Roedean's Festival Celebrating Inspiring Women - 8 March 21

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

ROEDEAN’S FESTIVAL CELEBRATING INSPIRING WOMEN

Speakers Dr Kemi Adeyeye 1 Serena Kern 10 Holly Bourne 2 Prof Jacqueline McGlade 11 Dr Liz Chamberlain 3 Helen Richardson-Walsh OBE 12 Sarah Dixon (OR) 4 Juliet Sargeant 13 Charlotte Fiell (OR) 5 Dr Aisling Swaine 14 Prof Ellie Highwood 6 Countess Alexandra Tolstoy 15 Red Hong Yi 7 Prof Joyce Tyldesley 16 Dr Suzie Imber 8 Jo Vickery 17 Dr Segenet Kelemu 9 CFO Dawn Whittaker 18

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

ROEDEAN’S FESTIVAL CELEBRATING INSPIRING WOMEN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021 The world is changing, and women in the 21st century have more opportunities in society than ever before. However, they still very often face inequality, and struggle for parity with men. The 2020 Global Gender Gap index shows that women still have 31.4% less access to resources and opportunities. 62 million girls worldwide still do not receive an education because of their gender, and 15 million girls will never enter a classroom. It is therefore beholden on us to grasp every opportunity to empower our young women and girls and to confirm their belief that they will make a difference in the world.

To mark International Women’s Day 2021, Roedean is proud to hold its annual Festival Celebrating Inspiring Women on 8 March. Our founding Lawrence sisters would doubtless be very proud to see a range of impressive, positive and successful female role models addressing our students. The School is delighted to welcome a diverse group of eighteen speakers to this year’s virtual event, who are speaking on topics ranging from Egyptology and architectural engineering, from installation art to insect ecology, and from space exploration to girls’ education in Africa.

To hear from speakers who are at the forefront of the fields is exciting, enlightening, and empowering. We are therefore delighted that it is possible to host this event, despite the current lockdown in 2021, and also that Roedean students will be joined by students from Roedean South Africa, and by Roedean Academy students from four state schools in the local area. I would like to thank, in particular Dr Ross Barrand, Deputy Head: Co-Curriculum and outreach, for his vision of this festival, and for his organisation of this large-scale event. #IWD21 #ChoosetoChallenge Oliver Blond Headmaster

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Dr KEMI ADEYEYE

1

Senior Lecturer in Architectural Engineering

‘THIS IS WATER’ Dr Kemi Adeyeye is Associate Professor at the University of Bath. Her background is in architecture, architectural engineering and planning. Her research focuses on resource efficiency and resilience. She believes that true sustainability requires integrated social, economic and environmental solutions. As has been said of the pandemic, we are not sustainable until the majority are sustainable. So education, awareness, affordability, and improving people’s capacity to adjust and improve are all necessary to maintain our access to essential resources, like water, and to achieve true resilience against climate change.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

HOLLY BOURNE

2

Author

‘KINDNESS IS CONTAGIOUS’ Holly Bourne studied at the University of Sheffield and worked as a journalist before moving into fiction. Her work for agony-aunt encyclopaedia TheSite has covered the full gamut of teenage issues, so it comes as no surprise that her first novel was aimed squarely at the Young Adult market. She is the bestselling, award-winning author of The Spinster Club series, which has inspired teenagers around the UK to set up their own feminist groups. She created the viral #IAmAFeminist campaign, which trended worldwide. Holly travels the country to educate young people about gender equality and has spoken to tens of thousands of teenagers about fighting for a better world.

Alongside her books, Holly is a journalist, relationship agony aunt, and works with charities that specialise in sexual violence against women. She worked for a youth charity for five years, helping victims of rape, and pioneered a digital campaign that educates teenagers about sexual consent and healthy relationships. She has spoken about sexual violence at many high-profile events, including the WOW London festival and the Women’s Aid National Conference.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Dr LIZ CHAMBERLAIN

3

Senior Lecturer in Education and Director of the Zimbabwe Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education project

‘FROM BRIGHTON TO HARARE VIA HOLLYWOOD: Where a career in teaching can take you’ Dr Liz Chamberlain is a Senior Lecturer in Education at The Open University in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies. She teaches and authors several of the university’s courses, including Comparative and International Studies in Primary Education. She contributes to courses that support students who are hoping to be teachers or who wish to work in the third sector or cultural organisations. Liz has a passion for making a difference, underpinned by her 30 years of experience teaching in primary schools and in higher education institutions. She loves working in big teams with colleagues from different countries. Currently, her day job is as Academic Director for the Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education (SAGE) project in Zimbabwe, a UKAidfunded programme part of the Girls’ Education Challenge. The project is supporting 5,000 out-of-school girls to improve their literacy and numeracy skills.

