About Council

The Secretariat to the University Council includes: Yvonne Salter Wright, University Secretary and Harry Croxford, Assistant Secretary to the Council. Email: council@newman.ac.uk.

Council Members

Margaret HouseProfessor Emeritus Margaret A House OBE joined the Council in March 2021 and was appointed Chair of Council from January 2022.  Prior to her retirement in October 2020, she was Vice -Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer at Leeds Trinity University. During her time at Leeds Trinity the University’s academic offer was expanded significantly to include work-based learning and the introduction of Degree Apprenticeships (including delivery of the West Yorkshire Police Apprentices), they enhanced their reputation for quality provision underpinned by research and professional practice and further embedded student employability as one of their key USPs.   The regional footprint was extended through working in partnership with colleges in the surrounding area.

Prior to joining Leeds Trinity in January 2013 Professor House was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Middlesex University where her portfolio included all matters academic (learning, teaching and assessment, quality and assurance, work-based learning, international and UK partnerships and line management of the Deans of School).

Professor House had a successful international research career publishing numerous articles in peer reviewed books and journals and giving keynote addresses at international conferences.   Her research focused on water quality/pollution for which she attracted over £500,000 in research and consultancy income and culminated in the development of the House Index of Water Quality.

She was presented with an OBE by Prince William at a celebration at Buckingham Palace in 2018.

Gayle DitchburnGayle Ditchburn has been a member of Council at Newman University since 2017. She is a Partner at international law firm Pinsent Masons LLP, where she leads the firm’s commercial, governance and regulatory advice to its universities and higher education clients. She advises clients on a wide range of commercial projects including mergers, joint ventures, collaborative partnerships (both in the UK and overseas) and also on constitutional, governance and regulatory matters affecting the higher education sector.

Gayle studied for her law degree at Nottingham Trent University and undertook her postgraduate diploma in legal practice at Nottingham Law School. She qualified as a solicitor in 2001.

Gayle lives in South Birmingham and is also the Vice-Chair of the Trust Board of a multi-academy trust of which her children’s primary school is a part.

Newman Students’ Union President – 2022-2023

Zoe Harrison originates from Scotland but grew up in Birmingham with her Mum and Dad. She attended Lapal Primary School and then Windsor High School for her secondary education. Zoe finished with 9 GCSEs between A* and C and carried on her education completing 2 AS levels in Film Studies and Communication and Culture and then 3 BTEC’s of Distinction* level in ICT, Business Studies and Media Studies. Zoe joined Newman University in 2018 studying BA Single Honours Studies in Primary Education.

Zoe has bilateral sensory neural hearing loss but has not let that stop her from throwing herself into the full University experience. Zoe has been a part-time executive committee member on the Students’ Union for the last 3 academic years holding the role of the Events and Activities Officer. Over her 3 years she has strived to not only provide fun activities to increase student engagement and make sure all students have the best time they possibly can have whilst at Newman. Furthermore, she has helped to improve the lives of people with hearing impairments by lobbying the University to increase the hearing loop signage around campus, to provide clear face masks for front facing staff during the pandemic and most recently, lobbying the University to purchase new portable hearing loops to be used around campus.

Zoe has won 3 part-time officer campaigns by essentially promising to be student’s friends and showing that student voice is at the forefront of her mind. This theme carried on when she ran for President of Newman Students’ Union in March 2022 and was successfully elected. Zoe looks to promote awareness for staff and students of what the Students’ Union does, promote inclusivity in all areas of the Union and University and be a President that students can trust. Zoe believes that with her experience on the Students’ Union, not only as a part-time officer but also as a student trustee for one year, a member of the finance committee for one year and taking part in the December 2021 Strategy and Purpose Day, she will be able to bring a level of expertise to Council, with the voice of students always being the one she shares.

Leoarna MathiasLeoarna Mathias is a Staff Council Member and is Senior Lecturer in Student Engagement at Newman University.  She joined the Directorate of Learning, Teaching and Scholarship in 2019 having previously lectured in Early Childhood at Newman and Plymouth Marjon University, and been an Early Years Inspector for Ofsted.

Leoarna has lead responsibility at Newman for institutional induction and welcome, the HEADs suite of transition programmes, and the institutional calendar of support for student transition.

Leoarna is also involved in the promotion and delivery of Newman’s Student Staff Partnership Projects programme. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA, mentoring colleagues to achieve Fellowship through our institutional CPD route.

