Staff bios
Fay Croft - Director
After an early career working for local authorities, Fay has been working in the field of widening participation to higher education for nearly 20 years. This stems from her academic interests in sociology and social policy, with a particular emphasis on equality, lifelong learning and adult learning. After moving from the University of Southampton to Oxford Brookes University as Head of Learning Partnerships, Fay was the lead for the Aimhigher Milton Keynes Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire partnership (originally Partnerships for Progression) for 5 years. In August 2007 she became the first member of the substantive staff team for Progress South Central, the Lifelong Learning Network for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey.
As a former mature student in higher education herself, Fay is passionate about extending opportunities to those kinds of students who might not "normally" progress. She has seen first hand how higher education can transform lives - intrinsically and economically, and is committed to developing progression routes for others.
Fay lives in Oxfordshire with her partner and has two grown up sons. She likes to work in her garden, dance Ceroc and practice yoga.
0118 378 2331
07894 598 403
Paul Gallagher - Deputy Director
Following an early career in engineering encompassing the design and manufacture of electro-optical equipment, Paul joined the Further Education Funding Council in 1995 as the Office and Regional Co-ordination Manager for their South East office.
Subsequently, he moved to the Learning and Skills Council as a Planning Executive for their Berkshire office. At the beginning of 2004, Paul joined the University of Reading as Planning Support Manager with responsibilities for the University's statutory student data returns to HEFCE and HESA, plus the provision and analysis of management information for student recruitment and retention, bursaries and scholarships, performance indicators, widening participation, equal opportunities, the National Student Survey, league tables and the access targets agreed with the Office for Fair Access.
Paul's outside interests include breeding butterflies, ramble rallying and supporting Port Vale FC (someone has to!).
0118 378 2336
07515 190 526
Ann Stainton - Development Manager
A Careers Adviser by profession, Ann is Development Manager for Health and Social Care having spent two years as the local project lead for Aimhigher South East Healthcare Strand. She has collaborated with several partner organisations to help raise aspirations and encourage people to pursue careers in health and social care. In her current role, she is looking at ways of supporting the development of progression routes into higher education. Her spare time is spent ticking off her list of 'things I must try before I get too old'!
0118 378 2332
07894 599 028
Godfrey Smith - Development Manager
Godfrey joins Progress South Central as Development Manager for Creative Industries and Employer Engagement. Prior to this new role he was Higher Education Manager for Amersham & Wycombe College, a partner college of Bucks New University, where he was closely involved with the development of the higher education portfolio which specialised, mainly, in the creative industries. His knowledge of FE in HE, including IAG and employer engagement activities gives him appropriate experience to help achieve the overall aims and objectives of the LLN project.
He takes an active interest in the arts generally, and tries to see most major art exhibitions, theatre and cinema presentations.
0118 378 2334
07894 599 027
Catherine Falkner-Lyne - Partnership Project Officer
Catherine's main role as Partnership Project Officer is to support the work of the Development Managers.
She previously worked in Widening Participation and has a background working in youth work using outdoor education (canoeing, sailing, archery) to engage with young people. Catherine enjoys leading a quiet life living in the countryside and going on long walks with her dogs. She has recently developed an interest in classic and vintage cars.
0118 378 2325
07515 190 527
Dr. Emma Thomas - Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
Emma worked in the private sector and in the NHS before undertaking a PhD funded by the Economic and Social Research Council looking at specific areas of grammatical difficulty for learners of English as a second language. She managed a web resource of data gathered from ESL learners and has worked for the Open University as a tutor of undergraduate students. Subsequently, Emma has worked on government contracts in the public sector, with responsibility for the management and reporting of educational data.
As Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Emma has responsibility for monitoring and tracking of Progress South Central's learner constituency and for managing the network's monitoring and evaluation strategy. In her spare time, Emma enjoys reading, walking and sorting out clutter in her attic.
0118 378 2337
Jude Brindley - Information and Communications Development Officer
Jude's role is a varied one, having responsibility for communication and marketing (website, leaflets, articles) for Progress South Central and overseeing the Information, Advice and Guidance projects undertaken by partners on behalf of the LLN.
Jude graduated from the University of Reading in 1995 with a degree in Philosophy before joining the Civil Service. After ten years, Jude moved to working for an educational charity and then to Progress South Central.
Away from work, Jude attempts to play guitar and piano. She also spends a lot of time shouting at Radio 4.
0118 378 2339
Debby Holmes - HE/FE Liaison Officer, based at Buckinghamshire New University
Debby is the FE/HE liaison officer based at Bucks New University. Debby started working at Bucks nearly 2 years ago in the Quality Assurance team before joining Progress South Central.
Prior to this Debby worked for seven year in further education starting in Admissions, Course Enquiries and eventually managing a community partnership project which engaged adult learners in IT courses within various local facilities such as libraries, hospital and community groups. Debby also worked for a short time for Ealing Adult Learning with the responsibility for all leisure curriculum courses.
Having recently moved to Berkshire and acquiring a large garden Debby can be found most weekends digging away and covered in mud. She also does Pilates - to recover from the backache of gardening!
01494 522 141
07921 936 893
Janet Cox - HE/FE Liaison Officer, based at Oxford Brookes University
Janet Cox is the Liaison Officer based at Oxford Brookes University, where her role is to promote and support the work of Progress South Central within Brookes and its associated further education college partners.
Janet has previously worked in the Learning Partnerships Office at the University of Bath, where she gained experience of working with partner colleges and developing, administering and co-ordinating the University's Foundation Degree provision.
Originally from New Zealand, Janet often has people guessing as to the origin of her accent. She enjoys exploring the English countryside, travelling in Europe, going for the odd run, reading and unintentional experimental cooking.
01865 484 933
A staff diagram is available here: