Reps and Contacts

If you have an individual, urgent, or legal problem, or have been called into a meeting at which you would like a UCU representative present, please see the Get Help page about requesting a caseworker. If you’re not sure who to contact about a problem, please feel free to email the branch mailbox on [email protected]. 

Executive Committee members are shown on our Exec. committee page. 

We have a variety of types of representative, each with a different specialism. Find out who your reps and learn more about what each type of rep does here:

If you have an issue then we have someone waiting to help!

AL (associate lecturer) reps

AL reps support all UCU members who are associate lecturers at the OU. There are 8 vacancies on the AL reps committee - please get in touch if you would like to volunteer.

If you are not an associate lecturer, see the unit reps section.

Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation 

  • John Pearson

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)

  • Costas Athanasopoulos
  • Rafa Canet
  • Gillian Jack
  • Isabella Muzio
  • Penny Oderberg
  • Chenoa Putter
  • Marianna Volpi

Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)          

  • Jason Phillips
  • Kevin McNerney

Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM)       

  • Pam Cameron
  • Andrew Hoaen
  • Lesley Kane
  • Steve Kirtley
  • Matthew Rickard

Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies (WELS)     

  • Gerry Stroud-Campbell
  • Shivanti Lowton

By invitation to the AL reps committee

  • Branch AL Staff Officer - Steve Kirtley
  • Honorary Secretary - Lesley Kane
  • Branch President - Pete Wood
  • Honorary Treasurer - Marianna Volpi

Unit reps (for non-AL staff)

Unit reps support staff who aren’t associate lecturers, whether that’s academic, research-only, or academic-related (including professional services) contracts. If your unit isn’t listed below, we don’t have a rep for your area and support will be provided by an officer or another rep. Get in touch if you would like to volunteer.

If you are an associate lecturer, see the previous section.

Academic Services       

  • Danielle Cobham (FASS Student Support Team)
  • Torin Grace (Student Support Services)
  • Cath Tomlinson (FASS Student Support Team)
  • Stevie Eglinton-Pacitti (Assessment Credit Qualifications)
  • Elaine Walker (Student Support Services)

Our Academic Services reps cover all OU sites, but we are seeking additional Academic Services Reps physically based in Manchester and Nottingham.

Digital Services

  • Alex Keel

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)     

  • Francesca Benatti (School of Arts and Humanities, English and Creative Writing department)
  • Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann (School of Arts and Humanities, Art History department)
  • Marie Thompson (School of Arts and Humanities, Music Department)
  • Julia Chukwuma (School of Social Sciences and Global Studies, Economics department)
  • Caitlin Adams (Deanery)
  • Malik Refaat (School of Psychology & Counselling)

Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)          

  • Analisa Goodwin (Business School)
  • Saoirse O'Shea (Business School)
  • Daniel Haslam (Business School)
  • Hayley Gibson (Law School)

Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) 

  • John Busvine (Deanery)
  • Kit Power (Deanery)
  • Shawn Appleyard (School of Computing and Communications)
  • Brendan Quinn (School of Mathematics and Statistics), based in Nottingham
  • Alessio Antonini (KMi)

Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies (WELS)

  • Severine Hubscher-Davidson (School of Languages & Applied Linguistics, Languages)
  • Alison Higgs (School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care, Social Work)
  • Kieran McCartney (School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sports)
  • Chelle Oldham (School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sports)

Institute of Educational Technology (IET)

  • Liz FitzGerald
  • Ben Tidman
  • Koula Charitonos
  • Kevin McLeod
  • Franzi Florack (moved unit, January 2026)

Ireland Office (The OU in Ireland)

Please get in touch if you could be a UCU contact in Belfast.

Learner and Discovery Services (LDS)

  • Allie Kerper (Editorial) 

Marketing, Communications and Development

  • Michael Bartlett, Marketing
  • Maddie Buckland, Marketing
  • Christine Drabwell, Communications

PVC (Students)   

  • Rachel Garnham

Research, Enterprise & Scholarship (RES)

  • Helen Bowes-Catton

Scotland Office (The OU in Scotland)      

 Please get in touch if you could be a UCU contact in Edinburgh.

  • Pete Wood

Strategy Office    

  • to be advised

Wales Office (The OU in Wales)     

Please get in touch if you could be a UCU contact in Cardiff. 

Open College of the Arts (OCA) reps

Open College of the Arts (OCA) reps support any staff member who works for the OCA.

Flexible Tutors, OCA

Please contact [email protected] if you are a flexible tutor at OCA and would like support, or want to volunteer for the role.

Programme Tutors, OCA

  • India Ritchie 

Programme Leads, OCA

  • Dan Robinson

Academic-Related & Professional Services, OCA

  • Lia Harness

Green reps

Green reps work in a similar way to other union reps by raising awareness of environmental issues in the workplace and making sure they are included in the negotiating/bargaining agenda. Their role is vital in ensuring that employers address the climate crisis and sustainable ways of working, and that the costs of change do not fall unfairly on the workforce. They often campaign for training so that staff can learn new skills rather than be replaced, for investment in people and tools rather than workload intensification, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be the foundation of a Just Transition. If you're interested in becoming a green rep, please contact [email protected].

  • Peter Wood

Health and Safety reps

Health and Safety representatives address all matters of health, safety and welfare at work, including work-related stress, venue/lab safety, and IT use. They sit on the university's Health and Safety Committee. Some (those marked with an asterisk) are only trained to address workload issues.

  • Caitlin Adams
  • Francesca Benatti
  • Torin Grace*
  • Alison Higgs*
  • Lesley Kane
  • Shivanti Lowton*
  • Kieran McCartney*
  • Kit Power
  • Chenoa Putter
  • Saleem Rashid
  • Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann*

Pensions reps

Pensions Reps represent the branch at the OU/Trade Unions Pension Forum, supported by the branch’s Pensions Working Group. Reps and working group members receive training and access to the UCU national pensions email lists.

  • Alan Carr (retired member)
  • Steve Kirtley
  • Marianna Volpi

Union Learning reps

The Union Learning Rep role involves ensuring staff have access to high-quality training and professional development provision (including paid time for study), raising awareness about the value of learning, helping organise courses in the workplace, and supporting members to take part in learning. If you have a learning query contact the branch mailbox and we will assign a rep to it. 

Gerry Stroud-Campbell and Shivanti Lowton are both Union Learn reps in our branch. 

To learn more about becoming a ULR, see the Union Learning Reps page on the national UCU website.