She is currently undertaking a PhD by Publication and has published on Students as Partners, Induction and Transition, and Critical and Post-Critical Pedagogies. Leoarna was appointed as staff member of Newman University Council in July 2019.

Archbishop Bernard LongleyThe Most Reverend Bernard Longley is the Archbishop of Birmingham.

Archbishop Bernard Longley was born in Manchester. He studied at Xaverian College and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and New College, Oxford. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on 12th December 1981 at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, and was Assistant Priest at St Joseph’s, Epsom, and Chaplain to Psychiatric Hospitals. From 1987 to 1996 he was on the staff at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, teaching dogmatic theology. In 1991, he was appointed Surrey Chairman of the Arundel and Brighton Diocesan Commission for Christian Unity and in 1996 became National Ecumenical Officer at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

He was ordained Bishop and appointed as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Westminster in 2003. Archbishop Longley was Head of the Diocesan Pastoral Board and had pastoral responsibilities for the Deaneries of Camden, Hackney, Islington, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, and Westminster.

The Archbishop was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2009 and was installed as the ninth Archbishop of Birmingham on Tuesday 8th December 2009.

In 2011 Pope Benedict appointed the Archbishop as the co-Chairman of ARCIC, with oversight of the third phase of Anglican-Catholic dialogue.

Vice Chancellor Jackie Dunne Signing the Armed Forces CovenantProfessor Jackie Dunne was appointed as Newman’s Vice-Chancellor in March 2020 and is an Ex-Officio Member of Council.

Previously Professor Dunne was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Wolverhampton, where she held responsibility for a number of strategic areas including; Widening participation and outreach; Regional engagement and lifelong learning; Digital Strategy; Equality and Diversity; Degree Apprenticeships and the development of the Springfield Campus.

Jackie Dunne graduated in Hispanic Studies from Liverpool University and has an MA in Education and Industry from the University of Warwick, as well as being a Professor of Lifelong Learning and Skills. Jackie has over 25 years of experience of higher education and has held senior management positions, having previously worked at the University of Leicester and Coventry University.

Commenting on her appointment, Professor Dunne, said:

“It is an honour and privilege to be taking up the role of Vice-Chancellor at Newman University. I am delighted to be joining a successful institution with a strong heritage and values base, alongside a clear mission to offer a university experience to all who can benefit. The focus on the individual learner experience and an inclusive environment where students are nurtured and supported to succeed gives Newman a unique offer and I look forward to working with staff and students to take the University to the next stage of its development.”

Jackie brings to Newman a strong record of academic leadership, a passion for lifelong learning, and a commitment to opening up education to all people from all backgrounds, faiths and cultures.

Deirdre Finucane is an Independent Council Member and was appointed as a Foundation Member of Council in February 2015 after a career in secondary education in the Midlands, Tanzania and London, culminating in the headship of St Edmund’s Wolverhampton, the city in which she was brought up. She holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Liverpool, MAs from London and Birmingham in Modern English Literature and in Shakespeare & Theatre and an MPhil from Cambridge in Education. She trained as a teacher and followed the Catholic Certificate in Religious Studies programme at Christ’s College, Liverpool in 1976 and has pursued her Shakespeare studies since her retirement in 2014.

Deirdre began her career at St Philip’s Birmingham in 1976, after which she spent two years on Voluntary Service Overseas in Tanga, Tanzania. On her return she moved to London where she taught at St Aloysius College and then, for twelve years, at Westminster City School where she was Head of English, Deputy Head and, for nearly a year, Acting Head.

In 1996 she became Vice Principal of St Augustine’s Redditch and in 2000 Head Teacher and then Principal of St Edmund’s Wolverhampton which became part of Bishop Cleary Catholic Multi- Academy Company on 1 July 2013 and moved to a new / renovated build – a Building Schools for the Future project in conjunction with Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, Birmingham Diocesan Education Service, Wolverhampton University and Wolverhampton Local Authority – the following September.

Deirdre still has links with the Parish of St Peter and St Paul, Wolverhampton and, increasingly since 2014, with St Mary’s Harvington.

Phillip Lennon was appointed as a Catholic member of Council for Newman University in 2016 and is currently the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee. Prior to his retirement in 2016, he had been Director of Finance at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists for 15 years. He has a BSc (Hons) in Administrative Science from Aston University and has been an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants since 1978.

Phillip has over 40 years of commercial experience working in a variety of industries and organisations. He has worked in the Not-For-Profit sector on a number of occasions and understands the importance of public benefit and how this has to work in a commercial environment. He has always been involved in providing good governance, strategic management and effective business operations.

