School of Politics and International Relations Alumni, Grace Couch received the “Rising Star” award in the Municipal Journal Achievement Awards 2022. Here she tells us more about having her work recognised.
I was quite overwhelmed – I had found the whole process very strange as I had been nominated by lots of lovely people that I work with both at SBC, in the community and from UKC, so I really didn’t want to let anyone down.
I feel like I have created a reputation for myself having won a national award so early in my career, and I’m now going to struggle to live up to it! I’m trying to use it to remind myself that I am good at what I do when the imposter syndrome kicks in.
The main thing, however, is that I really do feel like I’m just ‘doing my job’. I have ‘emergency’ in my job title, so I treat everything I do with the urgency that it deserves. Although climate change doesn’t stop at Swale’s borders, I am trying to do as much as possible within the means that I have to reduce our impact on the planet and make it a better, cleaner, greener place for people to live.
The MJ Local Government Achievement Awards 2022 had to say about Grace
“From securing external funding for new initiatives, leading awareness events and organising partner steering groups, she has made an enormous contribution to the councils climate change agenda. Grace is a local government rising star of the future and will truly go far. ”
Find out more about Grace’s role as Climate and Ecological Emergency Project Officer and the Achievement Awards