Celebrating 40 years of Women at Oriel – Workshops and Plenary

Chair: Moira Wallace OBE

Moira was Provost of Oriel from 2013 to 2018. She is a former British civil servant, with experience in HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit, the Home Office and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform.

Maryanne Harvey (Law, 1985)

Maryanne is the first American woman to matriculate at Oriel. From 1985-1988, she rowed on the 1st VIII crew that earned the Oriel Women’s first bumps and blades. She worked as a Corporate Securities Solicitor and Attorney in London, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. After a decade of volunteer work in education and sports, Maryanne became the Founder, Owner, and Director of a San Francisco preschool. She currently splits her time between San Francisco and New York City and is an avid pickleball player.

Yamin Tun (PPE, 1994)

Yamin was JCR President during the 10th anniversary celebrations at College in 1995. She is also the first woman of colour to serve as JCR President. Yamin now lives in New Zealand and works as a writer and film director, her short film Wait (2016) was the first Mandarin language film to win Best Short at the NZ International Film Festival. Yamin is directing two feature films in 2025-2026, and is one of four directors selected by Jane Campion for Netflix’s CREST development programme.

Abi Adams (PPE, 2006)

Abi is the first alumna to be elected an Honorary Fellow of Oriel. She is the Nuffield Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics at Oxford. She also brings expertise to the UK Parliament Equalities Select Committee, and in 2018 won the ESRC Outstanding Impact in Public Policy Award.

Ianthe Greenwood (Modern Languages, 2012)

Ianthe was JCR President during her time at Oriel, and instrumental in passing motions within College such as the annual flying of the Pride flag during LGBTQ+ History month. As the proud daughter of one of the first women to study at Oriel in 1985, she played a key role in the planning for the celebration of 30 years of women at Oriel in 2015. Ianthe now works as Head of Languages at Chiswick School, and as well as having Orielenses parents (Michele Hare and Robin Greenwood) is also married to an Orielensis (Chenduraan Kailayapillai).

Join an inspiring panel featuring Oriel women who have built successful careers in traditionally male-dominated industries. Each panellist will share their unique journey, followed by a Q&A session where you can ask questions and gain further insights from their experiences.

Morning:

Professor Alison Noble (Honorary Fellow)

Alison is currently the Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Engineering Science and a Professorial Fellow of St Hilda’s College, at the University of Oxford, UK. She was one of Oriel’s first female Fellows, and the first female Statutory Professor in Engineering at Oxford.

Mary Thurston (English and Modern Languages (French), 1987)

Mary is New Zealand’s Consul-General in Noumea, responsible for the French Pacific Territories. From 2017-2021 she was New Zealand’s Ambassador to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine. She has also held positions in Thailand, Singapore and Solomon Islands, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Wellington. Prior to a career in diplomacy, Mary taught French and Spanish at comprehensive schools in Cornwall and London.

Madhumita Murgia (Immunology, 2009)

Madhumita is the AI Editor for the Financial Times. She was also previously a reporter and editor at WIRED, The Daily Telegraph and The Washington Post. She features as a co-host on the podcast series Tech Tonic. Her debut book CODE DEPENDENT, about how AI is impacting the lives of ordinary people around the world, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction in 2024.

Afternoon:

Camilla Wright (PPE, 1989)

Camilla is a journalist and one of the founders and owners of the Popbitch newsletter and website. Camilla is currently a Partner at Red Knot Communications PR agency.

Kathleen Donnelly KC (Law, 1998)

Kathleen is a barrister at Henderson Chambers and its first female silk. She specialises in group actions, commercial, and employment litigation, and acted for the 555 subpostmasters in the landmark Post Office case. Her clients include VW, Qatar Airways, and NEXT, and her work often involves complex, expert-intensive disputes.

Kadijah Amoah (EMBA, 2020)

Kadijah is the CEO of Pecan Energies Ghana Limited and the first Ghanaian woman to lead an oil and gas E&P company. A lawyer by training, she is part of the Executive Management Team in Norway and serves on the Council of the Ghana Upstream Petroleum Chamber and the Executive Advisory Committee of Africa Oil Week (AOW). She led Pecan’s transition to African ownership and is spearheading efforts to position the company as a model for sustainable, African-led upstream development. She holds degrees from the University of Ghana and Oxford, and is an Eisenhower Fellow and alumna of the International Leadership Programme.

