ROLE MODELS FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION
When our students seek inspiration, they need look no further than the girls who have gone before them. You’ll find some recent Alumnae profiles below, but we’re always looking for more!
If you’re an Alumna and would like to be included, please email a summary of your career journey and current role, along with a photo, to our Alumnae Manager Ros Roberts at alumnae@notredame.co.uk and she will be in touch.
After qualifying as an airline pilot in the midst of the worst crisis in aviation history, Francesca’s career literally took off in April 2022 when she officially became a commercial pilot for easyJet. As a Second Officer on the airline’s Airbus 320 fleet, Francesca has now flown thousands of travellers all over Europe from her base at London Gatwick. It’s been a long road to success for Francesca, who first completed a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and a Masters in Human and Applied Physiology at King’s College London before spending three years training as a commercial pilot in New Zealand.
Francesca is now a Junior Doctor at the Royal Cornwall NHS Trust in Truro Pictured here with her sister Hannah – also an alumna – Francesca (right) graduated in 2022 and calls her six years at the University of Oxford the ‘challenge of a lifetime’, particularly enjoying the hospital placements in Zambia and Nairobi. Francesca is now a Junior Doctor at the Royal Cornwall NHS Trust in Truro and, having completed her first four-month placement in adult general surgery, is now working in Paediatrics. Sister Hannah graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2022 with a degree in Architecture.
As the founder of the world’s first cross-platform visual search engine for fashion over a decade ago (for which she was awarded an MBE for services to Digital Innovation in the fashion industry), Jenny continues to innovate in her new role at Oracle as Vice President, Data Science. Her expertise lies in AI product innovation; bridging the gap between what’s proven, what’s possible and what customers need.
Before joining Oracle in 2023, Jenny was the founder and CEO of Snap Vision, a world-leading AI company providing computer vision for e-commerce and brand protection. Since inventing the technology Jenny has worked with brands such as Oracle, Westfield, Microsoft and Twitter with the goal of changing the way the world searches.
As well as the MBE, Jenny was awarded the Princess Royal Medal for Contributions to UK Engineering by the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is also a Forbes ‘30 under 30’ alumni and listed in its Top 30 Women in Tech in the World.
‘Astonishing’, ‘sublime’ and ‘a national treasure in the making’ were just a few of the superlatives used by critics to describe Patsy’s tour de force as doomed Blanche DuBois in the 2023 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, which earned five-star reviews and a sold-out West End run. In fact, her performance so impressed critics that they named her Best Actress in the Critics’ Circle Awards last year, adding to the Olivier Award she won for Summer and Smoke in 2019. Patsy, who left us to study Theatre Arts in 2008 and subsequently graduated from RADA in 2014, followed her triumph in ‘Streetcar’ with another impressive performance in the lead role of Eliza Doolittle in the Old Vic’s production of Pygmalion last autumn. She also recently starred alongside Jude Law and Alicia Vikander in Firebrand, a historical drama about the marriage of Queen Catherine Parr and Henry VIII.
She’s already been marked out as a ‘future bubbler’ on the London Jazz scene and alumna Sophie, now known by her professional name of Plumm, took the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room by storm recently when she took to the stage as part of the iconic venue’s Late Night Jazz series. It was the biggest gig yet for Sophie and her five-piece band, who treated the capacity audience to some tracks from her current EP Chameleonic plus some new material and a rousing encore. Plumm has also performed at Ronnie Scott’s and most recently at the Jazz Café, wowing the sell-out audience with a powerful tribute to Led Zeppelin’s famous concert at Madison Square Garden in 1973.
A Corporate Responsibility specialist, Rachel is leading Vodafone’s Everyone.connected campaign which aims to help four million people cross the ‘digital divide’ by the end of 2025. Rachel, who joined Vodafone in 2019 and was promoted to her current role as Senior Sustainable Business Manager in 2022, runs a wide range of projects which support the three main pillars of the campaign: donating connectivity and tech; offering targeted affordable tariffs and services and providing free support to digitally transform and upskill businesses and communities.
An opportunity to write and conduct interviews with athletes at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 led to a dream job at the BBC for University of Birmingham graduate Anna Scott, who is now working in the Kids and Family team at BBC Studios. As Programming Co-ordinator at the BBC’s iconic White City complex, aspiring TV presenter Anna plays a key role in setting up shows such as Horrible Histories and Bluey on YouTube and contributing to other creative projects, from live tours to scheduling social media content. The appointment follows two years of creating her own social media content including her Instagram channel #annaasksthepeople.
When Lucy Jamieson started her degree in Adult Nursing in 2016, she could not have foreseen how a worldwide pandemic would accelerate her learning and equip her with a wider range of skills than she would otherwise have had. As it is, three years after graduating from Kingston University in 2019, Lucy earned her second big promotion and now combines nursing and management skills. Based in the Surgical Oncology department at Guy’s Hospital in London, she helps lead the Outpatients team managing post-surgery care and doing small procedures to remove tumours under local anaesthetic.
Former Head Girl Claudia Buffini celebrated her first year at investment management firm Schroders with professional recognition in the 2022 Business Culture Awards, where she and her team won ‘Highly Commended’ in the ‘Best Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative’ category. It capped off an exciting year for Durham graduate Claudia, who was born with profound hearing loss but sees her disability as an opportunity for innovation. As part of her role advising the Chief of Staff and running the firm’s charity partnerships, she regularly collaborates with the National Deaf Children’s Society and recently ran the company’s first ever Employability Workshop for young deaf students.
When it comes to competitive sport, it doesn’t get much bigger than playing for your country and, at the peak of her career, alumna Fi Tillman was a leading member of the Team GB Wheelchair Basketball team. Injured in a motorbike accident when she was just 35, former teacher Fi rebuilt her life as an athlete and helped her team to a bronze medal in the 2017 European Wheelchair Championships. With a second burgeoning career as a motivational speaker, Fi was delighted to come back into school to address the girls. She told how her love of sport and competition, gained during her years at Notre Dame, helped to reshape her future. After a wonderful presentation in the Chapel, Fi ran a wheelchair basketball class with students and also treated some our Prep school girls to a race up the running track! We look forward to welcoming Fi back to Notre Dame again soon.
