Deputy-Vice-Chancellor – Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences and member of the University Executive
Dame Helen is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest honour for an engineer in the UK.
Dame Helen joined Cranfield University as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing in September 2017 and, in August 2024, was made Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
She was previously at the University of Leicester where she was Head of the Department of Engineering between 2012 and 2016, chaired the £17m project to rebuild the Percy Gee Students' Union and served as Graduate Dean.
Dame Helen was the first woman President of the Engineering Professors’ Council (the body which represents engineering in universities throughout the UK) in its fifty-year history and has also served as a Vice President and Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2010 she won a national award as a Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology for ‘Leadership and Inspiration to Others’, and in 2022 received the President’s Medal, one of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s most prestigious awards.
Service on national bodies has included: the Skills Panel of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (one of the world’s largest engineering institutions); the Engineering Leaders Panel of the National Council for Universities and Business; and for five years chairing the Education and Skills Committee at the Royal Academy of Engineering. With the MoD she was a Secretary of State appointment to a major safety committee.
Dame Helen chaired ‘This is Engineering’ for the Royal Academy of Engineering for six years, a large-scale social media campaign which aims to encourage more young people to consider engineering as a career.
Dame Helen serves as a Director on the Governing Board for the £200m Sir Henry Royce Institute, a national UK Government Materials Research Initiative, and was a member of the UK Advanced Materials Leadership Council reporting to the UK Government Department for Business Innovation and Skills on national priorities for Materials Research. She was made DBE in the Queen's New Year’s Honours 2021 for services to engineering and education and is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire.
