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What is your role and what does it involve?

I’ve been the Communications and Marketing Officer for the EngEx since it launched in 2014. The job includes project management, events organising, website updates and social media, and writing our annual report and monthly newsletter (which will be going on pause for a few months this summer). It’s a part-time role, so I’ve simultaneously been supporting other Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê projects, primarily in Engineering and the Bartlett.

The aim of the EngEx is collaborating with our network of community groups and Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê researchers to undertake pro bono research projects of interest to Londoners. The projects tend to have social and/or environmental justice at their heart, which makes the work very rewarding.

What is your experience with community-engaged research?

I’ve had the privilege to work with a number of amazing community groups and academics during my time with the EngEx. In my experience, community groups are incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about the issues they are interested in, often with an impressive ability to engage with academia and policymakers on vital topics like social housing, air quality, environmental justice, transport planning… the list goes on.

The academics, researchers and students we work with are also very passionate and have been incredibly generous in giving their time and knowledge, sometimes to projects that are likely to provide more benefits for London than for their careers (although there are also very good reasons to undertake this work in terms of research impact!). 

What are you most proud of, in work or in life?

Moving from a small island in Canada to London 9 years ago, and gradually finding my niche here, has been a challenging but tremendously rewarding journey.

What saying do you try to live by?

Dorothy Parker: ‘The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.’

If you could meet any person, at any point in history, who would you choose and why?

I’d love to meet E. Pauline Johnson, a part-English, part-Mohawk poet who rose to prominence in Canada in the late 19th century, a time of extreme hostility from European settlers toward indigenous First Nations. 

Which album, film, TV boxed set and book would you take on a desert island?

Album: Anything by Miriam Makeba, to stay positive.
TV: Schitt’s Creek. Not enough seasons to last a long solitude but it’s an absolute gem of Canadian comedy. 
Film: I recently watched Maiden about Tracy Edwards and the first all-female sailing crew to enter a major sailing race. Very inspiring!
Book: If I can make it a series, I’d choose The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Pure, delightful escapism.

What do you think is the most important quality in a friend and/or colleague?

In a friend: empathy and humour. 

What do you like best about where you live?

My street is perhaps unusual in that my neighbours actually talk to each other! There is a strong sense of community engagement with local planning in the area. Newington Green is also an historic hotbed of radical politics, with the English Dissenters in the 17th century, and later, Mary Wollstonecroft, feminist writer and educator, residing there. Aside from my neighbours and the fascinating history, I love the availability of lovely cafes, pubs and restaurants in my area.

If you could be Mayor of London for a day, what would you do? 

Make London plastic-free by 2020.

What opportunities for community-engaged research are coming up for you or your organisation? 

I’m temporarily stepping down from my role with the Engineering Exchange to cover a communications and marketing management position in Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê’s Faculty of Laws. Although community engagement will be a less explicit element of the new role, my experience building external partnerships through the EngEx will no doubt stand me in great stead for building alumni relations and promoting their impressive engagement work, such as the Centre for Access to Justice.