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Women in Leadership - Ellie Dommett
Name: Ellie Dommett
Role: Professor of Neuroscience and Deputy Director of the BSc Psychology Programme
Company: King’s College London
Please tell us a little bit about yourself: I was brought up in Orpington and went to university in Sheffield to study Psychology after I completed my A-levels (Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics). When I was doing my degree, I realised that my main area of interest was the biology of how the brain works rather than the other areas of psychology so when I graduated I moved to London to study an MSc in Neuroscience at King's College London. From there I returned to Sheffield University to complete my PhD and a teaching qualification. After that, I held a research position at Oxford University and later a lectureship at one of the Oxford Colleges. I then moved to the Open University as a Lecturer before joining King's College London as a Senior Lecturer in 2015. I was promoted to Reader in 2019 and became a Professor in 2023. I lead a research group investigating ADHD and other forms of neurodiversity as well as work looking at the effects of digital education and studying online.
Why did you decide to go into your chosen field?
I initially wanted to be a Forensic Psychologist, working with police to profile criminals. However, once I started studying psychology, I realised that I enjoyed the biological side and then set on a path to become a neuroscientist. I worked out what I wanted to do quite early on when I was about 20 years old so then just set about getting the qualifications and experience to do the job!
What qualifications and work experience did you need to reach your current position? I have qualifications within Psychology and Neuroscience:
- BSc Psychology
- MSc Neuroscience
- PhD Neuroscience
Because a large part of role is teaching, I also have teaching qualifications:
- Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education
- MA in Online and Distance Education
What do you enjoy most about your job/role? I love the creative part of doing research, working out what questions to ask and then designing experiments to test my ideas. I am also passionate about teaching neuroscience and enjoy designing courses and delivering them. I am fortunate to work as part of a great team who all support each other too so that is a big bonus.
Are there any obstacles you had to overcome in your career? I changed from psychology to neuroscience between my degree and masters and that was very hard. It felt like starting again and some parts of my masters were very difficult for me. In general working in universities is great but there is a lot of pressure to publish research papers and that can make it hard to have much of a life outside of work. It does get easier to balance things over time though.
Why do you think it is important to have strong female representation in your industry? I work in Higher Education and universities have at least 50% females overall in their student bodies, and some disciplines have a higher proportion, including psychology. It is important for me that those students see females in leadership role and other senior positions.
What advice would you give to those wanting to take a similar career path? I would say work hard and stay focused but be prepared to be agile and change direction if you need to. There are some great opportunities that will pop up and you need to be flexible enough to take them.