Before working in higher education, Liz was a primary school teacher, and she has taught in a number of primary schools in London, Devon, Southampton, and Malaysia. She has held a variety of positions including English Subject Leader, Leading Literacy Teacher, and Assistant Headteacher. In her spare time, Liz volunteers for several charities. She was a volunteer at London 2012’s Olympic Opening Ceremony, where she met her fellow suffragettes, many of whom volunteer for CARE International’s annual Walk in Her Shoes/March4Women event. It was this experience that led to her one and only appearance (so far) in a Hollywood film.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

SARAH DIXON (OR)

4

Artist, Designer, and Coach

‘AMAZING WOMEN AND GIRLS FROM AROUND THE WORLD’ Sarah Dixon, born in London and raised in Cyprus and the Middle East, is an artist and designer, formerly a biologist (UCL 1998) and, most recently, became a coach (Relational Dynamics 1st 2019). She is owner of Spider Creative, a studio supporting creatives, small businesses, and non-profits, in digital strategies, resilience, and connection. She has passion for equity and social inclusion, antiracism and ecological approaches to community and emotional development. Her work explores participatory art making and ideas around how the ‘human social organism’ works. Sarah is a co-founder with Sharon Bennett of artist collective The Women’s Art Activation System (WAAS), creating collective and feminist art projects. She created the Periodic Table of Brilliant Women & Girls with her husband Rob, through a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2020. She works from her studio in Stroud, Gloucestershire where she lives with Rob and their young daughter, who inspired them to research and make the Periodic Table.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

CHARLOTTE FIELL (OR)

5

Leading Design Historian

‘WOMEN IN DESIGN – From Aino Aalto to Eva Zeisel’ Charlotte Fiell is an internationally-renowned authority on the history, theory, and criticism of design, and has written over 60 books on the subject, many of which have gone on to become bestsellers. She has also penned numerous articles and reviews, lectured widely, guest-taught courses, and consulted to manufacturing companies, museums, salerooms and major private collectors around the world. In 2019, she co-authored Women in Design – From Aino Aalto to Eva Zeisel with her daughter Clementine, which went on to be selected by the BBC as one of the Ten Best Fashion and Design Books of 2019 and by the Library Journal as one of the Can’t Miss Print Titles for Best Reference Category, 2019.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Prof ELLIE HIGHWOOD

6

Former Professor of Climate Physics

‘WHATEVER THE WEATHER – Adventures in Climate Change Research’ Climate change is one of the biggest global challenges facing the planet.

Professor Ellie Highwood spent 26 years as a climate scientist at the University of Reading, leading a research group exploring how particles of smoke and dust affect weather patterns and climate change, and how the effect of these ‘aerosols’ combines with the impact of increased greenhouse gases. Her research work included leading international field campaigns in Senegal and Italy, as well as running computer models, some based in a simple spreadsheet and others using supercomputers. As an academic, she combined this research with teaching undergraduates meteorology and climate science (including teaching Laura Tobin and Thomas Schafernaker their year 1 meteorology courses). Ellie still teaches broadcast meteorologists about climate science with the Royal Meteorological Society, but now spends the rest of her time working with organisations to improve equality, diversity and inclusion - something that became a passion when she was one of only 12 women on her physics degree (out of 125). Ellie is also a STEM ambassador and, until recently, was a scientist in residence at a local primary school in Berkshire. Mum to two boys, professional leadership and career development coach, self-employed, Ellie was President of the Royal Meteorological Society from 2016-18 and Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Reading from 2015-2019.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

RED HONG YI

7

Artist

‘LOOKING AT THE WORLD WITH FRESH EYES’ Red Hong Yi is a Chinese-Malaysian contemporary artist who makes work expressing her heritage and social issues through ordinary objects and materials.

Known as “the artist who paints without a paintbrush”, she creates mixed media installations by reinterpreting everyday materials through the accumulation of objects, like chopsticks, teabags, socks, and eggshells. By combining traditional craftsmanship and digital technology, she creates works that consider perceptual habits and preconceptions of the chosen objects and subjects.

Her work has been exhibited at H Queens in Hong Kong, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, World Economic Forum in Davos and Anchorage Museum in Alaska.

