Lacey-Jo Marsland
Bio
Lacey-Jo Marsland holds a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Leicester and has built a career in nuclear safety engineering, having undertaken roles in both civil and defence.
Currently, she serves as a Safety Engineer at AtkinsRéalis, following her role as an Assistant Safety Engineer in the same company. Prior to this, she completed a Safety Assessment Graduate Scheme. She also holds a NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety.
Lacey-Jo has also co-authored papers around Nuclear Power Generation and UK Energy Security and Implementing Autonomy in Nuclear Robotics.
In addition to her professional achievements, Lacey-Jo is dedicated to promoting STEM education. She volunteers as the Education, Attraction, and Outreach Lead for the Nuclear Institute and is a certified STEM Ambassador. Her passion for ED&I and inspiring the next generation has allowed her to gain experience as both a mentee and mentor while also taking part in a reverse mentoring scheme with Directors/Exec Leaders. Lacey has been elected as YGN Vice Chair 2025!
Lacey's Mentoring Background
"So I guess the reason I, I put myself forward is because I've been on both, well, all sides of the table when it comes to mentoring. I've been a mentee. I've mentored students. And then I've also done some reverse mentoring.
And I think there's a lot of value on any side of that relationship and whether it's reverse mentoring or for your standard mentoring from somebody more senior.
In terms of what makes a good mentor; for me, it's been really valuable to utilise mentoring connections and especially in this post COVID world, where a lot of things are virtual, and it is harder to network.
I was mentoring a university student who was looking for a year in industry placement in systems engineering and I happen to know a systems engineer who is involved in early careers recruitment. I introduced the two of them to help my mentee prepare for her interview and she ended up getting the placement which was great; the networking was key, because she's not studying systems engineering, but she was able to understand what the job involved and therefore that led to a successful interview.
People seek out mentoring for all kinds of different reasons; some people might have really clear goals of what they want to get out of being a mentee and others might be going because they need some guidance and direction. So I guess mentors should probably be flexible to that. But as long as mentees are pro-active and show ambition and drive, they’ll get something out of the relationship.”
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