Jisc creates 17 education sector ‘community champions’

Jisc celebrates the power of the education community with 17 new ‘champions’    

Jisc has announced 17 community champions for 2022 – people in the education sector who use their technological know-how to collaborate and make a positive impact on colleagues or students across the sector.  

Running since 2020, the Jisc community champions programme celebrates passionate individuals who successfully share knowledge beyond their own institution, and who bring people together to solve problems and share experience for the good of all. 

This year’s champions will enjoy a special trip to Jisc’s flagship edtech conference, Digifest, where they will be able to network and have a chance to inspire new community champions. 

Out of 60 nominees, the following people were chosen by a panel of former champions and Jisc representatives chaired by Natasha Veenendaal, head of community engagement at Jisc.  

• Samantha Ahern, University College London.
• Sim Barbaresi, Bangor University.
• Richard Beggs, Ulster University.
• Jane Daniels, Cardiff Metropolitan University.
• Matthew Deeprose, University of Southampton.
• Angela Dynes, Northern Regional College.
• Jamie Giarraputo, South Thames Colleges Group.
• Dawn Green, Karten Network.
• Ben Haddock, Sandwell College.
• Kelly Herbert, Harlow College.
• Chloë Hynes, Cc Consultancy.
• Chris Melia, University of Central Lancashire.
• Louise Pratten, Weston College.
• Andrea Quantrill, Kirklees College.
• Malvika Sharan, The Alan Turing Institute.
• Tracey Stanley, Cardiff University.
• Josh Vincente, University of Exeter.

All the champions are passionate about their communities’ work and are motivated to use tech in a way that benefits others:

Ben Haddock says:

“I strongly believe that everyone deserves to have a fantastic and stimulating education and I hope that, through our work, we can encourage more educators to innovate and experiment with technology. Little changes are no longer enough – we must find ways to deliver education in profoundly different ways than ever before.” 

Dawn Green says:

“I am motivated by the aspiration to make a difference for the people we support and to contribute to that end goal of improving life chances through the use of technology for people with additional needs.” 

Jamie Giarraputo says:

“Collaboration is at the heart of everything that I do. I thrive on discovering something new and sharing. I’m borderline obsessive when it comes to researching and trialling new and exciting edtech or digital applications.” 

Richard Beggs says:

“As we enter the next stages of the pandemic, communities are even more essential to provide guidance and support to one another as we deal with the unexpected.”