My career story: Donna Clarke
Job title and department or organisation
Donna is a Principal Geospatial Analyst at the UK Health Security Agency (UKSA). Her role matches the role of Geographic Analyst on the Analysis Function Career Framework.
Grade
Donna works at Grade 7 level.
Profession and entry route
Donna is a member of the Government Geography Profession and Government Social Research (GSR) profession.
She entered the Civil Service at Senior Executive Officer (SEO) grade as part of a departmental recruitment round.
Donna’s career path
I got my master’s degree and PhD in Australia. My master’s and PhD were in Conservation Ecology, so I am a trained Ecologist. My PhD was in modelling the effects of powerline corridor management on small mammal communities in Victoria, Australia, to produce a vegetation management plan for industry partners. I produced a management plan, which is still used in Australia today. I did some work during my PhD as an Ecological Consultant for an energy company, as well as lecturing at Deakin University.
I moved to the UK in 2004 and started working at the University of Southampton on Environmental Biology. After a year, I got a research and teaching fellowship in Biological Sciences, looking at climate change and bioenergy crops. After this I did a post-doctorate in Ecology looking at different bio-energies and their effect on our ecosystem.
I moved to the private sector in ecological consulting and worked on the London Gateway Project, which looked at building bigger docks to allow larger boats into London. I did a similar role to when I was in Australia and worked to relocate species like Newts and Snakes to support the building of these docks.
I then took on another ecological consulting role at the University of Southampton which involved working on the Valley Gardens and making sure habitats were preserved whilst they set up a new landscape for these gardens. After this, I returned to the University of Southampton as a Research Fellow to work in Landscape Ecology.
I decided to take a career break to have a family, and then returned to my career at the University of Southampton, but changed paths to work in a geography role. This was a new type of work for me, but I was able to transition by building on my past experience of ecological models. I worked for WorldPop within the University, and I was tasked to develop a model for how to predict national population without Census data. It was a big career change after my career break, but I learnt that the ecological models I had used in the past worked well on people data too. From this work, we were able to develop a much larger programme which was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates. During my time with WorldPop, I worked in Mozambique with the Statistics Agency for their COVID-19 response.
I first joined the Civil Service in September 2020, working as a Senior Spatial Researcher at Senior Executive Officer (SEO) grade at the Office for National Statistics (ONS). I was tasked with updating the statistical geographies for the 2021 Census. I changed how we worked with this data by moving to a largely automated process. My team and I built a reproducible analytical pipeline (RAP) which automatically updated the statistical geographies for the census, and we won a Geography in Government award for this work. I also become a Chartered Geographer due to the years of experience I had within the geography field. I then moved laterally to a role in Population Statistics at ONS, working on reconciliation of mid-year population estimates. While I was in this role I also became badged to the Government Social Research (GSR) profession.
I then moved to my current role working as a Principal Geospatial Analyst in the Geospatial Team at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). This was a promotion to Grade 7. There is a lot of variety in my role. I am setting up the Geospatial Analytics, Research and Insights Unit (GARI), leading on some really influential research. I spend a lot of time talking to people about spatial data, looking at research questions, and advising on how we can provide support with geospatial modelling and data sets. I make sure to keep my Continuous Professional Development (CPD) log updated each year to maintain my Chartered Geography status.
Because I work in spatial analytics I am not a traditional geography analyst. I want people to see that it is not just about making maps, you can do so much more with geography and have an exciting career.
The flowchart shows Donna’s career progression from achieving a master’s degree into her current role as Principal Geospatial Analyst. It shows the step-by-step journey Donna has taken to achieve her current grade and experience. Enlarge the flowchart.
I am working on so many different things, including the effects of Avian influenza, how we can use satellite imagery to better inform health inclusion to help vulnerable populations, and looking at climate change and its effects on public health in the future. There is a lot of variety in my role, which I love.
I find this difficult as I just want to love what I’m doing and do interesting work. I am not too worried about promotion. I would like to develop my technical skills and people skills to support stakeholder engagement, so I will look for opportunities to carry on developing in those areas.
I am proud of the work my team and I at ONS did to produce the Reproducible analytical pipelines (RAP) for the statistical geographies on the 2021 Census. This massively reduced the timeframe it took to complete the analysis.
I’m proud of the technical achievement, but also the way the team pulled together and the success of working across teams to develop the RAP. Both the Geography Operations Team and the Geography Data Products Team worked together and supported each other. We were all in it together to get the work done, despite battling ever decreasing timelines due to delays in the project. We even managed to complete the work a day earlier than planned!
It took me a while to adjust after moving from academia to the Civil Service. The pace and culture are just so different. Academia is about grants, papers and outputs and the Civil Service is much different, but the working relationships here are fantastic. Everyone is super helpful and willing to work together on projects, which is great.
Donna’s advice
Do what you love. I have moved around a lot with my career because I have always followed what I love doing. If you are doing something you don’t like you won’t enjoy going to work and you won’t get any satisfaction out of doing it.
This career story was published on Tuesday 1 August 2023.