Meet the Ethics and Sustainability team

As well as his role with the EPC, Johnny Rich is well known across the higher education sector as a high-profile commentator on policy issues as well as the chief executive of student advice and outreach organisation Push, as a consultant working in education and careers, and as an author.

Before joining the EPC, Johnny has already worked on many issues of concern to our members. Over the past 25 years, he led Push’s research – such as on drop-out rates and student debt – which has had direct impacts on policy.

Johnny’s thought leadership, such as his papers for a graduate levy and a national access fund (2018) and on employability (2015) for the Higher Education Policy Institute, have been influential throughout the sector. Policy issues are also a significant part of his consultancy work, along with communications. His clients have included the European Commission, HEFCE, U-Multirank, as well as many universities, recruiters and charities.

He’s a regular speaker at conferences, awards and in schools. In 2013, his novel A Human Script was published.

Sarah Jayne Hitt, Ph.D. SFHEA specialises in the integration of the arts, humanities and social sciences within engineering education, especially focussing on ethics and communication.

She has served as project manager for the EPC’s Ethics and Sustainability Toolkit initiatives, is Transferable Skills Lead for the Centre for Advanced Timber Technology at NMITE and is Visiting Professor in the School of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University.

She has led national and international workshops on interdisciplinary learning and teaching and worked with academic and industry partners on various engineering education initiatives. She has recent publications in the International Journal of Engineering Education and The Journal of Problem-Based Learning in Higher Education.

Wendy Attwell works on the development of the EPC’s Royal Academy of Engineering funded Engineering Ethics Toolkit, to which she has also independently contributed a case study. She has a BA (Hons) and PGDip in Literature from the University of Hertfordshire.

Crystal Nwagboso is a Project Manager, Research and Editorial Executive/Analyst at the Engineering Professors’ Council. She is responsible for project managing the creation of the new EPC website, conducting tasks such as WordPress backend and frontend CRM/CMS testing, and collaborating with external website developers. She also leads development meetings, formulates agendas, minutes, and action logs on a weekly basis, analyses data, and is in charge of a project management platform and various spreadsheet logs to document and monitor tests. She is proficient in using HTML coding and has utilised Python programming language software. Crystal was also involved in the now-completed, website content migration process.

In conjunction with this, Crystal also formulates, proofreads, and revises material for the website and has created a user manual outlining the technical intricacies of the website.

Crystal is also working on the development of the EPC’s Siemens and RAEng-funded Sustainability Toolkit project, which she has been involved in since the beginning phases. She has been in charge of conducting research, analysing data, providing project management and executive support and is an active member of the Sustainability Toolkit Steering Group.

Additionally, Crystal assists the executive team with a plethora of tasks including planning and coordinating events, scheduling and setting up Zoom webinars and meetings, liaising with over 8,000 EPC members in the database; ensuring all members are informed of the latest developments at the EPC and initiating discussions, conducting research analysis for upcoming projects, updating the EPC’s database and social media channels, social media marketing, assisting with the relaunch of the EPC’s newsletter, minute taking, composing press releases and more.

Crystal graduated from Kings College London and has a degree in English Language and Linguistics that has equipped her with the tools and expertise needed for this role.

Dr. Shah is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Mathematics and Engineering Education at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) with research interests in applied mathematics (nonlinear dynamics, analytical mechanics and mathematical modelling) as well as mathematics and engineering education pedagogy.

He is also the School Lead for Inclusive Scholarship for the Centre for Academic Inclusion in Science and Engineering (CAISE) at QMUL, the Research Seminars Coordinator, Centre for Research in Engineering and Materials Education (CREME)and a Research Integrity Champion for the Queen Mary Research Integrity Committee (RIC). In addition to this, he is also an Associate Member of the UCL Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) and serves as the Co-Chair of the Ethics Ambassador Community for the Engineering Professors Council (EPC).

He completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics (Nonlinear Dynamics) at University College London (UCL), where he also taught on a wide range of courses in mathematics, physics and engineering for which he received several teaching excellence awards. In addition to this, he is an accredited Fellow (FHEA) of the UK Higher Education Academy and has also been a Guest Mathematics Teacher at the London School of Economics (LSE).

Prior to this, he taught GCSE and A-Level Mathematics as a full-time secondary school teacher at several independent schools across London. He also has an MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing from the University of Oxford (St. Anne’s College) and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering with Business Finance from UCL.

Fiona Truscott has a BA/MSc in Natural Science (Chemistry) from the University of Cambridge and a DPhil in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford. Following her PhD, she conducted postdoctoral research on the interface of Biology and Chemistry at the ICSN, part of the CNRS Delegation Ile-de-France Sud. She then moved to conduct postdoctoral research in the Department of Biochemical Engineering, UCL, working on the application of automation technology to Biochemical Engineering.

Currently she is an Associate Professor (Teaching) with the Integrated Engineering Programme and Centre for Engineering Education in the Faculty of Engineering at UCL. She is the Engineering Challenges Module Lead, a cross faculty, large scale team project module for first year undergraduates. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and co-chair of the SEFI DEI Special Interest Group. Her current research interests are interdisciplinary teaching, teamwork and the embedding of social factors in Engineering Education.

Dr. Natalie Wint is a Lecturer within the Centre for Engineering Education (CEE), UCL, having previously worked across engineering disciplines and as Head of the Engineering Foundation Year at Swansea University. She is particularly interested in integrating and embedding professional skills into engineering and takes an interdisciplinary approach. She has co-authored chapters in the use of ethical theories within engineering education and ethical design.