From bricklayer to the first elected Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram is not only a former LJMU student but works closely with the university on initiatives that benefit the 1.6 million people he represents. This bicentenary year he becomes our first Alumni Ambassador Fellow in recognition of his achievements and how he embodies the values of LJMU.
Dex is a psychology and criminology student and the founder of JMSU’s Boxing Society. The society has not only brought students together in the world of sport, but has helped to form a community where people are also using boxing to support their mental health.
Pooja is a Reader in Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention in the School of Psychology, having joined LJMU in 2018. For more than a decade, her dedication to researching suicide has taken her out of the lecture theatre and into the field, playing a vital role in helping to establish James’ Place, the first safe, accessible service for suicidal men in community settings.
Gary is a paramedic science graduate of LJMU with over two decades of experience in the ambulance service. He has now made the transition to become a full-time member of staff at the university, teaching the next generation of health professionals. In 2023 he was named as an Outstanding Teacher at the students’ union awards after being nominated by his students.
Habi was born in the Gambia but spent most of her formative years in Germany before moving to the UK. She has overcome the obstacles and discrimination that she faced throughout her childhood and teenage years in Germany, to seek out her own opportunities, to educate herself and to work with others to challenge unconscious bias and promote inclusivity.
Andrea is part of LJMU’s dedicated School of Education team who support and train our teachers of the future. She is also committed to driving forwards social justice, putting that ethos into all that she does, inspiring others so that they can raise their own aspirations.
Rachael is the winner of the Rose Paterson Sportswoman Community Award 2023 for her dedication to the sport of netball in Liverpool. Not only is she an inspiring community sports coach she juggles teaching and being a mum alongside her own development, having most recently gained an MPhil with LJMU.
Fadi is a 2023 graduate from the maritime business and management programme. He came to the UK as a refugee, having fled his home in Damascus, Syria, and gaining his initial qualifications in Greece. He used his dissertation research to highlight the challenges facing the shipping sector and their obligations under international law to help vessels in distress, including refugee and migrant boat crossings.
A prominent figure in the founding of the Liverpool Mechanics’ Institute, bringing accessible education to the working classes.
Dr Sasha Kosanic is an interdisciplinary scientist whose research focuses on answering complex questions about climate change and the impact it is having on nature and societies. She is also an advocate for inclusion in education, as a former Paralympian and a scientist living with Cerebral Palsy, she looks to highlight inequalities wherever she finds them and to drive forwards change in research and academia.