The fourth panellist we’re featuring for Careers In… is Lakechia Jeanne. Lakechia is a Biomedical Scientist and founder of Girls in Science . She’ll be on our panel for careers in Social Mission tonight!

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My career journey at this point in time is a little short. I graduated from York just over a year ago, and it has been around 1 ½ years since I started working post University. I’ve loved the path so far, but it was definitely not what I had expected it to look like. I studied biomedical sciences for 3 years at Hull University, they were just building the brand new medical school and I was hoping to go into the medical field of front line care and research; however, during my degree, I attended a lecture on global health within the context of immunology, and something switched. I realised that looking at the bigger picture of how health impacts communities and society was a little more attuned to my own personal goals.

 I changed paths and studied my Masters in Public Health, then became interested in policy and the role of the government in connecting all departments in an effort to shape local communities. While studying I applied for the local government graduate programme and chose to go to Milton Keynes which is where I have been for the past year. My job is amazing. Although I used to have bouts of imposter-syndrome, now I’ve become more accustomed to board meetings, contributing in strategy formation, assessing risk management, engaging with politicians, managing budgets, integrating community groups, and working with a variety of departments from Clinical Commissioning Groups, to Environment Teams, and leading on Educational Schemes which is a great benefit that the graduate programme offers.  – That’s my day job.

However pretty much 80% of my time outside of work is spent on building and spreading the message of Girls in Science, I head up a team of 12 individuals from various parts of the world – all of whom are passionate about getting girls into science-based fields, and more broadly empowering females to pursue educational choices from a place of knowledge and not fear. This job requires a lot of networking, communication with schools and companies, writing (specifically for the blog), managing our editors and digital media leads, being on committees and planning events , and lots of keynotes and public speaking opportunities.

I’m motivated by my family more than anything. They’ve always pushed me to be my best. And I firmly believe that God gives everyone a set of talents and skills with a limited amount of time, I’d like to be as resourceful to others as possible. I’d suggest that to break into whichever field you’re looking to get into; Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, meet new people and be open to opportunity.

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Meet our panellists

Helen Barton, Commissioning Editor
Nigel Poulton, CEO, The Island
Meg Roberts, Creative Director, Schwa Consulting
Karen Munro, Principal Medical Writer