Meet our honorary graduates
We are delighted to announce three new Honorary Graduates will receive their awards in our 2025 September graduation ceremonies
Jan, Lady Chalmers
Lady Jan Chalmers began her career as a nurse and operating theatre practitioner, going on to become a senior nurse manager and teacher, working in the UK and Gaza. She works tirelessly to support education and creativity in communities affected by conflict.Lady Chalmers co-founded the Oxford-based Palestine History Tapestry Project, through which she has helped to coordinate over 100 hand-embroidered panels telling the story of Palestinian life and land.
Since 2009, she has also supported Palestinian students from Gaza studying at Oxford Brookes and built friendships that continue to inspire her work. Lady Chalmers exemplifies how quiet determination and compassion can drive cultural understanding and international solidarity.
Dr Emma Ross
Dr Emma Ross is a sports scientist whose work has transformed how we understand and support female athletes.After beginning her academic career lecturing in physiology, Emma joined the English Institute of Sport, becoming Head of Physiology and leading support for Team GB across two Olympic cycles. There, she identified a vital gap in performance science: the specific needs of female athletes. She launched the SmartHER initiative and introduced a “female filter” to sports science—championing research and education around menstruation, breast support, puberty, and energy balance.
Emma later co-founded The Well HQ, a consultancy that equips coaches, schools, and workplaces with the tools to support women’s health across sport and life.
She is a Fellow of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences and co-author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Female Body Bible, which has brought cutting-edge science to a wide public audience.
Professor Suzanne Rastrick OBE
Suzanne is awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Occupational Therapy. She qualified as an Occupational Therapist at Dorset House—later incorporated into Oxford Brookes University—and became the first Allied Health Professional (AHP) to hold a substantive Director of Nursing post in both provider and commissioning organisations.She became Chief Executive of a Primary Care Trust, where she had leadership responsibility for delivering health resilience and emergency services during the Olympic sailing events in Dorset in 2012. Suzanne later secured authorisation for one of the country’s largest Clinical Commissioning Groups, before being appointed Chief Allied Health Professions Officer for England in 2014.
In 2017, she launched England’s first AHP strategy, recognised as groundbreaking in its use of crowdsourcing. Its 2022 successor, ‘AHPs Deliver’, placed a bold emphasis on inclusivity, digital access, and amplifying the voices of communities often excluded from traditional consultation.
Suzanne has also contributed her leadership for over three decades through non-executive roles in housing and the charitable sector. She was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2019, and is a Visiting Professor at St George’s, University of London, and Oxford Brookes. She is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and the Royal Society of Arts.