Access Team
Dr Sandra Campbell
Fellow for Access & Outreach and Tutor in Physiology

I have greatly enjoyed working in higher education for the last 20 years. In my current position as Supernumerary Fellow and Tutor in Physiology for St John’s, I am involved in many aspects of College life including those that relate to the students directly (teaching, welfare, discipline, presidential collections, admissions, schools liaison), and those that contribute to the effective running of the college (various committees, interviewing for JRF, alumni interactions admissions, and as Dean for Degrees). I am currently the lead tutor in Biomedical sciences, and I have a substantial role as a Medical tutor. I also contribute to the teaching of the Experimental Psychology students.
Katie Inwood
Schools Partnership Coordinator and Inspire 9, 10 & 11 Programme Lead

I am the School Partnership Coordinator, responsible for the Inspire Scholars Programme for Years 9, 10 and 11, and the Inspire Critical Thinking programme. This is a pioneering sustained-contact programme designed to assist schools and parents and carers in supporting students to reach their full academic potential. This particular programme works with students from non-selective state schools in our link regions.
Before joining the Access and Outreach team, I taught History at a non-selective secondary school in Maidenhead, and enjoyed developing and teaching a curriculum that centred on diverse histories and historical scholarship. I was also the More Able Coordinator and Assistant Head of Sixth Form. I hope that my experience as a teacher can help to build a stronger bond with our Inspire Teacher Leads and enhance their professional development.
I qualified in Secondary History at the Institute of Education, University College London in 2015. Prior to this I completed a Master’s degree and an undergraduate degree in History at Lancaster University.
Petros Spanou
Access Associate

As Access Associate I run the college in-bound school visits, as well as the Offer-Holder Days. Originally from Cyprus, I studied for an undergraduate degree in Modern History at the University of St Andrews, before reading for a Master’s degree in British and European History (1500-present) at New College, Oxford. I then completed my DPhil (PhD) in History at Balliol College, Oxford. I am committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment, and over the past decade I have developed a passion for Access & Outreach work. Since September 2021, I have been working as an Outreach tutor at Oxford’s Faculty of History. I was also a History tutor for Opportunity Oxford, a Postgraduate tutor for Pembroke College’s OxNet Programme, a Study Skills tutor and History tutor for Lincoln College’s Study Days, and a Graduate Outreach tutor at Balliol College. I was also Balliol’s Junior Dean between September 2021 and August 2022.
During my DPhil I taught classes and tutorials to History undergraduates. I am also an Access Associate at St John’s College, delivering access visits from schools in the college’s link regions.
Ollie Hedges
Project Lead for the Year 12 & 13 Inspire Programme

Hi! I’m Ollie, the Project Lead for the Inspire Programme for Years 12 & 13 at St John’s College, Oxford. The programme aims to support pupils attending non-selective state schools in the college’s link regions and the Oxford for South East, by providing them with a wide range of academic skills and super-curricular resources to advance their studies and to encourage them to aim high. I am very passionate about Access & Outreach, and I find that organising and running events that make a difference to the lives of pupils is an incredibly rewarding experience!
Originally from York, I came to Oxford to study an undergraduate degree in History at New College. Since then, I have had several different jobs around the University, including working in the Sports Department, within History of Art, and on Opportunity Oxford (a university bridging programme).
Samantha Ponting
Digital Engagement Officer

As the Digital Engagement Officer for the Access and Outreach Team, it’s my job to design and produce visually exciting graphics that will inspire and attract students from all backgrounds to attend events at St John’s College.
Communication has always been at the core of my career, which began with a degree in Graphic Design. After university, I travelled to Hong Kong to take up my first design role. This helped to kick start my commercial career and taught me how to stretch and challenge myself.
I worked for over 16 years in design agencies abroad and in the UK, before moving into the education sector. I have first-hand experience of state school students attending Oxford colleges, where they’ve thrived academically and personally. This has helped me really appreciate the critical role outreach events play in engaging students who might not otherwise have considered Oxford as an option.
I want to see talented pupils, whatever their backgrounds, believe in themselves and access all the educational and life opportunities available to them. So, I’m excited to be using my experience and skills to engage, inspire and encourage students to explore their higher education choices.
Jenna Ilett
Digital Platform Development Manager

As the Digital Platform Development Manager for the Access and Outreach team, my responsibilities include testing potential Virtual Learning Environments to assess their suitability for hosting content for our programmes, including Inspire, and identifying key learning skills and how they correspond to particular aspects of our programmes.
I have had various education-based roles including working as a Psychology tutor, as a Library Assistant for a secondary school, and as an English teacher in Switzerland, before I moved to Oxford to work for the Bodleian Libraries.
I graduated with a degree in Psychology from the University of Southampton in 2021.
Megan Bruton
Access Officer

