. To hear from speakers who are at the forefront of the fields is exciting, enlightening, and, most of all, empowering. Today in the 21st century, more girls go to school than ever before. Nevertheless, more than 62 million girls worldwide still do not receive an education because of their gender, and 15 million girls will never enter a classroom. We are incredibly fortunate to be educated in the UK, so it is our responsibility to grab whatever opportunities we have with both hands. Education is a right, but it is also a gift, which should be cherished.
MELANIE ARAM After completing a degree in Theatre Studies at the University of Manchester, it became apparent to Melanie Aram that an Oscar or a career on the stage was unlikely, given that she cannot act. However, she turned this failure into a drive to help others bring their creative ideas to life. After stints at HSBC and the Civil Service she set her sights on fundraising and has worked across the UK with some of the country’s leading cultural institutions. During her time at Northern Ballet, the Citizens Theatre, the Bush Theatre and the National Portrait Gallery, Melanie helped to raise more than £45 million for creative projects and new arts spaces. In 2015 Melanie completed an MSc in Philanthropy and Social Investment at CASS Business School. Melanie began a new challenge in 2019, as Head of Leadership & Major Gifts for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. With 23 individually designed centres, this innovative cancer charity is the fastest growing in the UK. Its aim is simple, to ensure that everyone with cancer can get the emotional and practical support it has pioneered for more than 25 years. Each centre is exceptional in both design and programme and Maggie’s works with the world’s leading architects and oncologists to achieve this.
Creativity Can Change the World 1
2 Victoria Ball might best be described as a Renaissance woman, who believes that embracing different opportunities and mastering diverse skills can enrich one’s understanding of the world. She is passionate about encouraging people to embrace life’s multicoloured complexity for the benefit of both the self and society. A graduate of St John’s College, Cambridge and King’s College London, and an accredited mediator, Victoria brings people together to talk, listen to, and understand each other. She has worked with refugees in Syria and has conducted ground-breaking independent research in Northern Ireland, where she talked to women who were active members of the IRA during the 1970s and 1980s. She holds a Masters in Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies and has been invited to address a cross-departmental panel of government officials at the Home Office on issues in conflict-ridden countries.
VICTORIA BALL
“Widemindedness: the Path to a Better World?” Brexiteer vs Remainer. Young vs Old. Us vs Them.
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PROF JANICE BARTON
Engineering the Future with Images
Professor Janice Barton is a Professor of Experimental Mechanics at the University of Bristol. Experimental Mechanics is the investigation by experimental means of the mechanical behaviour of engineering structures. Janice is a pioneer of imaging applications, utilising the continuing advances in digital cameras and computing power, with a focus on lightweight structural design. Janice is from west London; she attended an all-girls grammar school, leaving at 16 to start an apprenticeship at Thorn EMI. So, from an all-female environment she joined the maledominated sector of engineering! During her apprenticeship, she studied for an HNC, enabling her to enter the University of Salford to graduate with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering. She studied for her PhD at the University of Manchester and, in 1993, she joined the University of Liverpool. In 1999, she moved to the University of Southampton and then Bristol in 2019. She has published around 450 academic papers, contributed to 8 books and won numerous grants, attracting funding in excess £15m, as well as supervising 40 successful PhDs. Janice is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP), a Chartered Engineer, the only female Fellow of the British Society for Strain Measurement and, in 2016, was elected Fellow of US Society for Experimental Mechanics. This year, she will be the first female Murray Lecturer at the Society’s annual conference.
ALINE CERQUEIRA Aline Cerqueira is a British-Brazilian marine biologist currently conducting research to support the conservation of sea birds in the UK and marine manatees in Brazil. She also works with the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), providing scientific evidence and advice to politicians about marine conservation matters. She initiated her research career in Brazil as one of the co-founders of a marine conservation NGO (AQUASIS), researching the ecology and the conservation status of marine mammal species. Within this NGO she had the opportunity to research and help protect some incredible marine creatures such as whales, dolphins, porpoises, manatees and sea turtles. In the UK, she has worked as a researcher at the Centre for Aquatic Environments of the University of Brighton and was the course leader for the FdSc in Biological Sciences at Greater Brighton Metropolitan College between 2009 and 2017. In September 2017, she decided to continue with her education and initiated a PhD degree course at King’s College London in partnership with the ZSL Institute of Zoology, where she conducts her current research. Aline believes that we all have an important individual role in making the world a better place and that we have the responsibility to seize each opportunity to make it so.
Diving in at the Deep End A Journey into Marine Conservation
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Human and Animal Psychology
Dr Gillian Forrester is the founder and director of the Me, Human project (www.mehuman.io, @Me__ Human). She is an Evolutionary and Developmental Psychologist based at Birkbeck, University of London, focusing on how humans evolved and developed to be the way we are today. She studies the behaviours and brain organisation of children, gorillas and chimpanzees. Through the Me, Human project she collaborates with the public to investigate and educate about human cognition by hosting talks and live demonstrations (e.g. London Science Museum, Soapbox Science). She has featured on radio (BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Archive, BBC Local); TV (BBC4, CNN, Reuters, BBC South East); science podcasts (e.g. Level Up Human, BBC Crowd Science); has written articles published by The Conversation, Discover Magazine, Psychology Today, Early Years Educator, Autism Parenting Magazine; and has had her research featured in The Washington Post, Discover Magazine and The Scientist Magazine. She is delighted to be starting the new GRASP the LOOP initiative with Liberian Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection (as seen on BBC’s Baby Chimp Rescue) and launching the pilot phase with in collaboration with Roedean School.
DR GILLIAN FORRESTER
Jo Furniss is a mother, journalist, and the author of three novels that put ordinary women into extraordinary situations. Jo started her career at the BBC, where she was a newsreader, reporter and producer in radio. Plus, on two alarming occasions, the emergency stand-in for someone who failed to turn up for a television show.
JO FURNISS
The Joy of Turning Fiction into Fact 6
She also spent 15 years as an expatriate in Singapore, Switzerland and Cameroon. Jo freelanced for online outlets and magazines, including the BBC, the United Nations, Monocle and The Economist. She has edited books for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the palace of the Sultan of Brunei. A lifelong dream to publish a novel came true at the age of 43, which is how long it took Jo to stop dreaming and start writing. Her debut novel, All the Little Children, was a best-seller in the UK and the US. It was followed by The Trailing Spouse, while a third thriller coming out in August is called The Last to Know. Her next project involves a young detective who goes undercover as a boarder at a certain girls’ school located on a cliff...
Lizzie Hodgson aims to humanise the impact of technology for all. As the founder of ThinkNation, she tackles big tech questions and challenges, empowering young people to explore the world they are inheriting. This has never been more important than the times we are living in today. Her ability to cut through often complex issues, stripping away the hyperbole, ensures she educates and challenges diverse audiences. With a background in speechwriting for central government, a Katerva Gender Equality Global Expert Panel Member, and founder of a tech company, Lizzie is as comfortable talking to a conference of global CIOs about Artificial Intelligence biases as she is speaking to young people, nurturing a narrative of hope. Lizzie is also the co-host of The Z-X Spectrum podcast with Brandon Relph. Here, they take an intergenerational view of the impact of tech and digital on work, society, education‌ and life. She is on the Advisory Board at The Gulbenkian Arts Centre, and Industrial Advisory Board at the University of Kent School of Computing.
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LIZZIE HODGSON
The Power of Uncertainty
The Impact of Technology in the 21st Century
Media over the Last 25 Years THEA JOURDAN
Thea Jourdan has written for national newspapers and magazines for the last 25 years as a feature writer, commentator, and health specialist. Over that time, she has written thousands of articles for the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, The Economist, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, the Evening Standard, and many more. She is also an award winning editor and founded the world’s first blog for medical professionals in 2016, www. hippocraticpost.com. Since December 2018, she has been health and wellness editor at Vice Media London, where she has overseen an editorial team delivering a successful quit smoking campaign. She enjoys bridging the gap between traditional press and digital media, and believes that social media is a powerful tool for making positive change.
