Lauren Gillett

Lauren recently joined UCL following a 10 month maternity cover at St Mary’s University in Twickenham. Her job for UCL is being the voice for Widening Participation and the voice for students who fit a Widening Participation criterion.

Lauren is currently trying to get a high-level picture of all the Widening Participation projects that are going on across the department, and then aims to work out how to evaluate consistently against our APP targets. One thing she’s very excited to get started on is a project with the Education team to create a greater sense of belonging and community amongst the student body.

Lauren is settling in well in her new role, and is enjoying being able to work collaboratively across MAPS and across the university.

"I'm very lucky to be able to dabble in different projects, different teams but also feel integral to the wider MAPS strategy. I love that everyone's happy for me to share my Friday playlists, and doesn't shy away from saying 'hello' (this is particularly nice when you're new). UCL is a huge organisation who benefits from so many applicants - I want to make sure those that are the most able but least likely to get to UCL aren't at a disadvantage due to their background or circumstances. "

Lauren is a very proud Northerner. She was born in Sheffield, then moved to Lancashire when she was one and a half - “So I will always be representing the red rose of Lancashire over the white rose of Yorkshire”. Having lived all over the UK, she found moving to the South of England in 2016 was an adjustment.

"I found commuting silently to work bizarre and was constantly told I was strange for smiling and saying hello to strangers. I've been here a couple of years now and I love a) that it doesn't rain as much and b) the number of free things to do!"

Lauren is a massive football fan and was a season ticket holder at Preston North End FC from the age of 7. She now volunteers for Peckham Town FC, where she has just started training with the women’s team. She is also the Head of Partnerships at a Mental Health Start Up called MindMapper and is in the process of building the biggest community of mental health advocates in the UK. She also has two adopted cats Mimi and Jinx (who you’ll regularly see in Teams meetings).