UWTSD Council Members

A graduate of the University of Wales (Bangor) and UWTSD, Emlyn Dole had an early career in the Baptist ministry and in the arts before becoming an elected County Councillor. He served for seven years as the Leader of Carmarthenshire County Council where he was responsible for the Council’s corporate vision and strategy. He was one of the main architects of the Swansea Bay City Deal along with the Council’s success in attracting Levelling Up funding from the UK Government. He is a trustee of the Baptist Union of Wales and continues to work part-time as a self-employed minister.
John Edge is Chair of the Board of Coleg Sir Gar. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he has a background in international business development, consultancy, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. He was the International Development Director and then Head of Acquisitions for a major UK logistics company, developing their global network. His career covered six continents, with a focus on North America, Europe, and Asia. Following his move to Ceredigion, he continued consultancy but also took a BSc in Ecology and now focuses on volunteering in community, education, and conservation projects both local and often international. He is deputy chair of his local community association; an advisor with Citizens Advice; a speaker for the Woodland Trust; and conserves his own property as an ‘active farmer’.
Professor Elwen Evans, KC, is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Appointed in 2023, she leads the University in its mission to transform lives through the delivery of education, innovation and enterprise to meet society’s needs.

A Welsh speaker, Professor Evans is committed to working with the University’s key partners and stakeholders to foster and promote opportunities for individuals and communities in Wales, the UK, and internationally. She is Chair of Universities Wales, Vice-President (Wales) of Universities UK, and is a Board Member of Advance HE, the professional membership body promoting excellence in higher education.

Professor Evans read Law at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first: M.A. (Cantab). On graduating, she attended the Inns of Court School of Law and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1980. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002. Throughout her successful career as a barrister, Professor Evans chose to practise mainly in Wales, where she specialised in criminal law at trial and appellate levels. She was appointed a Crown Court Recorder in 2001 and was Head of Iscoed Chambers for more than 15 years.

In 2015, Professor Evans was appointed as Head of the College of Law and Criminology (subsequently the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law) at Swansea University. In 2020, she joined the university’s senior leadership team as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, leading the successful growth of the Faculty during this period.

She is a Bencher of her Inn, has been honoured by Gorsedd y Beirdd for her services to Law in Wales, and was a Commissioner on the Commission on Justice in Wales.
Rowland Jones is a Chartered Surveyor and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He has extensive experience of property and estates-related activities throughout South Wales and has been a director of his own company since 1991.

He has participated in the delivery of major development projects, including the £7m Ethos Project at Swansea Waterfront and the Regional Skills and Learning Partnership, and has been a governor of Gower College, Swansea. He was the High Sheriff of the County of West Glamorgan for 2010-11 and serves as Her Majesty’s Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the same county.
Born and educated in Carmarthen, Timothy Llewelyn has a banking background. He held senior managerial positions at Lloyds Bank until 2018, most recently as Regional Operations Manager for Wales and West Region. He now holds a number of non-executive positions: he is currently Chair of Bro Myrddin Housing Association; a Lay member of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales and Chair of its Standing Committee; Vice Chair of the St David’s Diocesan Board of Finance; and Treasurer of St Peter’s Church, Carmarthen.
Geraint Roberts has a background in secondary school education. He was head teacher of Ysgol Gyfun Y Strade, Llanelli between 1997-2009 and subsequently worked as Consultant Headteacher in the Education Department at Carmarthenshire County Council, focusing on review and transformational change.

Since 2012 he has worked as an independent consultant on projects that have included school reorganisation, whole-school reviews, school improvement and the development of governance models in Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Rhondda Cynon Taf, and strategies for the transformation of secondary education in North Powys.

The editor of two published volumes of poetry and winner of many poetry prizes at the National Eisteddfod, he also contributes to a range of activities that promote the arts. He founded the Carmarthen Poetry School nearly thirty years ago and he is currently a member of the central literature committee of the National Eisteddfod and a director of Gofal Celf/Arts Care Carmarthen, a charity providing opportunities in the arts for people with disabilities. He published his first collection of poetry ‘Desg Lydan’ in 2020.
Nigel Roberts has a banking background and held managerial positions at Midland/HSBC Bank until 2010, most recently as Head of Commercial Banking for West Wales. He now works as a consultant for Clay Shaw Butler, Chartered Accountants and holds a number of non-executive positions within the Diocese of St Davids. Other current roles include Chair of Governors at the Model Church in Wales Primary School and Trustee of Carmarthen Family Centres. He is also a member of the Loans Panel for Social Investment Cymru.
Emlyn Schiavone is a Town and County Councillor for Carmarthen West, a role that includes membership of the Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee, Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee and Democratic Services Committee. His professional background is in education, where he has held a range of teaching and service management roles. He is trustee or committee member of a wide range of local charities and is currently a governor and former chair of two schools in Carmarthen.
Katrin Shaw was brought up in Cardigan in West Wales and attended Sheffield Hallam University where she gained a BA in Law. She was admitted as Solicitor in 1996 and worked as a local government lawyer before she joined the Ombudsman’s office as an Investigator in 2001. Since then, she has held several management roles for the Public Services Ombudsman Wales and is currently the PSOW’s Chief Legal Adviser and Director of Investigations.

