International Women’s Day 2024: Celebrating Newcastle alumnae making a difference and inspiring inclusion

International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.

The theme for 2024 is ‘Inspire Inclusion’, so we’re highlighting Newcastle graduates who are making positive changes across the world through their work.

Lesley Bowes (BSc Biochemistry and Genetics, 1983; PGCE, 1984)

Lesley has dedicated her whole career supporting and developing others, mostly young people in the North of England. Since graduating from Newcastle University, she has worked as a Science and Biology teacher, Head of Science, Deputy Head and Head Teacher at a range of high schools.

Lesley retired from her teaching career four years ago but has continued to dedicate her time to shaping young lives. She volunteers for Streetwise in Newcastle and holds a number of Trustee and Governor roles in local schools. Alongside these positions, Lesley has recently undertaken extensive NHS training to both chair and be a member of panels where she helps to decide the future of very vulnerable adults with complex mental health challenges in Newcastle.

Fiona Karran (BEng Chemical Engineering, 1987)

Fiona was born and raised in the west of Hull, and moved to the North East to complete her BEng Chemical Engineering degree in the mid-1980s. After graduating from her Chemical Engineering degree, Fiona moved to Manchester to pursue her dream career in the engineering industry.

Sadly, Fiona was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2010 and passed away a year later in October 2011. Before she died, Fiona raised the idea of providing the opportunity to bring friends and family together to celebrate life, her memory and particularly to allow her sons, Joe and Patrick, to share great stories about her as they grow up. This was the cornerstone that the Fiona Foundation was built on, with family and trustees honouring Fiona’s memory and raising money for causes that mattered to Fiona in life.

Over the last 10 years, the Fiona Foundation has provided scholarships for female students studying engineering at Newcastle, a cause close to Fiona’s heart following her experience of being one of only four female students on the course during her time at university. By supporting the next generation of female engineers through the scholarship, Fiona’s legacy provides greater opportunities in this still male-dominated sector.

Beena Koshy (MD, 2015)

Beena is a developmental paediatrician, with a passion to set standards for clinical service and research in childhood development and disability in India.

She currently holds the India-Alliance DBT-Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical and Public Health Fellowship and has more than 60 publications and 1000 citations, with her research primarily focusing on early childhood experiences and cognition, and autism spectrum disorder. In her role at Christian Medical College Vellore, she leads international collaborative research in these areas with institutions including the Gates Foundation and the Universities of Melbourne (Australia) and Virginia (USA).

In January 2023, Beena was named one of 75 Indian Achievers as part of the British Council’s 75-year anniversary celebrations of Indian independence. These honours celebrated researchers and educators whose ground-breaking work pushes the boundaries of human knowledge and technology and advances excellence in - and access to – education.

Speaking of the barriers she has faced in her career, Beena said:

“Barriers are everywhere. However, I look at them as stepping stones or challenges in a positive way, rather than being completely negative. At my current stage in life, I’m working on changing my perspective – a positive outlook trumps many barriers.

“Inclusion benefits all of us. Not just in acceptance, diversity, tolerance and collaboration, but also in more holistic plans and processes.”

Beena has been inspired by many great women throughout her life, from family members to political figures. She explained:

“My mother was a single mom widowed at a young age who worked hard and was a very popular Professor of Mathematics. Politically, India had the iron-willed Lady Prime Minister,Indira Gandhi, whom many looked up to. And professionally, Professor Gangandeep Kang has been my mentor and a great inspiration. She was the first Indian female scientist to be inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in the UK.”

Catrina McHugh MBE (MA Creative Writing, 2007)

Catrina McHugh is an award-winning playwright, Joint Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Open Clasp Theatre Company, which she co-founded in 1998. Open Clasp’s mission is to place theatre at the heart of transforming the lives of disadvantaged women and girls.

The company collaborates with women excluded by theatre and society - including women experienced with the criminal justice system, those seeking asylum and with refugee status, young women, minoritised women, trans and non-binary people - to create bold and urgent theatre for personal, social and political change.

In 2017, Catrina was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘services to disadvantaged women through theatre’. Speaking of the barriers she has faced throughout her life, Catrina told us:

“I’m now 60 and can see I lived a political life, being working class and a lesbian. Looking back, you see the context of your life from the demonisation of the working class to Section 28.

“Being on a Youth Opportunities Programme in Liverpool aged 18 changed my life. Here I met political people, I got a full-time job as a supervisor on a scheme in Salford, met feminists and out lesbians. I went to live at Greenham Common, became a lesbian mam and went back to education at 32 after leaving school at 16.

“We can feel divided, othered, discriminated against, feel hopeless and powerless. If we stand in solidarity, be an ally or accomplice, together we can fight injustice and make change happen.”

Dr Libby Selman (MA Linguistics, 1973)

Libby is a retired teacher who, for the last 15 years, has given up her time to help hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers to learn English and integrate into their new lives in the North East.

Libby volunteers with Action Foundation and goes above and beyond to support her learners with the additional opportunities that come their way, even welcoming five refugees into her own home. Libby has transformed thousands of lives with her teaching and support and allowed refugees to have a voice and a future.

In recognition of this life-changing work, Libby was named Charity Champion of the Year at the 2023 North East Charity Awards.

We caught up with Libby recently to ask what women inspired her. She said:

“When I worked in Romania just after the fall of Ceausescu, I was stupidly surprised by the high numbers of successful women in science and engineering careers - and really admired their knowledge. Later, working in Ethiopia, I watched in some distress the women working hard to carry impossibly heavy loads on their backs, but also admired their determination to keep going.”

And on this year’s theme for International Women’s Day, Libby commented: “there’s no humane alternative to inclusion!”

Ruth Sunderland (BA Hons English, 1983; MA English and American Literature, 1986)

Ruth grew up down the road from Newcastle in Teesside and saw first-hand the devastation the closure of the steel and chemical works in the 1980s had on the region - her dad had worked there all his life and never found another job.

Since graduating with an English degree from Newcastle University, and experience which Ruth describes “changed [her] life for the better in so many ways”, Ruth has gone on to become a successful national journalist. She is currently Group Business Editor for the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday and has previously worked for The Observer.

Ruth has used the national platform in mainstream media afforded to her through her career to promote the plight of the North East region following the closure of big industries and to champion investment in new employment opportunities for her hometown. She has also given back to future generations of Newcastle graduates as an alumni mentor.

Ruth told us:

“I think it's important for opportunity to be open to everyone, not just as a matter of individual fairness but to achieve the best outcomes for the country and the economy. I feel by my very existence in the job I have, women will look and say that if she can do it, I can do it.

“As a young working class woman, I faced so many barriers, some external and some internal. These included lack of money, lack of connections, low expectations in my home environment of what women should do with their lives and on occasion, mercifully rare, just plain snobbery. As a result of this, although I was determined to make something of myself, I lacked confidence as a young woman and often doubted the path I was taking.

“Fortunately, this is only one side of the story. The other side is that so many people at Newcastle University and elsewhere in my life were encouraging, including, most of all, my mum. I overcame barriers in a number of ways. Never underestimate the power of sheer hard work. Just keep going - if you are tired or discouraged, have a break, then carry on. Eventually it dawned on me that others were not automatically 'better' than me and eventually, I gained confidence. I would say the way to gain confidence is through experience.

“I have also never tried to assimilate or pretend to be what I'm not. I'm proud to be from the North East and I have kept my accent, which now is seen as a plus point in my broadcast work, rather than a black mark as it was in my early career. I'm glad I resisted pressure to tone it down.”

Charlie Webster (BA Hons English Language and Literature, 2004)

Charlie has talked openly and bravely about her experience of domestic abuse as a young child growing up in Sheffield and has used her platform as a renowned broadcaster to advocate for victims of abuse on a national level.

Following her graduation, Charlie embarked on an exciting career in sports journalism and has worked for the likes of Sky Sports and BBC. She was the first woman to present football in Asia at just 23 and later the first female globally to anchor a Heavyweight World Title Fight. She has also covered major global events like the London Olympic and Paralympic Games and the FIFA World Cup across TV and radio.

Charlie is also an active campaigner and speaker. She is the creator and host of podcast Undiscussable, a podcast series focused on domestic abuse, she writes about many social issues including mental health and culture for BBC Sport, and has been an ambassador for domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid since 2010. In May 2024, Charlie is publishing her first book, entitled ‘Why It’s OK To Talk About Trauma’.

Kathryn Wharton (BA Archaeology, 2007; MA Museum Studies, 2008)

Since completing her studies at Newcastle University in 2008, Kathryn has enjoyed a varied career in the North East of England, from working in the region’s biggest museums delivering learning programmes for young visitors and supporting vulnerable young people in one of Newcastle’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods as a Youth Worker, to leading marketing activity in tech firms.

In April 2022, Kathryn co-founded the Women in Tech North East Network, providing a safe and supportive community for women and non-binary people working in the typically male-dominated tech industry. Here, she provides spaces for women to connect and build partnerships and champions gender equality in tech.

Alongside this venture, Kathryn is a mentor for The Girls' Network, a nationwide charity that links teenagers with successful women to help them access the best opportunities and raise their aspirations. As a mentor, Kathryn offers career advice and guidance to young women in the North East and showcases what avenues to success are available to them.

Kathryn told us:

“The biggest barrier I have faced in my career has been the lack of female mentors and role models. It's very difficult to imagine yourself as a business owner, woman in tech or whatever it is that you want to do, if you can't see people who you can directly relate to doing it. This is why I am such a huge supporter of The Girls’ Network and why I work so hard to build the Women in Tech North East community.

“If you'd said to me four years ago that I'd be working in tech, running my own marketing consultancy, then I'd be flabbergasted. As a career changer, I was unaware of the opportunity in the tech industry, but inclusion is still a huge challenge which is what led me to co-found Women in Tech North East. The community has been set up to bring together people from all walks of life and build connections in a friendly, supportive, and non-threatening environment. The hope is that we can inspire each other to reach our potential and ultimately create a more inclusive world!”

International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.