Hear from Oriel women who are leading, working, and researching in healthcare. They’ll share their career journeys, insights from their work, and the challenges and opportunities facing women in the field today.

Morning:

Beth Harrison (Physiological Sciences, 1985)

Beth is a Consultant Haematologist at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire specialising in management of lymphoma and other blood cancers.

Lina Hacker (Against Breast Cancer JRF)

Lina is a Junior Research Fellow at the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford, funded by Against Breast Cancer. She completed her PhD in Medical Sciences at the University of Cambridge (Corpus Christi College), where she worked on the biological and technical validation of photoacoustic imaging biomarkers in cancer biology.

Afternoon:

Jessica Webb (Medicine, 1999)

Jessica was appointed as a Cardiology Consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in April 2018 and specialises in heart failure, heart failure in pregnancy, cardiac MRI and inherited heart diseases.

Bernadette Young (Fellow and Clinical Tutor in Medicine)

Bernadette is a Consultant in Infection at Oxford University Hospitals. In addition to her clinical work, she is an Honorary Researcher in the Modernising Medical Microbiology group of the Nuffield Department of Medicine. Her research has included studies of bacterial virulence, revealing signatures of bacterial evolution during infection, and determining associations between bacterial genes and disease.

Hear from alumnae working in the wellbeing sector, learn what wellbeing looks like in practice and why it matters. Our College Welfare Deans will also provide updates on how wellbeing is supported within College, offering a broader view of care in both professional and academic settings.

Morning:

Lucy Tallon (PPE, 1997)

Lucy is a Wellbeing Partner at the BBC. She’s also worked at Mind, Comic Relief and The Economist. She supports the wellbeing of people who work in the media — and maximises the social impact of their content.

Claire Barnett (History and Spanish, 2009)

Claire is the Co-Founder and CEO of Haven which produce YourHaven a wellbeing app. She is also the founder of EVOKE a North London wellness studio, and previously worked as the Executive Director for UN Women.

Caitlin Ashcroft (Neuroscience, 2017)

Caitlin is one of the Welfare Deans at Oriel. She works closely with the rest of the College Welfare Team to support the wellbeing of Oriel students. Caitlin is responsible for responding to welfare concerns, meeting regularly with students experiencing difficulties, and signposting them to appropriate support resources within College and across the University. She recently completed a DPhil in Neuroscience and is currently undertaking medical training.

Afternoon:

Gemma Lutwyche (Experimental Psychology, 1993)

Gemma is a Registered Counselling Psychologist based in London.  She works in the NHS as a Principal Psychologist leading a team supporting women with maternal mental health issues. She also works in private practice, providing therapy across all age groups, but has a special interest in trauma and attachment issues.

Thivi Maruthappu (Physiological Sciences, 1999)

Thivi is a Consultant Dermatologist, and also the UK’s only dual qualified Dermatologist and Nutritionist. Her research is based at King’s College, London and she has own practice based at London’s Cleveland Clinic. Thivi will be speaking on “Nutrition and Skin Health – Food For Thought”.

Caitlin Ashcroft (Neuroscience, 2017) – As above

Hear from our Fellow in Ancient History, more talk details to be shared soon.

Olivia Elder (Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History)

Olivia is a Roman historian of the Republic and Empire. At the core of her research is an interest in language as a way in to understanding Roman identity, society, and politics; the main themes of her work are multilingualism, migration, citizenship and slavery in the Roman world.

Join a dynamic and interactive workshop as we envision the next decade for women at Oriel. What do you hope the experience of women will be—academically, socially, and culturally in 2035?

Come with curiosity, creativity, and an open mind as we co-create Planet Oriel 2035—a space for bold ideas, honest reflection, and collective imagination.

Convenor: Fiona Lovatt (Classics and Modern Languages, 1991)

Fiona is the Human Insights Director (Europe Nutrition) for Coca-Cola. She has spent several years in advertising – driving branding, consumer insights and innovation strategy.