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CAPT KATIE LAMBERT
Outnumbered but not Outgunned Women in the Armed Forces
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Captain Katie Lambert is a Royal Engineer officer within the British Army. She was commissioned from The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in December 2016 and has had three exciting and varied years of service since. After completing the -month Royal Engineer’s young officer training course, learning roles from bridgebuilding to establishing water sources, she chose to specialise in Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) – the search and clearance of mine and improvised explosive devices. In August 2017, she joined 33 Regiment (EOD&S) RE where she completed her specialist training and travelled the world as a Defence Advance Search Advisor. She visited New Zealand for 4 months to assist their Defence Force develop their EOD capability before deploying to Iraq for 5 months on Op SHADER 9. In Iraq, she worked as the Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices Training Team Commander and delivered training to the Iraqi Security Forces. Recently, she moved to the Army Training Regiment, Winchester, and now teaches new army recruits on the 14-week basic training course. In amongst this, she has gained qualifications in rock climbing and parachuting, as well as represented the Army for Lacrosse, captained the female Royal Engineer cross-country team, represented the Corps in athletics and netball and begun a MA in Global Diplomacy with SOAS University.
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ZION LIGHTS Zion Lights is an author and activist known for her environmental work and science communication. Zion is a TEDx speaker and has an MSc in Science Communication. She is the author of the evidence-based book The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting, and the poetry collection Only a Moment. Her nature writing and poetry has been published in several volumes. Zion is a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion UK. She is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the XR UK newspaper The Hourglass. www.zionlights.co.uk
The Battle against Extinction Shaping a Global Movement
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PINKY LILANI
Pinky Lilani CBE DL is an internationally acclaimed champion for women. She is the force behind the Women of the Future Programme, a portfolio of global events and networks that for over 20 years have supported the female leadership pipeline. She has also recently founded Kindness & Leadership – 50 Leading Lights Campaign both in the UK and Southeast Asia, celebrating phenomenal, kind leaders and radically shifting the global leadership conversation. Pinky is a Fellow of the GSA and an Associate Fellow of Saïd Business School. She is an Ambassador for the Tiffany Circle of the Red Cross and serves on the board of trustees of the Royal Commonwealth Society.
Kindness, Collaboration and Coriander
EMMA LOWNDES Emma Lowndes is a British actress. Born in Manchester, she went on to train at RADA after completing an English degree at Ripon and York, St John’s. Her career on stage and screen includes leading roles at The National Theatre, RSC, The Globe Theatre, The Royal Exchange, Royal and Derngate, and in the West End. Her most recent stage performance was as Ginny Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. On television Emma’s guest appearances include Call The Midwife, Survivors, Waking the Dead and Silent Witness. She has been a series regular in Burn It, Jane Eyre, Cranford and Downton Abbey. Emma has a Best Actress MTA award for her performances in Port and The Seagull, for which she was nominated for an Ian Charleson award for best classical performance. Along with the cast from Downton Abbey, she has been recognised by SAG for an outstanding performance by an ensemble and BAFTA for special recognition. Emma will be appearing in the movie Military Wives, released internationally from March 6th.
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Should you put your Daughter on the Stage?
13 Natalie Nzeyimana (OR) is an artificial intelligence ethics and policy advisor. Natalie studied Philosophy and Politics at the University of Manchester and at the Oxford Internet Institute. She writes about privacy and data rights for Prospect Magazine, has consulted on AI projects for Harvard and MIT’s AI Fund, presented research to the Data and Society Institute in New York and been invited to present at NeurIPS (the annual conference on Machine Learning and Computational Neuroscience). Natalie lives in London.
