Jenny Lyons
CEO of SSEF
Jenny Lyons has been with SSEF for more than a decade, evolving from a volunteer organiser into Director of Education and, latterly, CEO with a team of staff. Jenny is an expert in the delivery of secondary school science education, having worked as part of a ‘flying squad’, sent to science departments to assist in raising standards. It was whilst working as a science teacher that Jenny brought a team of students to an SSEF event: the impact was so immediate, obvious and powerful that she became a Volunteer, assisting at competitions.
As a Volunteer, Jenny became known for her skill in liaising with the trustees, the SSEF’s founder, the other volunteers, the sponsors, the UK Space Agency, diverse schools and regional universities. Enthused by the SSEF mission, she utilised her expertise, managing the educational and organisational change which has been fundamental to the expansion of SSEF’s work around the UK, EU and Africa, and in building a staff team whilst maintaining the ethos of a volunteer-strong charity. After a decade of events for school students, Jenny still takes a teacher’s delight in interacting with the students and in seeing the transformational impact of SSEF activities upon those young people.
Initially recognised and recruited by SSEF Founder, Randall Perry, Jenny maintains and promotes the founder’s original vision of a high impact, widely accessible industry simulation which provides an experience beyond any typical ‘school project’. With the staff team,volunteers, trustees and founder, Jenny has helped SSEF expand its efforts around the UK, into the EU and, recently, into Africa, whilst expanding across age groups, across disciplines and whilst handling the need to find income to fund the expansions.
Beyond this, and because of this, Jenny is a champion for the power of SSEF as a volunteer-rich organisation, and finds joy in working with the large, diverse pool of talented volunteers and competition veterans who are so much a part of the SSEF’s world.
