University Council

Alison leads on partnership opportunities as Director of Community and External Engagement at The Open University, helping the faculty grow its income and influence across the UK. Alison’s expertise includes sustainable growth, strategic communications and social impact.

She holds several other non-executive roles; and acts as a disability adviser to businesses in various sectors, drawing on her lived experience. Her early career includes a decade working in central government, spanning education and trade policy, followed by commercial roles at two other universities.

Alison has an MBA from The Open University, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and is studying for a Masters in Systems Thinking.

Julia Chippendale is Head of Business Development at We Are Group, a leading tech for good business that secures government and private sector funding to provide training, advice, and guidance enabling people to live better lives. She has spent the majority of her career in the skills sector, holding senior positions in Sector Skills Councils, Awarding Organisations, Independent Training Organisations and outsourcers. She is passionate about equipping individuals with the skills they need to navigate their careers and improve their personal circumstances. She is an advocate for digital inclusion and believes everyone has the right to data, kit and the skills to live their lives in this digital age. She strives to ensure we can bridge the digital and educational poverty divide, ensuring no one is left behind.

Russ Coulter is a trustee and director of the Lincoln Diocesan Trust and Board of Finance, lay member of their Bishop’s Council, as well as a member of their Audit and Mission & Ministry Committees, having previously served on Finance & General Purposes committee.
In his work for the Diocese, he is focused on how lay membership can be encouraged, identified, and trained to contribute to the landscape emerging from its current strategy for clergy development.

Now retired, Russ spent many years leading IT systems innovation in a range of national and multinational companies, always from the perspective of enhancing the business process rather than technology adoption for its own sake.

With a Master’s degree in Business Administration to add to the B. Eng (Hons) from Sheffield, he remains concerned to ensure that strategy and operations are clearly linked, and how governance can enhance business process.

Stephen Critchley was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford, where he read Chemistry. After a spell in industry, he returned to the University and was awarded a D. Phil. in X-ray Crystallography.

He subsequently trained as a Chartered Accountant and had a wide-ranging career in the accountancy profession, latterly leading the Public Sector practice of PwC in the East Midlands. He left the profession to become Chief Finance Officer of Transport for London from which he has now retired.

Stephen is a Trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee at United Learning Ltd, a Trustee of Caterham School and a former Trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee at the RAF Benevolent Fund. He is also actively involved in community activities in his local village.

Rebecca is the elected professional support staff representative for the University Council. Within her role at BGU as School and Colleges Programme Manager for LiNCHigher, Lincolnshire's OfS funded Uni Connect Project, Rebecca engages with schools, colleges and universities across Lincolnshire to widen participation of underrepresented learners into higher education.

Prior to this role, Rebecca spent 15 years working as a Careers Guidance Adviser and latterly within stakeholder engagement and participation with Lincolnshire County Council.

No information at present.

Anne was a senior civil servant until 2020. The majority of her career was in the Department for Education where she held a range of posts, many of which involved support for disadvantaged learners. Her final role was as Director of Further Education.
Before joining the civil service, Anne was an officer in the Royal Air Force serving in Hong Kong and at RAF Cranwell.

She is currently chair of trustees for a growing multi-academy trust in Leicestershire and governor of a large further education college. She is also vice chair and lead education trustee for NACRO, a national social justice charity.

Anne gained an MBA form Nottingham Business School and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

She is studying for a Masters in Philosophy.

No information at present.

Richard joined Nicholsons in 2004, was appointed as a Partner in 2007 and became a Director in 2016. He is a member of the ICAEW Corporate Finance and Finance and Management faculties. Richard qualified as a Chartered Marketeer in 2006 after completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing.

Richard is a general practitioner but also specialises in corporate finance, business planning and fundraising projects using both of his chartered accountancy and marketing knowledge to help advise his clients. He helps his clients understand the numbers behind their business so that they can explore routes to improving profitability and business growth through informed decision making.

Richard has a wide range of clients from independent traders and owner managed family businesses to large groups of companies, social enterprises and charities across a wide range of industries and sectors. He has particular experience in the creative media and technology, international, independent consultants and industrial wholesaler sectors.

Richard gives a lot of his time outside of work to voluntary sector projects. He is a founding member of Market Rasen BIG that became one of the first Portas Pilot towns and is a trustee for another Lincolnshire based charity.

Richard is married and enjoys spending time with his family walking in the Lincolnshire Wolds or Lake District. He is also a keen cyclist and amateur photographer. His dream job outside of accountancy would be a pro cycling team photographer covering the social aspects of the Tour de France.

Professor Dr Marianne Howarth is Emeritus Professor of Modern Languages and former Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at Nottingham Trent University.

A Germanist by academic background, she studied at the universities of Hull, Vienna, Münster and Nottingham. She has taught at Coventry, Marburg, Brighton and Nottingham Trent universities, and was a Visiting Lecturer at Manchester Business School.

The author/co-author of several business German textbooks, her main research interests centre on Anglo-German relations, in particular on relations between Britain and the former German Democratic Republic. She has published widely in English and German on many aspects of this topic, including the campaign for recognition, the GDR presence in Britain, the early years of the diplomatic relationship and on partnerships between British and GDR towns and cities. Marianne was a founder member of the International Association of the Study of German Politics.

In addition to her academic interests and activities, Marianne has extensive experience in academic standards and quality management. She was Chair of Nottingham Trent’s Academic Standards and Quality Management Committee, an auditor/reviewer for QAA and QAA Scotland, and the international reviewer in teams appointed to accredit provision at institutions in Ireland and Germany. Marianne was also the first chair of QAA’s Subject Benchmark Statement for Languages and Related Studies.

The Rev’d Canon Dr. Sarah Lawrence is Initial Ministerial Education phase 2 Officer for the Diocese of Lincoln and Director of Studies at Lincoln School of Theology. She was ordained in 2008 and served curacies in Lincoln and Lichfield diocese. She studied for a PhD with the University of Birmingham, completing this in 2018.

She is the author of “A Rite on the Edge: The Language of Baptism and Christening in the Church of England”, published in 2019 in London by SCM Press.

Walter is a retired civil servant having worked in HM Passport Service project managing the development and delivery of the UK’s first-generation biometric passport and more latterly in the Dept Culture Media and Sport as Broadband UK Projects Director.

His early career was in Civil Engineering with Anglian Water building new treatment plants and pipelines then progressed to Business Change Programme Management and delivery of change and IT projects.

He has been a board member of Cambridgeshire Probation Service, Chartered Management Institute, and pension scheme trustee for 2 pension funds and is currently an independent member of East Lindsey District Council Audit and Governance Committee and a member of the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioners joint independent audit committee.

Dr. Sacha Mason is Head of Programmes for Education, Health and Lifelong Learning and Associate Dean for Research . She joined Bishop Grosseteste University in 2008 following a successful career in further education and as a primary teacher. Sacha is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and her current research and publication interests focus on Relationships and Sex Education, mature learners and widening participation, and academic literacies.

Elyse is the current Student Representative on University Council, completing her PGCE Secondary (English).

A member of BGU Council since 2018, Rt Revd Dr Nigel Peyton has been Assistant Bishop in Lincoln Diocese since 2017. He was previously Diocesan Bishop in Dundee, Scotland, following service as Archdeacon of Newark.

His governance experience includes service as a Governor of Abertay University Dundee, Chair of Trustees of St Margaret’s Residential Home for the Elderly Dundee, Non-Executive Director of the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, School Governor and Magistrate in Nottingham.

Nigel has degrees in history and in theology from Edinburgh University and from Union Theological Seminary New York. His published Lancaster University doctorate explored contemporary Church of England Parish Clergy. An Honorary Scholar at Liverpool University Management School, Nigel’s continuing academic research focuses on Christianity, organisation and social context. He is passionate about stimulating faith in public life, inspiring young people, educational access and lifelong learning.

No information at present.

Connor Short is the president of the Students' Union and as such advocates for student perspectives and rights both on and off campus. Connor sits on many boards and committees designed to regulate and observe the university’s policy and procedure i.e., Senate, QAC and SMG.

In doing so he brings the student perspective to senior management and provides a joint viewpoint of both staff and students. As part of Connor’s wider role, he manages a team of student officers who each represent a different facet of university life i.e., Accessibility, LGBTQ and International.

Using his degree in Applied Drama from BGU he also spears heads multiple schemes and campaigns to improve the student experience such as ‘PAL’ and ‘Not a luxury’.

Lisa has over 20 years experience of providing audit, risk assurance and corporate governance services to a wide range of clients in the private and commercial sectors. As a highly skilled and experienced manager, Lisa now specialises in providing Internal audit and controls, funding assurance, risk management and governance services primarily to education and charity clients.