Her other roles have included being a member of the UK’s Administrative Justice Council and Chair of the Ombudsman Association’s Legal Interest Group. She was Acting Northern Ireland Local Government Standards Commissioner between 2020-2024, adjudicating cases where councillors in Northern Ireland had failed to comply with their Code of Conduct.

She is a trustee of Neath Port Talbot Age Connects.
Brought up and educated in Wales, Elizabeth Siberry worked as a civil servant in London: as a departmental HR Director from 2003-08 and Director of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure from 2008-11. She now has a portfolio of the public sector and charity Trustee roles: in addition to her University Council membership, she is a Trustee of the National Library of Wales, the Brecknock Society and Brecknock Arts Trust, and the Gregynog Trust.

She studied history in London and Cambridge and was awarded a PhD in 1982. She continues to write and publish as a historian, working on aspects of medieval history and the history of Brecknockshire and is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Brycheiniog. She was awarded an OBE in 1997.
A graduate of the University of Kent and the London School of Economics, Richard Bills lives in Essex and has a background in higher and international education.

For 20 years he was the Director and CEO of the European College of Business and Management (ECBM), the affiliated Business School of the German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce in London, which delivers degrees in the UK and Germany.

He has a particular interest in student employability and significant experience in quality assurance, having worked in partnership with two other UK universities. He was an accredited teacher and research supervisor for those institutions and has continued to maintain his academic and professional activities since his retirement in late 2024.
Jennifer Taylor is a Students’ Union sabbatical officer and the Carmarthen Campus President. She has been a UWTSD student since 2015 and is currently studying for an MA in Medieval Studies. As an undergraduate she was a course representative and is also a volunteer intern in the Roderic Bowen Library and Archives and the Special Collections on the Lampeter campus. She enjoys singing, in particular Renaissance polyphony, and is a keen reader who enjoys the challenge of learning languages and writing systems. She volunteers with Girl Guiding Cymru in Ceredigion and is the leader for the 1st Lampeter Rangers. She is passionate about education, inclusion, and access to education and is Makaton-trained. As a sabbatical officer, she is looking forward to advocating for and supporting students and enhancing their experience of studying at UWTSD.

Appointed by Academic Staff

Dr Tracy Cruickshank joined UWTSD as Assistant Dean (Quality and Enhancement) for the Institute of Inner-City Learning in 2022 and became Dean of the London Campus in December 2024. She began her academic career at the University of Nottingham where she completed a PhD in Language and Performance. She subsequently held academic and leadership positions at De Montfort University (2004 - 2019) and Coventry University (2019 - 2022). She is a member of the Executive Board of DramaHE and the Drama and Theatre Education Alliance (DTEA), and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Deborah Hughes joined UWTSD in 2019 as a lecturer in Quantity Surveying, after completing a PhD that spanned both Quantity Surveying and Project Management. Using her industrial experience, she has developed the University’s construction programmes to include more sustainable and digital technology-based modules to keep the courses relevant to industry.

Her research areas of interest are collaboration and incentivisation within the construction industry. As a Senior Lecturer her teaching responsibilities include subjects such as research methods, design economics and business for construction professionals, and she has introduced key construction skills such as programme management and measurement. She achieved Chartered status in 2016 and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

Appointed by Support Staff

Professor Kyle Erickson joined UWTSD in 2010 as a lecturer in Classics. He was subsequently Head of the Department of Classics and Assistant Dean for Humanities. In 2019, he moved into a non-academic role in the Academic Office as the Director of Academic Experience. This role focuses on enhancing the academic experience through quality assurance, learning and teaching enhancement, academic regulations, student cases and data interpretation with a remit across the University.

He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California Los Angeles, where he studied History and Greek and Latin and worked at the Center for the Partially Sighted, teaching adaptive computer technology. He completed his Masters and PhD in Hellenistic History at the University of Exeter. His research interests are focused on the political and cultural interactions between the Greek world and the Near East. He is particularly interested in connections between divinity, legitimacy and power. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy