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Experience/CV :

Hilary Burrage is a sociologist, consultant, teacher and author with wide experience in regeneration, the knowledge economy, sustainable communities and the delivery of social policy.    Previously a college Senior Lecturer, Hilary has long experience as a board director, researcher, writer and lecturer / speaker.   She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a full Member of the Institute of Health Promotion and Education.

Hilary has published two books on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM):

15.07.14 FGM Book1 jacket jpegEradicating Female Genital Mutilation: A UK Perspective (Ashgate/Routledge, 2015) –  a book about pathways to eradicating FGM in the UK & globally – detailed handbook-textbook which covers global and historic/political issues from a socio-economic as well as educational, legal and medical aspects. There is an accompanying website and Twitter account.  [from the publisher; or from Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com (inc. e-format) and high street booksellers]

16.01.22 Female Mutilation book pic (3)Female Mutilation: The truth behind the horrifying global practice of female genital mutilation (New Holland Publishers, 2016) – 70+ ‘narratives’ from survivors, family and community members, activists and professionals in two dozen countries, five continents, also with accompanying website and Twitter handle.  [on Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com, or from high street booksellers]

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Hilary has also published book chapters, academic papers, articles and blog posts in a wide range of professional and other media settings. A community activist with regional and national experience of business, culture, health, environmental issues and regeneration, Hilary has worked in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, in many contexts from Liverpool via London and Oxford in the UK, to Washington DC and Prague.

Hilary Burrage, BSc(Soc)(Hons), MSc, PGCE, MIHPE, FRSA

Academic qualifications

BSc(Soc)(Hons): London University,

PGCE: Liverpool University,

MSc: Salford University,

+ doctoral research (and Research Ass0ciate) re teenage pregnancy, Liverpool University.

My Master’s degree included the first UK research re Women University Teachers of Science.

National and regional appointments and positions:

  • For 3 years (2006-9) I held a Ministerial Appointment as a Member of the DEFRA Science Advisory Council.
  • I am a full Member of the Institute of Health Promotion and Education (MIHPE).
  • I have been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) for many years.
  • I was a Board member of BURA, the British Urban Regeneration Association (with responsibility for Equal Opportunities) from 2006 to 2010.
  • I was a Lay Partner and Visitor (2003-6) adjudicating fitness to practice for the Health Professions Council.
  • I was Vice-Chair of the NW Regional Sustainability Group (2007 – 2010), which advised the Regional Development Board and Assembly.

Current employment / work:

  • I have published two books on Female Genital Mutilation*, as well as several chapters in other books on FGM, Child Marriage, Health Education, Sociology of Science etc . My publishers include Routledge/Taylor and Francis (soon to be for a third time), Collins Educational  and Cambridge University Press.

*Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation: A UK Perspective   &

*Female Mutilation: The truth behind the horrifying global practice of female genital mutilation

  • For the past dozen years I have had my own website  www.hilaryburrage.com on which I ‘open publish’ my papers and posts.  I also own some Twitter accounts mostly related to my work.

Previous employment

  • Having trained as a Junior / Middle school teacher, I worked for many years as a lecturer in a college of FE, including as a Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care.  I have also taught at Liverpool University, the Open University and for the Homes and Communities Agency.
  • I devised the first ‘Access to HE’ course in Liverpool and was a GCSE and A-level examiner.
  • I had to retire from full-time work around 1995 because of serious physical ill-health, but I continue to conduct research, write about my investigations, and initiate work in the field of violence against children and other vulnerable people.
  • I was a Non-Exec Director of an NHS Ambulance Trust (2003 – 6), with responsibility for Human Resources and for Children and Vulnerable Adults.
  • Amongst my other professional free-lance consultancy assignments have been extended evaluations of various Sure Start and Young People’s programmes in disadvantaged areas of NW England.

Other relevant interests and experience

  • In my ‘gap’ year pre-HE I was an American Field Service Scholar, and I graduated in 1966 from North Phoenix High School, Arizona.
  • In the 1980s the Conservatives with Sir Keith Joseph as Education Secretary, were against encouraging Health – and particularly ‘Sex’ – Education etc in schools. (See eg the Gillick case and subsequent judgements.)  As a Sociologist I was at that time National Secretary of the Association of Teachers of the Social Sciences (ATSS; later amalgamated with the British Sociological Association).

I founded and led FACTASS, the Forum of Academic and Teaching Associations (Economics, Geography, History, Politics, Psychology, Sociology and so on) to make the case, which in fact we eventually won, for a wider PSHRE curriculum.

I was also for three years around that time Commissioning Editor of the journal Social Science Teacher.

My determination to promote PSHRE continues to this day – hence my invitation to Membership of the Institute of Public Health and Education.

  • I was from 1994 until 2011 Chair (and founder) of HOPES: The Hope Street Association, via which as community activists we campaigned for and secured a multi-million pound regeneration programme for an inner-city area of Liverpool (then my home town), bringing together academic, arts, professional business, faith and other local communities (some of which have traditionally been largely excluded).

HOPES was chosen as the award-winning organisation to present to the Millennium Commissioners at the end of the Millennium year.

  • From 1992 to 1998 I was an elected Director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society..
  • I was also the first Chair of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce Arts and Culture Committee.

In 1998 the BBC asked me with HOPES to provide the (pro bono) administrative support for the 50 years Windrush Celebrations in Liverpool, a major port of arrival.

  • In 2010 I founded (with my husband, a professional orchestral violinist) and have subsequently led the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation, which promotes the music of this Black British classical composer..
  • I was Chair of Riverside Constituency Labour Party in Liverpool, and three times Hon Agent for (Dame) Louise Ellman, then the MP.

I have been a member of the Labour Party since 1980 and have held many honorary posts, including Chair of Liverpool Riverside Constituency Labour Party and Hon. Secretary of the (then) Merseyside European Constituency Labour Party..

  • More recently, I was Hon. Chair of the Right to Manage Board of a London apartments block.

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Summary professional profile
WRITER & RESEARCHER
* professional & academic journalist
* online commentator
* author of consultancy (observation based recommendation) reports
* social & political analysis

COMPANY DIRECTOR
* formally trained executive/non-executive director of companies & organisations (as below)

MENTOR & COACH
* tutor of adults in professional roles
* provider of advice to individuals & organisations

NETWORKER
* extensive range of formal & informal communities & networks
* can join the dots….

QUALIFICATIONS &c
* BSc(Soc)(Hons)   MSc   PGCE   MIHPE   FRSA

EXPERTISE
* regeneration
* sustainability (socio-economic/environment)
* diversity equality inclusion
* knowledge economy / knowledge ecology

DIRECTORSHIPS I have held:
* Hilary Burrage Ltd: Owner (limited company)
* Samuel Coleridge Taylor Foundation: Executive Chair (community interest company)
* HOPES: The Hope Street Association: Executive Chair (charity)
* Merseyside NHS Ambulance Trust: Non-Executive Director (public sector)
* British Urban Regeneration Association: Non-Executive Director (charity)
* Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine: Trustee (charity)
* Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society: Non-Executive Director (charity)

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Read a more personal account of Hilary’s career here: 1968 And All That: The Tale Of a Jobbing Sociologist.