We had a chance to interview Ellen Clark-King (NC 1982), who has recently become the first female Dean of King’s College London. We talked about her path so far, her passion for equality and her favourite memory of Newnham.
Hello Ellen, it’s lovely to chat with you. How are you?
Lovely to chat with you too! I’m well, and feeling especially good this week watching the change of leadership in the White House and seeing a woman of colour sworn in as Vice President.
You are the new Dean of King’s College London – and the first woman to hold this role. Congratulations! The spirit of the ‘first woman in the role’ is certainly one we love to celebrate in Newnham. But perhaps we should wind back a little, to your time between leaving Newnham and now? What led you to today?
That’s a pretty long time to cover! Immediately after Newnham I trained as a Vocations Advisor and found my own vocation to the priesthood through that work. I was ordained priest in Hereford Cathedral in 1994, part of the first cohort of women priests in the Church of England. In 1995 I went to Sidney Sussex College as their first female Chaplain, and then moved to Newcastle upon Tyne and completed a doctorate in Feminist Theology. I moved to Vancouver in 2005, wanting to serve in a part of the Anglican communion which welcomed the ministry of LGBTQ clergy and blessed marriages between same-sex couples. After 12 years working in the cathedral there, taking Canadian citizenship along the way, I moved to San Francisco where I was Vice Dean and Canon for Social Justice at Grace Cathedral for the last four years. Being Dean of King’s allows me to share in the leadership of an outstanding university which has service alongside research and education as its core mission, and also to bring some of the spirit of inclusivity I found in Canada and the US back to the Church of England.
It’s great to hear about your passion for inclusivity, and determination to bring it with you wherever you may be. We have been reflecting on this a lot at Newnham, as we launch our 150th anniversary celebrations and mark LGBTQ+ History Month in February. What motivations are most important to you and drive you in this work?
My core motivation is a theological one – the conviction that God created, loves, and indwells every human person and all creation, and that our calling is to treat each person with the honour, love and respect that this identity deserves. And that means making very practical choices for the well-being of others and the wider world – from working for full LGBTQ+ inclusion, to becoming anti-racist, to considering how you speak on social media, to making environmentally informed consumer decisions. There is a wonderful Jewish phrase ‘tikkun olam’ taught to me by a Jewish champion of social justice who was in her late 90’s when I worked with her in San Francisco; it means ‘to heal the world’ and my hope is to do my (extremely minor!) part in that.
Is there any advice you would have for any aspiring ‘first woman to…’?
Don’t let any feelings of imposter syndrome hold you back – we all have them. It can be hard for women to picture themselves in positions of power they have only seen occupied by men (though thankfully this field is shrinking) so it may take more imagination and courage to go for them. Don’t feel that you have to do the job the way it has always been done: be confident in the strengths you bring and don’t try to shrink yourself to fit into some outdated or patriarchal model of leadership. I have also found it invaluable to have a strong cohort of women friends who cheer on one another’s successes and have each other’s backs.
Welfare and pastoral provision in Higher Education during such a complex and unpredictable time certainly must be challenging. What do you do to relax and stay grounded?
This has certainly been an especially tough time for students, deprived of many of the basic experiences that usually make time at university so fulfilling, and I see it as part of my work as Dean to find ways to uphold their wellbeing. In order to uphold my own I’m currently enjoying long walks reacquainting myself with London and finding some of the more hidden beauties of the city. I zoom with friends both sides of the Atlantic and hang out with my husband watching a variety of excellent and trashy TV. I pray each day, read each day, and join a worshiping community at least once a week.
Finally, we always like to ask anyone we interview to share either a memory of Newnham, or a recollection of their favourite place in Newnham. Does anything spring to mind for you?
I remember sitting in a room in Sidgwick in the first few days of my first term having one of those conversations late into the evening when you have found a new friend who laughs at the same things, cares about the same issues, and argues with you about who was in the right in the English Civil War.