ACG member profiles: Sue Bevan (BSc Zoology 1979, MSc 1981)
Sue left Warwickshire for Newcastle in 1976 and gained her BSc (Hons) Zoology in 1979. She states ‘University was a liberating experience; apart from the academic challenge, it taught me self reliance and how to manage my life, learn new skills, discover new interests and get on with people.’
After a year of postgraduate business management studies in Bristol, Sue returned to Newcastle to study for her MSc in Public Health Engineering. In 1982, after several months without work, she was appointed to Newcastle City Council’s Community Programme which initiated her long and varied local government career in the North East. Over the next 27 years, Sue worked for local authorities in Tyneside, Teesside and Northumberland covering the development of sport, leisure and tourism, communities, voluntary sector, businesses and the economy and rural policy. Since taking early retirement in 2009, Sue has been volunteering with a local cycling development project and doing consultancy work.
As an “adopted Geordie” Sue is keen for the North East to prosper and is particularly interested in how Newcastle University continues to develop its contribution to the wellbeing of the region’s economy and communities. Sue lives in Wallsend and her interests include theatre, singing, cycling, hill-walking and skiing.
