The Lady Margaret Hall Association (LMHA)

All LMH alumnae and alumni become members of the Lady Margaret Hall Association when they finish their studies at LMH. The primary role of the LMHA Committee is to produce the Brown Book each year and to help Senior Members stay in touch with each other and with the College. It does the latter by holding social meetings, usually one in the autumn in London and one in February in College.

While the College, via the Development Office, funds the activities of the LMHA, the Committee (see below) organises these activities and has editorial control of the Brown Book. The LMHA's Annual General Meeting is held each year on Gaudy Sunday, when the committee reports to the membership and holds elections for any vacant seats.
 

The LMHA Committee
 

Mrs Carol Oster Warriner (Gibson) (1981 Jurisprudence), President

After reading Jurisprudence at LMH Carol went on to train and qualify as a solicitor in the City of London. She joined the Oxford firm of Linnells, as it then was, in 1988 and became a partner in 1991. Following a series of mergers the firm today is part of Blake Lapthorn, a large regional UK law firm, with five offices in the south of England. Carol was Head of Property Litigation in the Oxford office, and subsequently became the firm's Risk Partner dealing with all aspects of legal and non-legal risk, and professional negligence claims and claims made to the Legal Complaints Service. She was also on the firm's strategic and management boards.

She retired from Blake Lapthorn in 2010, and was elected President of the LMHA at the AGM in July 2011. She holds office for three years. She is also Chair of the Governors of Rush Common School, a state primary in Abingdon.
 

Miss Catherine Avent OBE (1939 English), Vice-President

Cathy arrived at LMH the month after war broke out in 1939 and later spent five years in the WRNS. Having decided against a permanent naval commission, she embarked on a 'career in careers', spending much of her working life lecturing, writing and consulting on careers education and guidance and on the relationship between educational qualifications and the requirements of careers. She was awarded an OBE in 1977.

She has served on the LMHA Committee since 1982, becoming Hon Secretary in 1985, President in 1990 and Vice-President in 1994, from which position she continues to offer the Committee the benefit of her long association with the College. In 1990, with Hilda Pipe, she produced the invaluable Lady Margaret Hall Register.
 

Mrs Marion Michell (Cutler 1962 Chemistry), Honorary Treasurer

Marion had a career as a secondary school science teacher. She has been a faithful supporter of the College for many years and a regular attender at alumni events. She joined the LMHA Committee in 2002.

Ms Alison Gomm (1974 English), Honorary Secretary

Alison Gomm began her career as an English teacher in an Oxfordshire comprehensive school. Later, romance and a quest for adventure took her to Paris for a couple of years. On her return to Oxford, she became production editor of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, an academic quarterly. In addition, she is Head of Personnel for Oxera, an Oxford-based economics consultancy.

Alison lives in Drayton St Leonard, a small village in south Oxfordshire, and edited Drayton St Leonard: Our Village, a book written and illustrated by villagers and published in 2000 to mark the millennium. She is thoroughly enjoying her work on the Brown Book, where she has particular responsibility for obituaries, and her renewed contact with LMH.

 

Dr Carolyn Carr (Jones 1977 Chemistry), Editor of the Brown Book

Carolyn writes: 'When I graduated I got a job doing mass spectrometry for Kodak Limited, where I stayed for three years. During that time I married Paul, who was training to be a pilot for the Royal Air Force. On leaving Kodak, I returned to chemistry and LMH to do a DPhil, at the end of which I was expecting my first child. The combination of being a mother and being married into the RAF meant that working full time in chemistry was not practical, so I applied to work from home as a Patent Abstractor for Derwent Information. As well as my abstracting job, which took about ten hours a week, I was, at various times, the treasurer of a Mother and Toddler Group, the secretary of a PTA, on a Wives Club Committee and also responsible for designing, purchasing and organising the floral decoration for a Summer Ball! It was during this time that I first became involved with the LMHA and became Assistant Editor of the LMH Brown Book.

'When my children started full time school I returned to chemistry in Oxford with a Daphne Jackson Fellowship, an excellent scheme designed to help scientists back to work after a career break. Apart from a brief sojourn with a University spin-out company I have remained in research in Oxford, although I have now moved from chemistry to biology and study stem cell therapy for heart failure.

'Outside of work I am now the editor of the LMH Brown Book and treasurer of our village church.'
 

Mrs Cindy Bull (Harrison) (1979 Chemistry)

Cindy is presently the Regional IT Manager for a global pharmaceuticals company, and has extensive experience in the many aspects of large scale project management with commercial organisations.

Her special fields of expertise include Portfolio Management, Project Management, Six Sigma Process Excellence, IT Projects in Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Intelligence and Data Management.

 

Mrs Heather Norman Söderlind (Norman, 1971 German)

Heather is the Director of a consultancy company specialising in strategic marketing and communications programme management and planning. She undertakes freelance and interim management roles within British government agencies and the public sector.

Before this Heather was the Head of Public & Regional Marketing at British Library, and previously held marketing and communications management roles with the Reuters Group in various international environments.

While at the British Library Heather hosted the 2004 LMHA Reception during the College’s 125th anniversary events programme, with Lady Antonia Fraser as the guest speaker.  Most recently she arranged the LMHA Reception at the Goldsmiths' Centre, where she is a Trustee.

Ms Judith Garner (1977 Literae Humaniores)

After graduating Judith trained as a teacher, and since then has taught Classics in three schools. She is currently Head of Classics at Simon Langton Grammar School for Girls in Canterbury. She is committed to promoting the study of Latin and Greek in schools, including the maintained sector.

Judith joined the LMHA Committee in 2008 and has enjoyed renewing her links with the college. She is review editor for the Brown Book, and finds this role both interesting and rewarding.

Ms Harriet Kemp (1979 Literae Humaniores)

Harriet is Director of Group Reward at Compass plc. She joined the Committee in 2012.
 

Dr Margaret Rothwell CMG (1957 Literae Humaniores)

After graduating, Margaret joined the Foreign Office which led to a worldwide career in HM Diplomatic Service, including being Deputy Head of Mission in Jakarta; FCO Overseas Inspector; and HM Ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso and Liberia, and Roving Ambassador for Peacekeeping in Africa. She retired from the Diplomatic Service in 998 and undertook the Quinquennial Review of the Marshall Scholarship Scheme for Parliament. She was UK Representative on the joint UK/US enquiry into student working exchanges and helped set up the FCO Association (for retired members of the Diplomatic Service).

Since 2003 she has been a lay member of the Council of the Inns of Court. In 1992 she was awarded the Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) and in 1993 she was made an Honorary Doctor of Laws by Southampton University. She joined the LMHA Committee in 2009.

Mr John Locker (1994 History)

Originally from North Yorkshire, John writes: 'I fell in love with LMH as a teenager visiting on a 6th form open day and felt incredibly honoured to have studied Modern History at the College.' John was elected JCR President in 1996 and after completing his studies moved to London where he went to work for BT Group. He lives in Balham, south London and keeps in contact with a wide network of LMH contemporaries. He joined the LMHA Committee in 2006.

Dr Christine Gerrard

Christine is the Barbara Scott Fellow in English at LMH. She researches and writes on seventeenth and eighteenth century literature, particularly political writing and poetry. She has recently edited Samuel Richardson's letters and has worked on eighteenth century women's poetry. She teaches across the period 1500-1780 and has interests in eighteenth and nineteenth century American literature. She is married to Duncan Anderson, Head of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and they have two teenage sons.

Ms Jasmine Richards (1999 English)

Jasmine graduated from LMH in 2002. She has worked in publishing for seven years and is currently Senior Commissioning Editor for children's fiction at Oxford University Press. When she is not editing she is writing. The Book of Wonders is her first novel and is being published by Harper Collins in Jan 2012, you can find out more here www.jasminerichards.com. She also writes under the pen name J D Sharpe and her first novel under this name, Oliver Twisted, will be published in Feb 2012 by Electric Monkey, a new imprint from Egmont publisher.
 

Dr Penny Probert Smith, Vice-Principal, Lady Margaret Hall
Mr Peter Watson, Development Director, Lady Margaret Hall