Respect CEO receives Honorary Degree from Essex

Essex alumna Jo Todd has received an Honorary Degree at Summer Graduation 2024 to recognise her outstanding work as CEO of Respect to support victims of domestic abuse.

For more than 30 years, Jo Todd has been at the forefront of tackling domestic abuse and how to deal with the perpetrators.

Professor Nigel South, who gave the oration for Jo, said: “We can proudly claim that Jo exemplifies everything that we value here at Essex.

“We believe in social justice, and championing those who need to be heard. Jo has been doing this every day since she graduated.

“Throughout her career, Jo has put survivors of domestic abuse at the heart of what she does. She believes the only way to end domestic abuse is to hold perpetrators to account.

“We could not be prouder of how much she has achieved in helping to develop good practice -- and encourage government and services to improve their responses.”

Jo started her career in a variety of frontline roles - as a Refuge worker, running women’s groups, and supporting survivors whose partners were attending Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programmes.

This grounding has been crucial to her work as founder and Chief Executive of Respect for over 20 years -- playing an important national role in promoting and protecting the safety, wellbeing and freedom of survivors.

In 2022, she was made a CBE for her work, an honour she was proud to receive on behalf of Respect.

Jo said: "Essex was an important part of my journey as a young woman and I'm thrilled that it is part of my story now, more than 30 years later. My time at Essex set me on the path I'm now on - it was a combination of my academic studies (a Masters degree in the Sociology of Gender), involvement with the women's group (organising Reclaim the Night marches) and volunteering with Nightline (putting things into practice) which helped me to develop my thinking, activism and future career path. So I feel really delighted and proud to be awarded such a fabulous honour from such a great university that means so much to me."

Many people have welcomed the awarding of the Honorary Degree by Essex.

Nicole Jacobs, the national Domestic Abuse Commissioner said: “I have known Jo Todd for many years and I can distinctly remembering visiting her in a busy office in Hammersmith, … she was pioneering early work in behavioural change programmes … and has been a visionary from the start of her career …. always the most thoughtful in the room.

“She is kind and respectful and sees through all of the petty conflicts and frustrations that often abound when people are working passionately for changes that can never be quick enough.”

Teresa Parker, from Women’s Aid, said: “During the last two decades I have worked with Jo in the violence against women sector, and she is literally the bedrock of how we approach work with perpetrators. … Jo is someone who always has words of wisdom, but also words of kindness and celebration for others – and today I am so pleased that Jo is being recognised and celebrated….”

Professor Nicole Westmarland, Director of the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse, at Durham University: “Being a leader in the specialist violence and abuse sector is a tough gig. But being a woman leader working, first, directly with men who have used violence and abuse against women, and later, indirectly supporting and enabling this sector to flourish, -- brings particular challenges and a particular kind of woman – and Jo is exactly that sort of woman.”