BSMS > About BSMS > Working here > Inclusivity > PST spotlights > Staff spotlight: Denise Roden

Staff spotlight: Denise Roden

Name: Denise Roden
Job title: Senior Coordinator (Time for Dementia)
Department: Neuroscience
Year started at BSMS: 2006-2009 in previous role in student support team, November 2015 to date in current role

Tell us a bit about your background

After leaving university I worked in various public sector roles in Portsmouth, Woking and Bristol. When I moved to Brighton back in 2006, I starting working at BSMS in the student support team which was a role I really enjoyed. In 2015 I started temping in the School Office at AEB and eventually settled more permanently in the Time for Dementia role.

What’s your role like day-to-day?

My role is very varied and I work closely with colleagues at our partner organisation, Alzheimer’s Society. The start of the academic year is filled with allocating student pairs to families and making sure everyone has the information they need to be able to commence their Time for Dementia visits. During term, I would usually be communicating with both students and families to make sure that visits are all able to go ahead and then following up with students who have not yet booked in their visits. I also help the Time for Dementia administrators at other universities set up their processes and systems and help maintain a library of documentation for use by all universities who run the programme.

What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?

The highlights of the year are the sessions where we get to meet the students and/or the families taking part in the programme. We give the students an introductory presentation and a preparatory session prior to starting the programme and whilst I still get nervous about speaking to 200 students, it is great to meet them in person. We also have the annual symposium in June which brings together the Year 3 students and some of the families taking part in the programme. It is a lot of work to put it together but it’s so lovely to be able to meet the families who have been taking part and to hear from the students about what they have got out of completing the programme.

In terms of successes, which accomplishments are you most proud of?

In 2016 we ran the first of two TFD conferences with were attended by BSMS students, University of Surrey nursing and paramedic students and families from across Sussex and Surrey who had taken part in the programme – these were attended by approx. 450 people. It was a completely new thing for us at the time and I learned a lot of skills that I have gone on to use when organising our slightly smaller-scale annual BSMS symposiums.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Tell me something about you that most people don’t know about you.

Immediately before joining BSMS my husband and I went travelling in New Zealand and South America. This included a 5-day trip to Antarctica where we visited Elephant Island and Port Lockroy and saw an awful lot of penguins up close.

What are your other interests / hobbies?

I enjoy quilting, crocheting and baking although I approach all three with much more enthusiasm than skill. I also enjoy quizzing and try to attend a local pub quiz monthly.