Mary Gagen, Associate Professor of Geography at Swansea University has been selected as a finalist in this year’s national Leading Wales Awards. Mary has been shortlisted for the Leadership in the Public Sector Award.

The Awards, developed by a consortium of professional institutes, voluntary and public sector bodies as well as private companies, recognise and celebrate personal achievement in outstanding leadership in Wales. The consortium’s mission is to champion good leadership and influence leadership development by recognising, identifying and celebrating individuals, who through their leadership contribute to the prosperity of Wales.

Mary is a climate change expert. She is passionate about science communication and is part of the leadership team on two of Swansea University’s College of Science flagship public engagement programmes; the Swansea University Science for Schools Scheme and the Oriel Science centre. 

Speaking about her shortlisting, Dr Gagen said: “The projects which I lead on aim to transform the way Swansea University talks with the community about science and research. There are challenges to making research relevant to society but there are many reasons to try; we are all keen to be informed citizens and as scientists we need to talk to the public about our research for two reasons, partly in inspire the next generation of thinkers and experimenters but more importantly so the public can have an input to contemporary science research.

‌“I was delighted to have been nominated by my teams for this award. For me leadership is all about collaboration. The things we achieve on S4 and on Oriel Science, where we basically opened a mini science museum in Swansea City Centre and welcomed over 16,000 visitors over eight months, those big ideas can only come to life when a team collaborates.”

Barbara Chidgey, Chair of the Leading Wales Awards, said:

“The shortlist reflects a very high standard and diverse range of leaders working in all sectors across Wales; our panels of judges will have a tough job on judging day. On behalf of the Leading Wales Awards Consortium I would like to thank everyone who made the effort to nominate and share such fantastic examples of Leaders in Wales. It's set to be another very exciting year for Wales' only leadership awards.”

The winners will be announced at the lunchtime awards ceremony, which will take place at the Hilton Cardiff on Thursday 21 September.

• For more information about the Leading Wales Awards, click here.
• For the list of Leading Wales Awards 2017 Finalists click here.
• Leading Wales Awards Press contact: call Charlotte Fennell on 0117 2140471 or email charlotte@mcarthur-davies.co.uk.