Contemporary Challenges in Artificial Intelligence NATALIE NZEYIMANA
Dr Ria Perkins (OR) is a forensic linguist with over a decade’s experience of research, teaching, training and casework. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Aston University Institute of Forensic Linguistics. She is also the director of Hapax Consulting Ltd., through which she delivers training and performs casework. She has undertaken cases for a variety of different clients, was previously seconded to a unit within the police, and has taught forensic linguistics courses around the world. Her research has two main strands; the linguistics of power and persuasion, and other/native language influence detection (NLID/OLID).
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DR RIA PERKINS
Language, Power and Crime
‘Rise up, women’
The Making of the Emmeline Pankhurst Statue Hazel Reeves is passionate about telling stories of struggles for social justice and redressing the lack of representation of women, including working class and disabled women, in sculpture. Her statue of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst - Rise up, women - was unveiled in Manchester, on 14 December 2018, the centenary of when the first women were able to vote. Activists and over a thousand schoolchildren marched from across the city, converging on St Peter’s Square to join the 5,000-strong crowd. Before becoming a sculptor, Hazel had an international career promoting women’s rights.
HAZEL REEVES
Other notable commissions include her ‘Cracker Packers’ statue, celebrating the lives of women biscuit factory workers from the Carr’s factory in Carlisle; her monumental statue of Sir Nigel Gresley, the steam railway engineer, at King’s Cross station; and her bronze figure of the young girl Sadako Sasaki, who continues to inspire peace activism worldwide. Hazel’s smaller-scale works - including dancing figures - have been shown widely, in over 70 galleries, exhibitions and sculpture trails across the UK. She is an elected Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and a member of the Society of Women Artists (SWA).
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Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE is the most capped female hockey player in her country’s history, and was captain of GB and England women’s hockey teams for 13 years.
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Sport for All
After securing a bronze in London 2012, Rio 2016 was her fourth Games and finally yielded the coveted Olympic Gold medal. An inspirational and charismatic leader, she has been widely credited for helping build the incredible team ethos and commitment that drove the GB team to a nail biting victory against Holland in the final. Alongside her GB duties, Kate won the European Championships with England in 2015 and secured a bronze and two silvers in three successive Commonwealth Games. Kate currently coaches at Hampstead & Westminster Hockey Club, serves as an ambassador for the Women’s Sport Trust, supports disability hockey as an ambassador for Access Sport, and sits on the British and European Olympic Athlete’s Commissions. She was chosen to carry the GB flag at the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics and was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Honours.
KATE RICHARDSON-WALSH
Lady Jillian Ritblat OBE (OR) is a qualified barrister and holds a BA (Hons) in History of Art. She has served as an NGO representative at the United Nations. She has worked closely with a number of organisations, as a Trustee of the Design Museum, member of the Committee of Honour of the Royal Academy of Music, Trustee of the Garden Museum, Council Member of the Royal College of Art, Board member of the Tate Foundation 2006, and of the Wallace Collection International Council. She is also a former Chairman of the Tate Patrons of New Art and Vice-Chairman of the Tate International Council (1996–2001), and former Vice Chair of Board of New Contemporaries, an annual travelling exhibition for art graduates selected from all British art schools. Lady Ritblat has been on several judging panels, including the Turner Prize (1988), the Arts & Business Awards (2000-2002), the Manser Medal Jury (2012), and the RIBA Honours Committee (2017), which decided Honorary Fellowships, International Fellowships, and The Royal Gold Medal. She was Executive Film Producer of Normal Conservative Rebels: Gilbert & George in China, which received a gold medal at the Chicago Film Festival and was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival (1996), Tate Britain (1997), and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1997–8). Lady Ritblat was made an OBE in 2017.
How to be a Collector LADY JILLIAN RITBLAT
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Roedean’s Roedean’s Festival Festival Celebrating Celebrating Inspiring Inspiring Women Women International International Women’s Women’s Day Day 8 5 March March 2020 2020 #EachforEqual #EachforEqual #IWD2020 #IWD2020