About Jane Cordell
Jane has had a varied career as a musician, teacher, editor, diplomat, coach and social entrepreneur. Deaf since her early 20s, she has actively promoted disability equality and supported people to achieve their full potential.
Education
Jane went from her local comprehensive school to St John's College, Cambridge. She was in the third year of women undergraduates at her college. Jane also has a Masters degree in Education from the Open University.She speaks Polish, French and and can use British Sign Language (BSL).
Work
Jane was a teacher for 10 years, working in Finland, Poland (running her own school) and then London, at the College of North West London. She then trained and worked as an editor at Cambridge University Press and at the University of London's External degree programme before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
Jane was the very first deaf woman to work at middle management level in the UK’s diplomatic service. She used her experience to positively influence disability rights in her department, the Civil Service and in Poland, where she was posted. Unfortunately, a discriminatory career decision meant she had to change direction.
Photo by Brett Wharton on Unsplash
Board and leadership roles
Jane worked on secondment for 1 year at Action on Hearing Loss in Manchester as Head of the Access, Training and Consultancy team in their Social Enterprise directorate. She then chose to set up Getting Equal. She was invited to apply to become Chair of DaDaFest (Deaf and Disability Arts), a role she held for 4 years. She has also been a trustee for Disability Rights UK and Manchester Deaf Centre. From 2014–15 she had a part-time role as Executive Chair of Unlimited Potential, a Salford-based social enterprise. She is an Ambassador for the WEA (Workers Educational Association).
In 2013 Jane worked with Hormoz Ahmadzadeh from Result CIC on a training project for Breakthrough UK. She was then invited to join Result CIC as a Director, a role in which she is continuing.
Jane was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 2016.
In December 2017 Jane was elected as a Board member for the Arts Marketing Association.
In July 2018 Jane was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University.
Music
Jane learnt viola at school. She played in Stockport Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra and an international youth orchestra, the World Orchestra. She also worked briefly as a professional in a chamber orchestra in Finland. Jane continues to play viola in a local amateur orchestra the Ramsbottom Choral Society and Orchestra and since 2015 has been regularly playing the piano again.
