Your Nottingham Alumni Awards: Five minutes with Lauren and Yakubu

Lauren Leyva 

Lauren is a multi-award-winning campaigner, creator, business owner, and home cook, with a mission to inspire eating well and conscious living. 

The judges selected Lauren for embodying the value of openness for her zeal in tackling food poverty both locally and globally.

"Receiving the award is a huge accomplishment for me. It feels like a real full circle moment. I came to the university for so many years, and after embarking on a very different career to what I actually came here to study, to feel that is recognised and celebrated is humbling.

"The values I resonate most with are ambition and openness. My trust in my own ambition has got me to achieve the things I'm really proud of today. Then openness, being open to opportunities, open to trying new things, open to getting out of my comfort zone."

"There's two highlights from my career to date that I'm most proud of. One is personal – throughout creating all the food content, the healthy eating campaigns and encouraging people to learn to cook, the messages that I get from people who have suffered eating disorders and have messaged me saying that encouraging them just to try one recipe or have a new perspective on food has helped them in their recovery journey. To hear that from someone who's actually taken the time to message me is amazing.

"Then the other side is just the opportunities I've been able to take and the rooms I've been able to enter, and I absolutely never thought that would happen. That was all inspired from the confidence instilled during my time at university to try new things. 

"The next step in my career is to strive to deliver passion projects that I've been planning. One of my missions is, as well as being recognised as a trusted home cook, to inspire the younger generation to cook, from as young as four or five when you start to get involved in the kitchen. I've worked with the King's Trust to help young people learn independent skills such as cooking and I want to take that further."

Follow Lauren on Instagram and discover her recipes >

Dr Yakubu Salifu

Yakubu is a dedicated advocate and researcher committed to improving access to compassionate care in Ghana and beyond. As the co-founder of COMPASS-Ghana, a charity developed from his PhD, he has played a pivotal role in integrating palliative care into healthcare systems, ensuring holistic and dignified support for patients.

The judges selected Yakubu for embodying the value of fairness for his pivotal role advocating for improved integration of palliative care. 

"The Your Nottingham Alumni Award is really a humbling award for me personally and for my academic work here at Nottingham. I'm really honoured by the award and it's also a testament to the attributes of the university; the attributes of inclusivity, respect, fairness and also openness. So I'm really, really pleased to be selected for this award.

"I believe that the attributes of the university really align with my own personal aspirations as well. I particularly align with the attributes of fairness and ambition. Fairness in the sense that I believe palliative care should be accessible for everybody regardless of their background. It should be a human right. People need to be treated with dignity at the end of life."

"To be back at Nottingham really feels like coming back home. There's those kind of nostalgic moments and seeing familiar places, bringing back memories of studying here at Nottingham. My time in Nottingham was really a very enjoyable one. Of course, a PhD can be ups and downs, a rollercoaster experience, but I enjoyed the experience as an international student, particularly with the help of my supervisors.

"During my PhD I had an opportunity to present at conferences both within the UK, and internationally, helping develop attributes like public speaking and critical skills and that I rely on even today. So I think that Nottingham gave me that foundation towards my career.

"I've also seen a connection between what Nottingham teaches and what is needed within the society. As an academic, I believe that there always needs to be a link between research and practice. So what I see at Nottingham is that the curriculum carries the attributes and the aspiration of the society. So once you pass through Nottingham and you graduate, then you are already prepared for the job market." 

Connect with Yakubu on LinkedIn >