Collectors of her work include JP Morgan Chase Bank and actor Jackie Chan. Her art has been featured on publications including Wall Street Journal, TIME, and New York Times. Sotheby’s Institute has named her one of the “11 art world entrepreneurs you should know”. Tatler Magazine has named her one of Asia’s most influential voices in 2020.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Dr SUZIE IMBER

8

Associate Professor of Planetary Science

‘ADVENTURES IN SPACE’ Dr Suzie Imber is an Associate Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Leicester. She specialises in studying space weather, understanding the impact of the solar wind on the magnetised planets, in particular the Earth and Mercury.

Suzie was a co-investigator on the X-ray spectrometer on board the joint ESA/ JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft which launched in October 2018, arriving at Mercury in 2025.

Suzie was also the winner of the BBC2 series entitled ‘Astronauts: Do You Have What it Takes?’, during which twelve candidates were put through astronaut training with NASA astronaut Chris Hadfield. She endured challenges such as taking her own blood, speaking Russian while in a centrifuge at 5g, and carrying out emergency procedures on the NASA undersea astronaut training facility, Aquarius. Suzie received a letter of recommendation from Chris Hadfield to support her application to the European Space Agency astronaut training programme.

Suzie was an England U21 lacrosse player, an elite rower, and is now a highaltitude mountaineer. She has written computer code to automatically identify mountains in South America, and found hundreds of mountains that had never been identified before. She sets off annually to scale these incredibly remote, unclimbed mountains, exploring new regions of our planet and even discovering Incan ruins on the summits.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Dr SEGENET KELEMU

9

Insect Ecologist and Director General of the ICIPE

‘MY JOURNEY FROM TENDING THE FIELD TO DIRECTING A LEADING SCIENCE INSTITUTION’ Dr Segenet Kelemu, is the Director General and CEO of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) Nairobi, Kenya. She is the fourth Chief Executive Officer, and the first woman to lead ICIPE. After more than 25 years in the United States of America and Latin America applying cutting-edge science that saw her garner numerous professional and state honours for an exceptional career as a scientist, Dr Kelemu returned from the diaspora in 2007 to contribute to Africa’s development. She is a 2014 L’Oréal-UNESCO Laureate for Women in Science Awards, and one of the top 100 most influential African women featured in the May 2014 Edition of Forbes Africa. Dr. Kelemu was listed among the 10 most influential African women in agriculture by the Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security.

In January 2018, she was recognised by Bill Gates as one of five ‘Heroes in the Field’, using their talents to fight poverty, hunger and disease, and providing opportunities for the next generation. In April 2018, the Women Economic Forum awarded Dr Kelemu their highest award, “Woman of the Decade in Natural and Sustainable Ecosystems”, for outstanding leadership. In 2018, she has been featured in The CEO Magazine, Australia, as one of the six exceptional leaders from around the world, breaking ground and shattering the glass ceiling.

Dr Kemelu serves on various boards, advisory panels in major global initiatives and has served in international juries of key science awards. She is a Fellow of various Academies of Sciences. She has been featured in CNN African Voices, the Mind of the Universe, the BBC, the East African, Le Monde, among others.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

SERENA KERN

10

Singer and Lawyer

‘MUSICIAN OR LAWYER… OR BOTH? Being the best version of me’ Serena Kern is Deputy Head of Global Trade Strategy at the Bank of England. She is also a pop singer (stage name: Segiri) and her music has had notable success in the UK and US. Serena grew up in India. She studied Law at the London School of Economics (LSE) and went on to work as a lawyer at City law firm Slaughter and May. Alongside her career as a lawyer, Serena has built a successful career as a musician. Her music has been a regular feature on BBC Radio and she recently won the “Next Up Global Indie Music Competition” in the US. Serena is passionate about spreading the message that you don’t necessarily have to pick one career path in life. Diversity is not just about diversity of cultures or backgrounds, it is about diversity of thought as well. We should all look to be our whole selves and companies should hire people because, and not despite the fact that, they are different.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Prof JACQUELINE McGLADE

11

Professor of Natural Prosperity

‘OUR WORLD: DOES GENDER AFFECT OUR CONCERNS ABOUT NATURE’ Jacqueline McGlade is Professor of Sustainable Development and Resilience at the Institute for Global Prosperity and Faculty of Engineering at University College London (UCL) and the Frank Jackson Professor of the Environment at Gresham College. She also holds a post as Professor in International Public Policy and Governance at Strathmore University Business School, Kenya. Her current work focuses on developing nature-based solutions to climate adaptation and mitigation, ocean and human health, the circular bioeconomy, earth observations and ecosystem modelling and the impacts of pollution on human and ecosystem health, and intergenerational prosperity. She develops geospatial, fuzzy logic and AI platforms for decision-making under high degrees of uncertainity.