My role is to build relationships with non-selective state schools, to help inspire and empower students to access Higher Education. I co-ordinate and deliver Access Visits at St John’s College, where students are able to experience talks, workshops, and tours, to support them in their knowledge of Higher Education, and Oxford specifically.
I work closely with secondary schools and sixth forms in our link areas in the South East, as well as with primary schools in Oxfordshire. Working with schools is incredibly rewarding, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to meet so many brilliant students and members of staff. I am committed to ensuring that the University is a representative, welcoming, and forward-thinking institution. Crucial to this is the prioritisation of access and outreach.
Prior to taking up this role, I worked on other access programmes run by the University, such as UNIQ and OxNet, and benefitted from access programmes myself, whilst an applicant.
I graduated with a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford, in 2024.
Sophia de Medeiros
Educational Content Support Officer

I joined the SJC Access team at the start of 2025 after finishing my undergraduate degree in Classics at St John’s College, Oxford. During my time as a student, I regularly worked for the access team as a student ambassador, giving tours of the college, helping out at Open Days, and answering your questions about life at university! I’m very excited to be working as a more integral part of the team, since access work is something I really value and enjoy. On the weekend, I also work for the Classics Faculty’s outreach department as a teaching assistant supporting GCSE Latin lessons for state school students on the OxLAT programme.
As Educational Content Support Officer, I proofread, edit, commission, and occasionally write materials that we publish on our Inspire programmes.
I also have the pleasure of looking over a lot of the submissions we receive in return, such as Superchallenge essays and posters!
The Inspire Programme Steering Committee is comprised of St John’s College Fellows, headteachers from schools across London and Oxford and education professionals. You can meet the members of the committee below.
Senior College Representatives
Professor Lady Sue Black DBE OBE FRSE FBA FRAI FRSB ChFA, Baroness Black of Strome
The President, St John's College

Professor Black is one of the world’s leading forensic scientists and has most recently been the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University, tasked with raising the University’s profile locally, regionally and nationally whilst championing the economic growth and regeneration of North West England.
Since graduating from the University of Aberdeen in human anatomy and forensic anthropology, Professor Black has had a varied and distinguished academic career, lecturing in Anatomy at St Thomas’ Hospital London and working as a consultant in forensic anthropology for both the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, undertaking forensic investigations in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Grenada. She was the lead forensic anthropologist during the international war crimes investigations in Kosovo. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at Dundee University.
Professor Black has written widely and has made regular media appearances, including on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and The Life Scientific. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Higher Education and Forensic Science and in 2021 entered the House of Lords as a crossbencher peer as Baroness Black of Strome. Professor Black is also the 65th President of the Royal Anthropological Institute and she is the lifetime Professor of Anatomy for the Royal Scottish Academy.
Dr Sandra Campbell
Fellow for Access & Outreach and Tutor in Physiology

Sandra is the Fellow for Access and Admissions for St John’s, directing an extensive range of outreach projects including the pre- and post-GCSE Inspire Programme. She leads our team of 8 access staff, all of whom are passionate about making a difference for disadvantaged pupils. She is also involved in other aspects of College life, including teaching, welfare, discipline, presidential collections, various committees and alumni interactions. Sandra has worked in higher education for the last 25 years. She has been a tutor in Physiology at Oxford for the past 13 years, teaching within the Medicine, Biomedical Sciences and Experimental Psychology courses for both the College and the University. Outside her teaching interests, she manages a team facilitating the development of laboratory imaging biomarkers for tumour detection and monitoring for use in patients.
Denise Cripps
Director of Communications and Engagement

Denise is Director of Communications and Engagement, working on a wide range of projects including strategy and governance as well as communications and engagement. She has a long-standing interest in education having worked in educational publishing for twenty-five years for Oxford University Press and Scholastic UK in editorial and senior management roles. She was also a local primary school governor for eight years and worked with Professor Maggie Snowling, previous President of St John's, on interventions looking at children’s language and learning difficulties and how best to ameliorate them. Denise was part of the team that published the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (OUP, 2018) and the Nuffield Nursery Language Programme (2019).
Professor Kate Nation
Tutorial Fellow in Psychology and Provost for Academic Affairs

As Tutor for Psychology, I am responsible for making the arrangements for the Experimental Psychology (EP) and Psychology, Philosophy & Linguistics (PPL) students at St. John’s. I provide undergraduate tutorials across all three years, covering a range of topics in psychology. I also contribute to the Psychology for Medicine course. I’m College Advisor to a number of graduate students in College who are researching a wide variety of topics in psychology and neuroscience. In the department, I give a 2nd year lecture course on Developmental Psychology and a 3rd year advanced course on Reading and Language: Development and Disorder. I supervise postgraduate students working in the field of psycholinguistics (the psychology of language), especially written language.
I am based in the Department of Experimental Psychology. Broadly, my research is concerned with the psychology of language, especially reading and its development. I am interested in how children learn to read words and comprehend text, and more generally, the relationship between spoken language and written language. A key aim at present to specify some of the mechanisms involved in the transition from novice to expert. We also study language processing in skilled adults, addressing the issue of how skilled behaviour emerges via language learning experience. Alongside my research on typical development, I study language and cognitive processes in children with developmental disorders that impact on language and literacy development, including language impairment, autism and dyslexia.
Professor Patrick Hayes
Tutorial Fellow in English

