Speakers
Kim Graakjaer
Kim is Head of Student Communications at the University of Manchester and has over 20 years’ experience working in higher education. Prior to her current role, she led the strategic communications and engagement activities for two significant University transformational change programmes, across the Student Experience (2020) and IT Services (2016)
While the last eleven years of her career have been focussed across communications and engagement, Kim’s initial career in higher education began in 1999 working in student support and administration. In 2018/19, she stepped back into this world to lead the Professional Services team across an academic School (covering recruitment and admissions, teaching and learning, student support, research support, administrative, technical and health and safety teams) so has hands-on experience of student life, academic operations and university governance.
Kim studied with the Open University and the Chartered Institute of Marketing, both whilst working full-time.
Thea Hartman
Thea, currently a Student Communications Coordinator at the University of Southampton, has a unique perspective when it comes to communicating to students. Being a recent English graduate from the University of Southampton, Thea has built her experience delivering communications in multiple areas across the University, from public engagement with research to arts, science, social impact and entrepreneurship, and now to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at Southampton.
This experience provided Thea with a holistic perspective on the University of Southampton, which has informed the creation and delivery of a wide variety of communications and campaigns such as student email campaigns, COVID-19 crisis communications and general safety as project lead for the Student Safety Site.
Michael Lavery
Michael is currently serving as Interim Vice President of Membership, Marketing, and Communications at CASE. He is the founder and CEO of Brand & Reputation an international management consultancy firm working across education, health, culture and non-profit sectors . Starting his career working with global brands in the private sector, he then worked in higher education leadership for 12 years as Executive Director (External Relations) at Teesside University and Director of Communications and Marketing at Durham University. In these roles, he chaired various HE MarComms groups and was an adviser to the House of Lords. Michael is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR). He is a previous track chair and member of the CEAC planning committee and served on the European Board of Trustees of CASE between 2014-2019 and is now a member of CASE’s European Regional Council. He has served on CASE’s Global Board and Executive Committee since 2017. He was presented with CASE’s distinguished Laureate and Crystal Apple awards in 2019 in recognition of his volunteer leadership and teaching contributions, respectively.
Emma Leech
Emma Leech BA (Hons), MBA, Found.Chart.PR, FCIPR, Dip CIPR, Dip PR (CAM), FCIM, FIIC, FIoD, FRSA, FInstILM, FCMI, MPRCA, MCIOF
Emma is Director of Marketing and Communications at Nottingham Trent University and sits on the University Executive Team. She was previously Director of Marketing and Advancement at Loughborough University.
She started her career in fashion and consumer PR in 1988, working in tourism and destination marketing before settling in higher education in 1997.
A Founding Chartered PR Practitioner, Chartered Marketer and Chartered Manager, she has won a string of awards over more than two decades spanning PR, marketing, innovation, fundraising, digital, and web.
Emma holds an MBA and various PR, marketing and management qualifications. She was the Chartered Institute of Public Relations President 2019.
Rachael Phelps
Rachael is a communications professional with a background in higher education and student communications owing to her student communication role at the University of Southampton and earlier experience at the University of Sussex – both complex, large organisations with diverse audience needs.
Rachael has also delivered national marketing and safety campaigns in her earlier position at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. She led and advised on activity which delivered preventative and potentially lifesaving messages to a wide range of audiences, including a campaign that went viral, making positive impact across the world.
With this background and specialism, in this session Rachael will highlight the safety communications approach taken by the Student Communications Team in the past, how this is being shaped in the future, including challenges, success and providing an opportunity for the audience to share relevant experiences and examples.
Louise Wood MSc Dip CIPR
Louise is a CIPR qualified communications practitioner with over 20 years' experience gained from both the public and private sector having worked agency and client-side in: Pharmaceutical, FMCG, NHS, Public and Mental Health and now Higher Education.
Louise is responsible for the strategic development and management of all internal student communications activity across the University of Chester.
Working pan University with both academic and professional service areas as well as the Students’ Union, the student communications team ensures that students are informed and engaged thereby creating a superlative student experience. More recently campaign work has focused on the Student Voice, listening and responding to student feedback through a variety of channels.
Louise is an Aurora Alumna, holds a BA Hons from The University of Kent, an MSc from Kingston University London and is a qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). She is a school Governor and is a Director of the Cheshire Commonwealth Association. She speaks fluent French and basic German