Will Nestor-Sherman

editor in chief of Roar News; student, King’s College London

Will Nestor-Sherman is an undergraduate Comparative Literature student studying at King’s College London. He is currently the editor in chief of the university’s award winning student newspaper Roar News having previously trained as a journalist at Highbury College in Portsmouth. He is also the presenter and producer of KCL Radio’s flagship programme and podcast “The Civil Row”, a political panel show that aims to bridge the gap between students and people in positions of responsibility in the discussion of society’s big issues. He is currently interning at the Academy of Ideas.

Claire Fox

director, Academy of Ideas

Claire Fox is the director of the Academy of Ideas, which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. She convenes the yearly Battle of Ideas festival and initiated the Debating Matters Competition for sixth-formers. She also co-founded a residential summer school, The Academy, with the aim to demonstrate ‘university as it should be’. 

In May 2019, she was elected as an MEP for the North West England constituency of the UK in the European elections. During her tenure, she is taking a temporary sabbatical as Battle of Ideas festival convenor, but remains on the editorial board. 

She is a panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze and is frequently invited to comment on developments in culture, education, media and free speech issues on TV and radio programmes in the UK such as Newsnight and Any Questions? She regularly appears on Sky Paper Review. Claire is a columnist for TES (Times Educational Supplement) and MJ (Municipal Journal). She is author of a book on free speech, recently republished as I STILL Find That Offensive! (Biteback, 2018), and No Strings Attached! Why arts funding should say no to instrumentalism (Arts&Business, 2007).

Claire is involved at a board level in the international debate network, Time To Talk.  In 2018, she did a three-month residency as a presenter of the weekly three-hour radio magazine show, Fox News Friday, on LoveSportRadio.

Andrew McLellan

head of Learning and Participation, Pitt Rivers Museum

Andrew is manager of the Learning and Participation team and previously managed Education at the Pitt Rivers Museum for the past seventeen years. Over that time, he has worked with a huge range of audiences, from schools and families to universities and community groups. The joy of working in a museum is how people learn from physical objects, and the stories and creativity that this encourages. His background is in history and education, but the collections of the Pitt Rivers have changed that focus towards the creative arts. Andrew is an active artist interested in life drawing, street drawing and landscapes. He also has a strong commitment to his local community and is actively involved in community arts in East Oxford.

Kim Behrens

associate marketing manager, Oxford University Press

Kim Behrens is an associate marketing manager at Oxford University Press, where she works on the promotion of the Very Short Introduction series, among other titles. Kim started her publishing career in the journals department at Taylor & Francis and has been working with OUP for nearly five years.

Anna Disley

Executive Director, Programme & Impact, New Writing North

Anna is Executive Director (Programmes and Impact) at New Writing North, the development agency for creative writing and reading in the North of England. As part of the Executive team Anna is responsible for initiating and developing programmes of work, delivery partnerships, and funding models which engage people in the agency’s work, especially those from under-represented communities.  This includes talent development programmes, events and festivals and extensive community engagement programmes.  

Besides working closely with writers and artists to realise their ambitions, Anna is interested in the role of arts and culture in supporting connected communities, combatting loneliness and in promoting wellbeing and literacy.  

Anna is Chair of Newcastle Cultural Education Partnership – a group of school and cultural leaders who aim to provide every young person in the city with a rich and accessible cultural offer and is part of the Newcastle Cultural Compact, the group which produces the city’s cultural strategy and action plan. She is a Trustee of Open Clasp Theatre Company and Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust and is on the board of Directors and Advisory Group for Digital start up, The Living Archive.

Fiona Lethbridge

senior press officer, Science Media Centre

Fiona has worked as a press officer at the Science Media Centre for about six years; before that she did a PhD in science in Edinburgh.  The Science Media Centre aims to increase the accuracy of media reporting of science, health and environment stories by making sure journalists can get hold of top quality scientists, and by encouraging scientists to engage with the media when their area of expertise hits the headlines, especially on the messy and controversial topics like statins, antidepressants, e-cigarettes, alcohol, GM, fracking, the badger cull, and genome edited babies.

Maya Thomas

student, Oriel College, Oxford

Maya is a second-year undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford, reading for a BA in History. She is President of the Oxford University History Society and ambassador to the digital-archives company Gale Cengage,

After the History Society was criticised for inviting BBC Radio 4’s Jenni Murray, and protests at the Oxford Union aimed to “no-platform” Steve Bannon and Marion Maréchal, Maya grew disillusioned with the culture of censorship at Oxford and founded the Oxford Society for Free Discourse.

With this active community of students and academics, Maya has organised debates and demonstrations to promote the values of free and respectful debate in an increasingly polarised world. Prospective speakers for next term include Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship and Jacop Mchangama, executive director of the Justitia think-tank.

As a result of her work with OSFD, Maya has also become involved in the production of “Clear and Present Danger”, a podcast on the history of free speech.

Georgina Newcombe

alumnus, Debating Matters; student, Durham University

Georgina finished second with her sixth form in the Debating Matters National Final back in 2016 and has taken an interest in the devilishly tricky topics this competition explores ever since. She has just completed her second year studying English Literature and Philosophy at Durham University, where she plays university-level Football, contributes opinion-pieces to Palatinate and is on the editorial team of The Bubble, contributing primarily sport-themed pieces.

Over the summer Georgina will begin research for her undergraduate dissertation, which will be on the influence of fantasy worlds and the gothic in the works of the Bronte sisters, and their legacies in 19th and 20th century literature.

Claire Bloomfield

chief operating officer, National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging at University of Oxford

Claire is a senior research management professional, with experience of working both directly as an academic researcher and also as a senior research administrator.

Claire obtained her Doctorate in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, and held research fellowships in Oxford and the United States before moving into a career as a research management professional. Claire worked for the Medical Research Council, the largest of the seven publicly funded government agencies responsible for coordinating and funding research in the UK. Claire supported the research funding and governance activities of 700 researchers across the MRC Units and Institutes in the South East, and was involved with establishing the first MRC University Units- a new strategic concept for the MRC.

Claire then returned to the University of Oxford, to establish the CRUK Oxford Centre. The Centre was a new type of entity for the University, being a virtual centre with the mission to facilitate research across a variety of disciplines and different Departmental structures to enhance cancer research activity at the University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The Centre’s research mission to harness world leading science to cure cancer is delivered through a model of boundary spanning networking and facilitation of new research activities.

Claire has supported a range of high-profile multidisciplinary and pan-Divisional grant initiatives for the University, and has most recently focused on early detection for cancer and the use of AI for health care. Claire is now leading the delivery of one of these initiatives, as COO for the new National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging, which will be the launchpad for further growth of AI for health care in the university.

She also oversees new strategic initiatives in cancer research across the university, through her role as the Head of Strategy and Innovation for the CRUK Oxford Centre.

Colin Lofthouse

headteacher
Rickleton Primary School

Colin Lofthouse started his working life as an archaeologist before retraining to teach and never looked back.

He has been a headteacher in 3 schools, is an Ofsted lead inspector and supports education leaders as a mentor and advisor.

He is a published author on educational matters including curriculum design and teacher development and is a conference speaker. He is a trustee with Schools North East, the influential charity representing all schools in the region.

Recent areas of interest and expertise include children’s mental health through his work on the Healthy MindEd Commission and the impact Adverse Childhood Experiences have on learning.  He is an advocate, as an adoptive parent to 3 children, that those who have had a tough start to life can achieve and reach their true potential.  

He will begin his new role as CEO of the SMART multi Academy Trust in August 2019.