Professor Patrick Hayes is a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, where he teaches English Literature from the romantic period to the present day. His main research interest is in how we might best think about the value of literature in relation to modern ethical and political concerns. So far he have tended to focus on writing in English from beyond the British Isles, exploring the ways in which ideas and traditions move across borders and through time. He has recently completed a historical account of the diverse kinds of writing which have helped to define modern identity—including everything from autobiographies and diaries to psychoanalytic case studies, testimonies, philosophical theories about selfhood, lyric poems, blogs, and social media websites. It covers the period from 1945 to the present day, and forms the concluding volume of the new Oxford History of Life-Writing. His current work is on debates about the nature and value of aesthetic education from the late eighteenth-century right up to the present.
Kerry Jenkins
Finance Bursar

Kerry is responsible for supporting the Governing Body of St John’s in its duties in managing the financial resources of the college. She also manages the finance bursary team who look after the day to day finance operations. She is an Associate Chartered Management Accountant and a Charted Public Finance Accountant with over 25 years of experience.
Amelia Taylor
JCR Access Officer

Hi! I’m Amelia, and I serve as Access Officer for the Junior Common Room. This means I’m the main link between the Access Team and the undergraduate student body. I am currently studying BA History and Politics at St John’s.
I take responsibility for empowering St John’s students support widening participation, which is really exciting as so many students are passionate about this mission. This includes supporting ambassador training, recruiting volunteers for access events, and developing new student-led initiatives for outreach.
I really care about ensuring all potential applicants can pursue their dreams of studying here, and I’m deeply involved in a range of access projects and events. I look forward to working with the Steering Committee, as well as the Access Team, to continue supporting widening participation.
Professor Stefan Kiefer
Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science

Stefan has been the Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science at St John’s College since 2017 and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford since 2023. His main area of interest is computer-aided verification and the analysis of probabilistic systems. He completed his PhD at the Technical University of Munich in 2009.
External Advisors
Katherine Ryan, MBE
Former Head Teacher, Matthew Arnold School, Oxford and CEO Acer Trust

Katherine brings a lifelong commitment to improving education and a particular interest in success and progression for learners of all ages and backgrounds. She has been Headteacher of Matthew Arnold School since 2006 and has focused on ensuring that all learners are able to succeed and to progress to positive destinations when they leave school. As Chair of OCL (Oxford City Learning) from 2009–2017, a network of secondary education providers across the City, she worked with colleague Heads and Principals to improve achievement and raise aspiration for all learners. In 2015, she led the development of a multiacademy Trust, the Acer Trust, which consists of primary and secondary schools across Oxfordshire, with a core aim of ‘Achieving Excellence for All’. Prior to taking up the headship of Matthew Arnold School, she was the Principal Advisor for Secondary School Improvement at Birmingham City Council. Her career includes advisory work in science education and education leadership in three Local Authorities, as well as teaching in a range of comprehensive schools across Oxfordshire and the West Midlands. She has also worked in Higher Education as Science Education Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.
Rachel Kruger
Head, The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls, Ealing

Rachel has taught in comprehensive schools both in the UK and in South Africa, twice in girls’ only schools, and is currently the head of The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls in Ealing. She is passionate about girls’ only education. As a third generation university qualified female in her family, she works very hard to inspire girls to go to university and specifically into STEM careers. Her school has been part of the Inspire program for some time. At EWS, 99% of the Year 13 pupils go on to University, 25% to Russell Group universities and 40 % to follow STEM related courses. A significant number of the pupils are the first in their families to go to University. Rachel is on the board of the Ealing Learning Partnership and chair of their Pathways and Progression Committee, where they consider the future opportunities available to pupils from Ealing. She is a life-long learner with a very broad field of interests – she has degrees in Music and Maths and an MBA, and is currently studying towards a Law degree.
Susan Hammond
Former Head Teacher, Whitmore High School, Harrow

After studying Natural Sciences and Chemical Engineering at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Sue joined BP and worked in various engineering and commercial roles in the UK and USA. Sue then moved into teaching and was headteacher of Whitmore High School in Harrow, an inclusive community school with 1800 pupils, for 19 years. Sue was also Chair of Harrow’s High School Headteachers Group and Schools Forum and is committed to ensuring all young people have fair and equal access to a high-quality education.
Hong Zhou
Deputy Head of Maths, Gifted & Talented Coordinator and Inspire Teacher Lead
at the Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls

Following her degree in Environment Management from the University of Manchester, Hong trained for a Secondary PGCE in Mathematics. She has taught in both private and state secondary schools. She currently works as the Deputy Head of Maths at the Ellen Wilkinson School for girls, where she also acts as the Inspire Teacher Lead.
Shamim Tong
Solicitor and St John’s Alumna

Shamim graduated with a degree in Jurisprudence in 1997. She then qualified as a solicitor, worked at two of the largest law firms in London for over a decade, and then moved to California.
Richard Waters
Co-founder and Director of Opportuned

Richard focusses on improving the evaluation of the Inspire Programmes. Formerly Access Lead at St John’s, Richard now works with the new Government Evaluation Services Unit and founded an educational consultancy company specialising in evaluation and strategy. Through this, his work has included evaluations of AI in policing, STEM outreach initiatives and large summer schools. Alongside this, he studies for a PhD in Geography at Cambridge University.