Phillip lives in Essex and is a director and trustee of two other charities. He is Vice Chairman, Chair of the Finance and Resources Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee at USP College, a college of Further Education. He is Treasurer at a local Community Voluntary Service which covers Basildon, Billericay and Wickford.

Karan GilmoreKaran trained as a nurse at Hammersmith Hospital, qualifying in 1976. She went on to practice as a Health Visitor in Wolverhampton and in 1982 was promoted to a Senior Nurse role, managing Health Visitors, District Nurses and School Nurses in a deprived area of the City.

As part of this role she developed a keen interest in Child Protection and in 1991 was appointed Designated Nurse for Child Protection, a new role in the Health Service identified as part of fundamental changes in inter-agency working and the management of children at risk of harm.

The job was an interesting mixture of strategic and of operational; sitting on the Area Child Protection Committee (forerunner of Local Safeguarding Children Boards), advising the Health Authority on all aspects of Child protection, developing policies and training programmes, delivering training, supervising Health Visitors with children on the Child Protection Register and giving day-to-day advice to anyone employed by the Health Authority who had concerns about a child.

After a short career break when her 4th child was born, in 1999 Karan started working for Children’s Social Care in Wolverhampton, and then Coventry, chairing Child Protection Conferences; complex meetings with parents and professionals present whose function is to develop and regularly review a plan to keep a child deemed to be at risk of significant harm safe within the family.

Now retired, Karan lives with her husband and 3 of her 4 adult children in Birmingham. She is a practising Catholic, and actively involved in parish life at St Mary’s, Harborne.

Over the years Karan has been part of the children’s and the adult liturgy teams, a catechist for adults wishing to be received into the Church, an auditor for the Metropolitan Marriage Tribunal and now helps to run the repository shop.

Karan is also a Governor for the Blue Coat School, an independent prep school in Edgbaston and is Vice Chair of New Routes Fostering Panel, part of Father Hudson’s Care.

Professor Tony Harris joined Newman University Council in 2022. He is Executive Director and Dean of the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP), a small and specialist higher education provider based in London. Prior to joining ICMP he was Head of Teacher Education at Nottingham Trent University, where he led its highly successful PGCE Secondary Music programme for over 10 years. He studied at University College Bretton Hall prior to completing his PhD at Birmingham Conservatoire. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Tony’s background is as a musician, composer and producer. He was a founder member and toured internationally with the Pound Shop Boys (1998-2010) and resident percussionist with CoMA East Midlands for 10 years. His music has been performed by the Cornelius Cardew Ensemble, Backbeat Percussion Ensemble, Stockholm’s Great Learning Orchestra and he has produced numerous albums of experimental electronica under the artist name Boring Phil. His expertise as a designer of participatory music education projects has led him to work with a wide range of organisations including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.

As an academic, Tony’s specialism combines the world of experimental music and the avant-garde with music pedagogy, community music practice, and music education more generally. A major book, The Legacy of Cornelius Cardew (2013), has become a seminal text on the composer, and other publications include The GCSE Composition Course (a set of 5 textbooks published by Peters Edition) and Valuing Music in Special Needs Settings (2016).

Tony is also on the Board of Trustees for Contemporary Music For All, Vice-Chair of Governors at Charnwood Academy, Staffordshire, and a non-executive member of the Academic Board at Met Film School, based at Ealing Studios.

Dr. Angel Garcia Valezquez was born and raised in Mexico City, where he lived for over 20 years. After moving to the UK, he attended the University of Sheffield, where he earned a MA in Governance and Public Policy and PhD in Politics, specialising in policy making in embryonic democracies.

Throughout his career he has worked in the public and private sectors across several fields, from higher education to retail. This has included leading multimillion-pound higher education agreements at the British Council and the British Embassy in Mexico, delivering policy changes in the Falkland Islands and Iraq, and developing insights to inform national investments in R&D.

Being passionate about higher education, he has also lectured at research intensive universities, including the University of St Andrews, The University of Sheffield and Universidad Anahuac in Mexico. And, through his previous experiences as Trustee of the University of Sheffield Students’ Union, Board Member of a Multi Academy Trust in Sheffield and Governor of a primary school in the south of England, he has aimed to contribute to a more inclusive education in the UK.

As an Independent Council Member he is committed to define policies and objectives that contribute to Newman’s financial health and sustainability, so that the University continues delivering increasingly high quality programmes and activities to its community.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.