Talking Saint: Ruth Sanderson
Ruth Sanderson, Senior Communications Manager
Communications, Marketing, and Public Affairs
What does your role involve and how long have you been at the University?
I’m a Senior Communications Manager working in the Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs Unit. I started a little under a year ago and primarily I connect with academics right across the University, and in as far as possible get their research into the wider media and in front of new audiences. We have brilliant research going on here and the public are hungry to hear about it!
What brought you to St Andrews?
Like many of us I came as the tagalong spouse to a partner who came to work here! As it happens though, I am also an alum and graduated in 2005, in fact, I have older brothers who were students here too, so really its a place I’ve known since I was 7 years old. After graduating, I worked as a journalist and producer for the BBC for 20 years until I went to join the mega babes in the Comms team!
It’s so nice to be back, but it took me a whole year to stop waving at undergraduates, thinking I knew them.
Where is your favourite St Andrews hotspot?
St Andrews Botanic Garden! Amazing ecology, great coffee and a fantastic place to have my two tiny daughters run feral in.
What three things would you take to a desert island?
Suncream, a wind up radio and a nice cold Chablis.
Do you have a favourite book, movie, TV show or podcast you’d recommend to others?
I LOVE reading, and The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry is one of my favourites, I still think about it 7 years after I read it…
What would you do if you won the Euromillions?
I know this is sad, but I would actually still come to work! I’d like to think I’d give a lot of it away to good causes (let me polish my halo). I would however, also take my great big Irish family on an all expenses paid holiday, somewhere fancy shmancy. Also, I might buy a chateau, perhaps a vineyard, maybe a boat… some diamonds… a horse…
Tell us something what might surprise us about you…
When I was a student, I worked in Costa on Market Street and once sold the most hot chocolates in the UK on a Saturday shift. Things don’t get much headier than that.
If you could give any advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Don’t worry about what other people think of you, doing the right thing is better than being liked. Lean into the people who love you and perhaps just do some reading before tutorials!
Do you have a mentor, or someone who inspires you in your career?
Someone who has inspired my working life as a Radio 4 producer is Di Spiers, a former Head of BBC Books and St Andrews alum. We hit it off when we discovered our shared uni link. She took so much time mentoring me when she was at the top of her profession and there were plenty of other things she could have been doing. Di taught me what it is to make programmes which illuminate complex topics and how to make intellectual concepts accessible to almost anyone, she retired last year but left an amazing legacy in arts broadcasting.
What is one thing that you’re really passionate about in your job?
I have to say it’s the academics! They all have brilliant research and stories of course, but it’s the passion which is poured in to their work which really gets me. I love sitting with someone in their office as they explain their area of expertise to me. It’s amazing to see people light up when they talk about what they love and explain why it’s important, it’s very infectious and that’s what we try to get across to a wider audience.
If you’d like to be featured as a Talking Saint, we’d love to hear from you. Your profile will be shared in In The Loop, on the Staff News page, and the University’s LinkedIn page. Email [email protected]
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