Our people
Get to know the people in the Sustainability Team and find out how to contact them.
Contacting the team
To contact the team and get involved in sustainability, email sustainable@sussex.ac.uk.
To receive information and updates about sustainability at Sussex and how you can get involved, join our mailing list.
Sam Waugh, Sustainability Manager
Email: s.waugh@sussex.ac.uk
Sam has an MSc in Global Politics and spent most of her career working in the Civil Service, where she regularly advised Ministers in Whitehall and Westminster. She began her career in Government as a Specialist Advisor on Refugees and Housing before taking up a number of Head of Policy and Strategy Roles within four Government Departments, including the Department for Energy and Climate Change and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minster.
These roles included Head of: International Relations and Trade Policy, Energy Efficiency Policy, and Biofuels Policy. She also worked as the Organisational Effectiveness and Innovation Manager at the Department for Transport.
Sam left the Government in 2018 to move to Brighton and be nearer to the sea and nature. She joined Sussex in 2020 after a brief period of providing sustainable development consulting (with a focus on equality impact assessments, sustainable procurement, and inclusive and accessible design) for a major consulting firm. In her spare time, she likes to spend time with her pets, write and perform comedy, and play the ukulele very badly.
Sam says, “I love being at the University of Sussex, I have never worked with so many people who are passionate about sustainability and want to build a better world. Since arriving at the University, I have been given an opportunity to make real change and I never feel as if I am being asked to green wash. I am really looking forward to continuing to work with staff and students on co-creating and delivering on this important agenda.”
Ruth O’Brien, Senior Sustainability Policy Officer
Email: ro288@sussex.ac.uk
Ruth joined Sussex University in June 2022. She joined the University from the Sustainability Team at West Sussex County Council, seeking to influence internal working practices and processes to embed sustainability into the work of the Council, including embedding sustainability into project and procurement processes and business case development. Supporting colleagues through these processes meant she was involved in a wide variety of projects including specialist care provision, meals on wheels, stationery, cleaning, highways design and maintenance to name a few!
She particularly enjoys the breadth of areas a Sustainability Team need to be involved with, and understanding what’s important to other teams and people, and collaborating with them to develop sustainable solutions that work for them.
More recently she led the Council’s work to provide a public EV charging solution to ensure that people without drives feel able to make the switch to EV.
Ruth says: “I am really looking to working in a new dynamic organisation. Sussex University has a really ambitious Sustainability Strategy, and I have been told how much students and staff genuinely want the organisation to become more sustainable. I am excited to be part of making that happen..”
Pamela Linhares, Sustainability Performance Officer
Email: p.linhares@sussex.ac.uk
Pam joined the Sustainability Team in April 2022. Pam has been involved with environmental projects since her early teens. She has a MSc Environmental Assessment and Management and has previously worked as a Sustainability Advisor in the construction industry and as a Sustainability Projects Assistant at a London university. Nowadays, she is keen on further developing her skills in energy management, decarbonisation, and the circular economy.
Pam says “Working at the University has been a refreshing experience so far, there are many interesting projects to get involved with, and many passionate colleagues and students fostering an inspiring sustainability culture.”
Martha Knott, Sustainability Engagement Officer
Email: mk581@sussex.ac.uk
Martha joined the Sustainability Team in November 2020 after graduating from Sussex with an MSc in Global Biodiversity Conservation. Martha was involved in sustainability focused student societies and campaigns in her time as a Sussex student and has enjoyed continuing to work on sustainability as part of the Sussex community.
She is particularly interested in working together with students and staff to make change, running events and helping to support the biodiversity of the campus. She’s looking forward to developing more stakeholder engagement and liaison skills.
Martha says: “I really enjoyed the opportunity to take part in the conversations with stakeholders that fed into the Sustainability Strategy and am now working together with staff and students on it’s implementation. It’s been great to meet so many people across the university and see how important sustainability is to many people.”
Urja Chaudhury, Graduate Sustainability Associate
Email: uc33@sussex.ac.uk
Urja joined the Sustainability Team in April 2023 after graduating from Sussex with an MA in Environment, Development and Policy. During her studies, she was actively involved in sustainability initiatives across campus and was elected to the Student Union Sustainability Committee as the Environmental Justice Officer.
Urja is interested in the execution and implementation of sustainability strategy and policy across organisations; embedding sustainability in education; how the amalgamation of policy and engagement can positively impact not only the organisation itself, but also local communities, and how sustainability can be popularised and more effectively embedded within governance frameworks and corporate systems in the Global South. She is eager to develop her knowledge and skills in policy analysis, project development and stakeholder management.
Urja says: “I am really looking forward to working within the Sustainability Team at Sussex! The University has always been quite vocal about their commitment to the UNDP SDGs and the Sustainability agenda, so I’m excited to be a part of the team that is leading the implementation of such meaningful and positive change.”
Eve Pawsey
Email: e.pawsey@sussex.ac.uk
Eve joined the Sustainability team in May 2023. After completing her MSc in Global Biodiversity Conservation at Sussex, she has spent the last year working within the charity sector, educating people on planetary health, including topics such as biodiversity, sustainability, nature based solutions and the circular economy. She worked to inspire people to take action in implementing behavioural changes in their day-to-day lives and be aware of how we can all work towards a sustainable future.
Eve is now keen use the skills she has developed through both her education and work experiences to catalyse change within the University of Sussex and beyond to achieve and maintain its strategic goal of being one of the most sustainable universities in the world.
Eve says “I am thrilled to be working within the Sustainability team at Sussex. The ambitious Sustainability Strategy provides a variety of really interesting projects that I am excited to get involved in and will allow me to interact with many passionate colleagues and students who have already shown how important sustainability is to them.”
Alicia White, Sustainability Performance Intern
Alicia joined the Sustainability Team in June and is currently in her second year of a BSc in Geography at Sussex. She is interested in improving the sustainability of the University campus as an active student with a particular focus on climate change and sustainable development in her studies. She is looking forward to developing her skills and knowledge in energy and waste management and strategies and policy to reduce carbon emissions without compromising the development of the university.
Alicia says “I am really excited to work with people who are equally as interested in sustainability on campus and who want to make real change to the community. Seeing how the environmental theory I have learnt in university can be implemented in the real world is something I’m really looking forward to.”
Sustainability Committee members
- Rachel Mills, Provost (Chair)
- Jason Oliver, Chief Digital Transformation Officer
- Robert Hutton, Director of Estates, Facilities Management and Commercial Services
- Samantha Waugh, Sustainability Manager
- Richard Follet, DPVC International
- Sue Baxter, Director of Innovation and Business Partnerships
- Ian McKee, Assistant Director of Finance (Supply Chain and Systems)
- Joseph Alcamo, Director of the Sussex Sustainability and Research Partnership
- Tim Foxon, Professor of Sustainability Transitions (Science and Policy Research Unit)
- Joanne Paul, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History (Trade Union Representative)
- Connor Moylett, Student Living and Sustainability Officer (Students’ Union)
- Annie O’Connor, Sports, Societies and Events Officer (Students’ Union)
Sussex Students’ Union Sustainability
To find out about our Students’ Union and their sustainability work, visit their Sustainability page or contact Becca Finney at becca.f@sussexstudent.com.
You might also be interested in:
- Sussex courses in development, the environment and sustainability
- getting involved with sustainability at Sussex
- Sussex in the community.