Lisa regularly contributes to both internal and external training events in relation to education sector issues, having been a member of the Further Education National Funding Team and a lead Further Education internal audit manager for a number of years.

Prior to joining RSM in 2007, Lisa worked for the Audit Commission covering areas such as routine external audit, grant claims, data quality ‘Spot Checks’ and review of internal audit suppliers for a range of Local Government clients. She then started specialising in internal audit whilst working for a large Unitary Authority.

Lisa is the project manager for our ESFA funding work, liaising with the ESFA and ensuring that all timescales for the submission of opinions and reports are met. She also has regular discussions with ESFA contacts within the Provider Risk Assurance Team in order to clarify interpretations of the funding rules.

Professor Karen Stanton FRSA

Karen was born in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire and was the first person in her family to go to university. She read for her first degree in History at the University of Sheffield and holds Postgraduate qualifications from the University of Sheffield and Manchester Metropolitan University. Before beginning her academic career, she worked as a researcher for the BBC and the Home Office.
Professor Stanton’s distinguished career within Higher Education includes being the Vice-Chancellor of both York St John University and Solent University, Southampton. She has also held senior leadership roles at the universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, King’s College London, and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU).
Karen has an outstanding record of international achievements having set up University campuses in New York, Oman and a College of Nursing and Midwifery in Bangladesh. In 2014 she led the team from Glasgow Caledonian that won the Unilever Global Development Award in recognition of their work to reduce inequalities and poverty in Bangladesh.

Professor Stanton has a strong national profile and reputation for her work on the role of universities in the community and regional economy. This has included work with the UN Global Compact and supporting the Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to bring the microlending Grameen Bank to Scotland. Whilst at King’s she was Director of the Centre for Digital Humanities and at GCU she established the Centre for Climate Justice in association with Mary Robinson. At Solent she established Research Centres in Marine Sustainability and Autonomous Surface Shipping.

She is a previous Chair of the Cathedrals Group of Universities, Deputy Chair of GuildHE and a former Trustee of UCAS and the United Nations International Services. She is currently a Governor of both Corndel College London and the University of the Arts, London.

Professor Stanton is a Fellow of the RSA and a Champion of the Chartered Management Institute. She also supports sustainable businesses through her work with the Social Enterprise Accreditation Mark. She is a Patron of the Island Charity which provides a safe space for vulnerable children and young people.

In the summer of 2023, she was awarded both an Emeritus Vice Chancellorship and a Honorary Doctorate from Solent University. Professor Stanton is regularly invited to give keynote lectures at conferences on both the future of technology in Higer Education and on how Universities can expand their international portfolios.
Over her 25 year career in Higher Education Karen has dedicated herself to working with her teams to provide students with a transformational education experience and to widening participation to Higher Education.

Elise joined Nacro in 2022 from The Sheffield College, where she worked as Vice Principal for Quality, Teaching, Learning and Assessment for the past few years.

Elise joined Nacro with a wealth of experience and a passion for learning and learners that will help to further develop our offer and our quality to our learners.

Revd. Marian Toyne has spent over thirty years in education, working primarily in secondary schools both in Harrow and North Lincolnshire and also within the youth service. She spent ten years in the North Lincolnshire Advisory Team, first as the Drugs and PSHCE Consultant working with multi-agency teams from police, school nurses and youth officers and then as an advisory officer in History, Geography and RE working across all primary and secondary schools, co-leading on curriculum design, Ofsted readiness, Graduate Teacher Training etc.

Marian has co-written the Local Agreed RE Syllabus in 1995, 2001, 2005, 2011 and the corresponding schemes of work for use across the Humber and York areas. She has been a RE Examiner and sat on various school governing bodies, both primary and secondary over some twenty plus years.

Ordained in 2014, and moving to full time priesthood in 2016, Marian served her curacy in Scunthorpe, became Rector of the Kelsey Group in 2019 and is currently Rural Dean of West Wold.

Kate joined BGU University Council in April 2023.

Kate worked in the NHS for the vast majority of her working life in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. All of her career was spent in the Human Resources function. She was Director of Human Resources in 4 NHS Trusts.

Kate is Vice Chair of West Nottinghamshire FE College; Vice Chair of Active Lincolnshire and Associate Non Executive Director of Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.

Kate gained an MA in Human Resource Management and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.