Helen James OBE is Professor (Emerita) and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has over forty years in engineering, science and tertiary and higher education, holding a range of external leadership roles, including Director, Trustee and Chair. Currently, she is Chair, Education and Skills Board, IMechE; Trustee and Director of Turner Schools MAT; and member and former Founding Chair, Strategic Industry Advisory Board for the Kent and Medway Engineering, Design, Growth and Enterprise Hub (EDGE Hub).
Helen has supported grass roots STEM outreach throughout her career and she founded Xplore!, the Science Discovery Centre in Wrexham, in direct response to her passion and commitment to increasing and widening participation in STEM.
Helen undertook a mechanical engineering apprenticeship at Vickers Shipbuilding Ltd and tertiary education at Barrow in Furness College of FE from the age of 16. She subsequently became an armaments design engineer and environment test engineer and systems engineer in the Space industry. Helen believes passionately in the power of education to transform lives and create an inclusive society, and in the capacity for STEM to transform our economy, health and wellbeing.
