Dr Claudine Provencher

Dr Claudine Provencher

Head, LSE LIFE & Director, Student Learning and Personal Development

Academic and Professional Development

Telephone
020 7852 3715
Connect with me

Languages
English, French
Key Expertise
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About me

I was born in Montreal (Canada) and moved to London more than 30 years ago, after a BA in Economics and an MBA, both at McGill University.

I started my UK career in market research – this ranged from exploring the market for plumbing products in France, Belgium and the Netherlands to interviewing FTSE100 CEOs for the Economist! I then joined Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) where I stayed for nearly 10 years. My roles included setting up their network of East European offices after the fall of the Berlin Wall and working on the global strategy for the Audit practice after the merger with Price Waterhouse. I also ran various corporate communications and change management projects and this encouraged me to consider a return to university in order to deepen my knowledge of these areas.

The rest is history: I first completed an MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology here at the LSE and enjoyed it so much that I decided to stick around for a PhD! My thesis was about how people make complex decisions in the absence of reliable information – in that case the MMR vaccine controversy.

Following my PhD, I lectured in the Department of Social Psychology (now Psychological and Behavioural Science) for three years as a Teaching Fellow and then turned to helping academic colleagues teach better working as an academic developer for the Teaching and Learning Centre for the next five years. During that stint, I became convinced that LSE students didn’t make the most of all the opportunities that the School offers them and that something needed to be done about it. This is what LSE LIFE, the School's centre for academic, personal and professional development, is all about.

After 25 years at the LSE, I feel really privileged to be the Head of LSE LIFE. I am passionate about the wellbeing of our students and do everything I can to make sure they have a great time while they are at LSE. I am especially keen to ensure that students feel entitled to have their own point of view on things, to ask questions and that they don’t take anything for granted. I am also really clear about what the LSE represents: a place where students and academics from all over the planet meet, learn, do research, propose ideas for change, so that our world can become a better place.

I look forward to welcoming you in LSE LIFE.