Previously, she was UN Environment’s Chief Scientist, Director of Science and Chief Statistician, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, Director of the UK Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, Director of Theoretical Ecology at the FZ Jülich and Senior Scientist in the Fisheries and Oceans, Federal Government of Canada. She has been a Board member of the Environment Agency (England and Wales), the Earth Centre Millennium Commission funded project, and currently advises the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the UK Space Agencies, Open Government Platform and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. She has published more than 200 research publications and books, produced award winning films and radio series, and received awards for her science.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

HELEN RICHARDSONWALSH OBE

12

Former GB Hockey Player

‘WHAT IS SUCCESS AND HOW DO WE GET THERE?’ Helen Richardson-Walsh OBE is one of the most experienced players in GB hockey history. At the age of 18, she became the youngest ever woman to represent GB hockey at an Olympics in Sydney, and went on to compete at four Olympic Games. Over the course of her 17-year international career she amassed a Commonwealth bronze and two silvers, a bronze at the London 2012 Olympics, and the European Championship title in 2015, before finally reaching the pinnacle of her sport, with an Olympic gold at Rio in 2016.

Success, however, has not always been assured. Helen’s career was threatened at the age of just 23 with two rounds of back surgery. Consultants warned it was unlikely she would ever play hockey again, and, having lost her place in the squad, she experienced a loss of identity and period of depression. Helped through this by her wife, Kate, her own reading into psychology and the support structure within hockey, she battled back to retake her place in the squad, and contribute as a senior leader to the resurgence of GB women’s hockey.

Today, Helen continues to play at club level, and has completed a degree in psychology, inspired by her experience in battling back from injury, and her experience of elite performance and winning teams. She is now studying for a masters in organisational psychology, serves as an ambassador for Access Sport, is an Athlete Role Model for the Youth Olympic Games and is patron of Tottenham’s LGBT fan club, The Proud Lilywhites.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

JULIET SARGEANT

13

Chelsea Flower Show Winner

‘HOW TO TELL A STORY WITH A GARDEN’ Juliet Sargeant started out as a medical doctor, but changed to making gardens.

She likes to make gardens that not only look fantastic, but also affect people in various ways. Gardens can make people feel things, behave in certain ways, and think about things differently. Gardens can be an art form.

Juliet has won numerous awards for her gardens and is an influential garden designer.

If you are creative, artistic or like story-telling, come and hear about a very different way of looking at gardens.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Dr AISLING SWAINE

14

Professor of Gender Studies

‘NAVIGATING PEACE AND SECURITY THROUGH GENDER: Personal and Professional Reflections’ Dr Aisling Swaine is Professor of Gender Studies at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin. Her research focuses on examining the relationship between gender, peace and security. Aisling’s work specifically explores the ways that women and girls will experience war and violence and how institutions like the UN can better fulfill women’s and girls’ human rights in contexts of conflict.

Aisling grew up in a small rural village in Ireland, attended university through scholarships and from an early age used her opportunity for education to develop a career addressing global inequalities, particularly those impacting women and girls. She spent over seven years living and working in humanitarian and peacebuilding contexts of Kosovo, Burundi, Timor-Leste, and Darfur, Sudan, and has done consultancy work in a range of East and Central African countries. Aisling has worked as a ‘gender advisor’ in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and a policy analyst at UN Women headquarters in New York.

Following her humanitarian work, Aisling did a PhD in international law and has since embarked on a role in academia, with a specific aim to make links between academic work and the policy and practice of women’s rights. She is affiliated with the LSE Centre on Women, Peace and Security, a Visiting Fellow at the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University, and previously a Hauser Global Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at the School of Law, New York University. She now teaches and researches, as well as doing technical advisory and consulting work for international organisations.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Countess ALEXANDRA TOLSTOY

15

Adventurer, Author and TV Presenter

‘FINDING CONFIDENCE THROUGH ADVENTURE’ Alexandra Tolstoy is an Anglo-Russian mother, adventurer, author, and TV presenter. After graduating with an MA (Hons) in Russian language and literature from The University of Edinburgh, Alexandra and three girlfriends set out to become the first people since the time of Marco Polo to ride 5,000 miles of the Silk Road on horse and camel, from Merv in Turkmenistan to the ancient Silk Road city of Xian in China. A nine-month journey of living in tents in some of the harshest and most remote spots on earth, it triggered a passion for travel and adventure in Alexandra. She went on to spend six months riding horses through Mongolia and Eastern Siberia, as well as retracing a legendary Soviet expedition of Turkmen riders on Akhal Teke horses, who rode from Ashgabad to Moscow’s Red Square.

