I have been with Discovery for the majority of my time at Swansea University and during this time I’ve taken on various roles within the organization. From being a volunteer to a project co-ordinator and then taking on additional responsibility as a trustee and finally as president of the trustees. This has allowed me the joy of overseeing the ongoing success and growth of Discovery, something which I wish to continue doing if re-elected.
I bring with me a wealth of experience from my roles within Discovery, but also additional skills that I’ve gained from opportunities that Discovery enabled me to access which has led to paid work and so I know personally and can see daily the benefits that volunteers can gain while with Discovery. My volunteering led to me now working with Pride Cymru as a Project Officer so I can understand the viewpoint of a staff member of a charity and how board decisions can impact them, I also sit on the board of Trustees for Shelter Cymru and I am acutely aware of the challenges many charitable organizations are facing in terms of issues such as funding etc and the legal responsibility of trustees when in such a role.
Before this, I have sat on regional and national committees for NUS and NUS-USI, specifically the Disabled Students Committee so accessibility and intersectionality are at the core of everything I do. Within these roles I was able to inform and bring about new policies and the experience working with policy has enabled me to review and update policies within Discovery as needed alongside my fellow trustees.
I also completed my PRINCE 2 Management Practitioner qualification the last year, so have both theoretical knowledge about management and leadership but practical thanks to my experiences on the board and within Discovery more generally, and want to continue to grow both personally and aid Discovery to grow from strength to strength and believe that my experiences in different roles within the charity and charities elsewhere allow me to bring key skills relevant to the running and management of a charity from a board level. My academic journey has also helped me develop skills suitable for this role, as I’ve needed to be able to multi-task, manage my time and read across disciplines and understand information outside of my research area. Additionally, due to my lived experience as a queer disabled student and now a new parent to a 10 week old baby, I bring to the board an understanding of barriers that some students might face when seeking out new opportunities, such as childcare and if re-elected, I would want to take time to consider and review how best these barriers can be addressed because Discovery is for everyone and currently does an amazing job reflecting this, but I would want to see if this can be enhanced further either through policy or other measures and continue to build on the work I’ve overseen with my fellow trustees.