Helen has worked in higher education for almost forty years. She is currently Professor of Higher Education, Learning and Management in Aston Business School and interim Head of the Mathematics in the College of Engineering.

Helen serves on a number of boards, including the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals; the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and Navitas UK Holdings Ltd. Helen was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to Higher Education, and in 2020 was appointed Vice Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands.

Helen spent the first 25 years of her life living at Winchester College. Her father, Kenneth Kettle, was a don and Housemaster of Toye’s, and her husband Richard taught Mathematics here in the 1980s. She studied English Literature at Newnham College and her PhD was awarded by Birkbeck College, London.