vanessa gale

Dr. Vanessa Gale BA(Hons), MA, PhD (London) - Before joining apt awards, I read History at the University of Hertfordshire, gained a First class honours degree and won the University prize for outstanding contribution to history 2003. I had an article published in an academic journal based on my undergraduate research. My MA in Contemporary British History was completed at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London where I gained a Distinction. I then completed a PhD at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. My thesis, ‘Fighting Chance' – War, Popular Belief and British Society 1900-1951' examines the impact of war on popular belief in British society and culture in the twentieth-century, identifying change and continuity over time in reliance on the supernatural during the century’s major conflicts. I also compiled a database of prosecutions that took place under the Witchcraft Act (1735) and Section Four of the Vagrancy Act (1824) between 1900 and 1951. My thesis was accepted for publication by the University of Liverpool Press – a project that I am still working on. After my PhD, I was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter working on a project to examine the impact of bombing during the Second World War. This research resulted in a published chapter in ‘Bombing, States and Peoples – Western Europe 1940-1945’ (continuum 2001). I have also published articles in The Guardian and in academic journals (under my academic name of Vanessa Chambers). I joined OCNSWR in 2011 as PA to the CEO and Senior Management Team and Board. I have since taken on the role of Company Secretary and Executive Assistant for apt awards and thoroughly love my job. It’s so versatile and every day is different. I am looking forward to helping to take the organisation forward into what I think is going to be a very exciting future. I am passionate that education and learning is a way of transforming lives.