About
Trustees
Professor Darryll Bravenboer
Director of Apprenticeships & Professor of Higher Education Skills
The Centre for Apprenticeships and Skills, Middlesex University
Professor Darryll Bravenboer is Director of Apprenticeships at Middlesex University. His current responsibilities include developing and delivering the University’s strategy as a major provider of higher-level skills in the region and nationally. This includes supporting the development and delivery of higher and degree apprenticeships as well as other aspects of academic enterprise, such as the accreditation of in-company training, in order to provide comprehensive workforce development solutions for employers. In addition, hel is a Principal Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and has extensive experience of developing vocational and work-based higher education provision in response to the needs of a wide range of employment sectors in diverse professional contexts.
Professor John Butcher
John Butcher is Professor of Inclusive Teaching in Higher Education and Director of Access and Open Programmes at the Open University. He is Managing Editor of the international journal Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning.
Professor John Butcher | Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (open.ac.uk)
As Director, Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation at the OU, he is responsible for the development, enhancement and implementation of the institution’s pan-University teaching curriculum. He is Deputy Director on the Open Programme and support the presentation and production of open box modules YXM130 and YXM830. He leads the Access Observatory and through that, evaluation and scholarship associated with WP initiatives internally (the university’s Widening Access and Success Strategy and Access and Participation Plan). He is Academic Lead for the Access Student Support Team and represent the OU on the Forum for Access and Continuing Education (FACE) and Universities Association for Lifelong Learning (UALL) executive committees.
Dr Deborah Grange
Learning Development Manager
As a member of staff at a university with a long history of encouraging lifelong learning, Dr Deborah Grange has been involved in a range of lifelong learning projects at Birkbeck, which is the only specialist provider of evening higher education in the UK. Birkbeck has recently launched a Lifelong Learning Guarantee to celebrate its 200th anniversary.
Professor Ruth Hewston
Professor and Head of Department, Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick
Professor Ruth Hewston (warwick.ac.uk)
Professor Hewston has been a Professor at the University of Warwick since 2020, having worked in both teaching and research led HE institutions for over twenty years. Ruth’s professional and research interests centre on inclusive education and the psychology of education, particularly in relation to teaching and learning. She has written extensively in her field, including co-author of texts on flexible problem-based learning approaches in student’s co-construction of their learning and the influence of gender on educational inclusion, engagement and achievement. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (FRSA). She is also an Associate Fellow (AFBPsS) and Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) with the British Psychological Society.
Professor Uzo Iwobi, CBE
Chief Executive, Race Council Cymru
Honorary Fellow, University of Wales Trinity St David
Professor Uzo Iwobi is the Chief Executive of Race Council Cymru – an Antiracism umbrella body in Wales. She is a founding member and coordinator of Black History Wales. She oversees the work of the Windrush Cymru elders, and served as project director of the Windrush Exhibition ‘Our Voices, Our Stories, Our History’. She is one of two people from Wales highlighted by National Lottery Heritage Cymru for her voluntary contributions to culture and heritage in Wales.
Iwobi was appointed an honorary Fellowship and a Professor at Practice at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD). She is a Fellow of Royal College of Arts; Fellow of Glyndwr University, Fellow of Bridgend College and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
She is a qualified lawyer and was a Strategic Advisor to the Police National Diversity Team based at the Home Office. She served on the Commission for Racial Equality UK. In 2023, Uzo was appointed at independent Adviser to the Senedd Parliamentary Commission.
Iwobi is the first Black woman to be appointed as a Specialist Policy Adviser on Equalities to Welsh Government advising the Minister for Social Justice and the First Minister. In October 2021, she was ranked the 6th out of 15 most influential Black Icons in Wales by Walesonline. In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II honoured her in her Platinum Jubilee Honours List with a CBE for her services to race equality and championing diversity and inclusion.
Professor Willy Kitchen, LLB, MA, PhD, PFHEA
Head, Department for Lifelong Learning at the University of Sheffield
Willy is Head of the Department for Lifelong Learning at the University of Sheffield, where he has led the department’s mature access and foundation year programmes for nearly 25 years. He joined UALL’s Executive Committee in 2015, served as its Treasurer (2017-22) and is a founder member of the national Foundation Year Network (2007), acting as its Chair (2017-20). Willy has performed external assurance roles for a number of HEIs (Cardiff, Durham, Glamorgan, Keele, Leeds, Loughborough, OU, Oxford and Ulster) and is currently the external examiner for the foundation year at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Mary Mahoney
UALL Secretary and Trustee
Governor, Walsall College
Dr Mahoney\s background is in public health policy and the vital role of learning as a key determinant of population health. She has expertise in leadership and management in departments of lifelong learning, adult community learning and employer-responsive provision and until late 2022 was the Director of Access and Lifelong Learning at the University of Wolverhampton. She is now a freelance consultant in adult and lifelong learning and innovation. Her recent work has focused on policies and practice that enable access to education and learning for adults across the lifespan for a range of reasons.
She has led on a range of strategic initiatives and have worked on both WHO Healthy City and UNESCO Learning City initiatives focusing on place-based developments and the role of learning in economic and social transformation. She has an extensive track record in leadership in teaching, research and knowledge exchange and have an extensive publication track record. She has worked in universities in Australia, England and Wales. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning Journal, a Fellow of the RSA based on my contribution to Lifelong Learning, and on the Board of Walsall College and the Wolverhampton Adult Education Service.
Professor Jonathan Michie OBE
Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford
President, Kellogg College, University of Oxford
Chair, UALL
Jonathan Michie is Professor of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, at the University of Oxford, where he is also President of Kellogg College. Jonathan is Chair of the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Managing Editor of the International Review of Applied Economics, and was an Interdisciplinary Panel Member for REF2021. Jonathan was co-secretary to the Centenary Commission on Adult Education, and was awarded an OBE for services to education and lifelong learning.
Professor Bonnie Slade
Professor of Adult Education for Social Change (People, Place & Social Change), University of Glasgow
Professor Slade is interested in how adult education, across a variety of contexts (workplace, higher education, community) can work as a tool for social change and individual empowerment. Her interdisciplinary research draws on adult education, labour studies, migration studies, gender studies and arts-informed research traditions to explore issues related to informal learning, migration, STEM and the labour market. Since 2001 she has presented her research at more than sixty national and international conferences, and has published work in academic journals and edited books. She sits on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Lifelong Education, the European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults (RELA), and the Malta Review of Educational Research. She is the Reviews Editor for the Journal of Adult and Continuing Education. She is also the Programme Leader for the International Master in Adult Education for Social Change (Erasmus Mundus)