On the back of this experience, she began leading riding trips to Kyrgyzstan for intrepid tourists.

Alexandra was commissioned to write an account of the Silk Road expedition

by Profile Books, The Last Secrets of the Silk Road in 2003. She has also written extensively for magazines and newspapers on her various travels, and in 2009 presented a series of documentaries, Horse People with Alexandra Tolstoy, for BBC2, on societies that revolve around horses, namely Yakutia (Siberia), Andalucia, and Montana.

Alexandra is working in partnership with Ampersand Travel to curate trips all over the former Russian Empire, including everything from riding in Kyrgyzstan to ‘Tolstoy tours’ of Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

Prof JOYCE TYLDESLEY

16

Professor of Egyptology

‘WOMEN IN ANCIENT EGYPT’ Joyce Tyldesley is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Manchester and a Research Associate of the Manchester Museum. A pioneer in online learning and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, she has devised and teaches a suite of online Egyptology courses open to students worldwide. Her research focusses on the fascinating lives lived by the women of ancient Egypt.

Joyce was born in Lancashire. After attending an all-girls’ school, she moved to an all-male environment when she became the only female in her year studying archaeology at the University of Liverpool. She then moved Oxford where she studied Neanderthal man for her doctorate. After a year teaching prehistory at the University of Liverpool, she became a freelance Egyptologist, writing a wide variety of academic and popular books for adults and children, and working with television companies to bring an accurate version of ancient Egypt to the small screen. Her book Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt, was Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4. Her book Tutankhamen’s Curse was awarded the Felicia A. Holton Book Award by the Archaeological Institute of America. Throughout this period, she also worked as Small Business Manager for a firm of accountants in Bolton. In 2007, she abandoned accountancy and returned to full-time teaching and research.

In 2011, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Bolton in recognition of her outstanding contribution to education and outreach.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

JO VICKERY

17

Art Advisor

‘FROM POLISHING SILVER TO RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH OLIGARCHS: Grit & Glamour of a Career in the Russian Art World’ Jo Vickery is Co-Founder and Director of Vickery Art, an art advisory with an emphasis on Russian Art and Collectors. She is a leading authority in this field, with experience in both the commercial and non-profit sectors. From 1997 to 2020, she worked at Sotheby’s where she started her career as a Russian art specialist (1997-2003) and continued as Head of Russian Art (2003-2013) where she rose to International Director of Russian Art (2014-2020). She oversaw all the landmark Russian art auctions, such as the sale of the legendary Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya Collection and established Sotheby’s as the world auction leader in the sale of Russian Art. She is executive editor of ‘Frozen Dreams. Contemporary Art from Russia’, published by Thames and Hudson in 2012. She has served as a member of REEAC, the Russian and Eastern European Art Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern from 2014-2020 and on the International Jury of the Kandinsky Prize, in 2019. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Russian Art Focus, an online periodical specialising on Russian Contemporary Art, founded by Inna Bazhenova and Dmitry Aksenov in 2018.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

CFO DAWN WHITTAKER

18

Chief Fire Officer

‘CLIMBING A LADDER’ Dawn Whittaker joined Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2004, as a senior manager, with a background in business management in both local government and the private sector, becoming Deputy Chief Fire Officer in 2008.

In 2015/16, she undertook a secondment to central Government as a professional Fire and Rescue Adviser, specifically advising on emergency service collaboration and fire safety in prisons.

Dawn moved to East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service in June 2016 as Deputy Chief Fire Officer and was appointed Chief Fire Officer in October 2017.

She was a Trustee and Chair of the Board of a Northampton voluntary infustructure organisation for 10 years and was until recently, also the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Royal Lifesaving Society UK. A Chief Fire Officer Association (CFOA) (now known as the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC)) member since 2006, Dawn has led the development of the Council’s approach to drowning prevention and water safety, supporting all UK-based Fire Services with an interest in this prevention work. Dawn represents NFCC on the National Water Safety Forum Co-ordinating Group, and has been actively involved in the development of the UK National Drowning Prevention Strategy, launched at Westminster in February 2016.

International Women’s Day 8 March 2021 #ChoosetoChallenge #IWD2021