Theresa Peltier DL
PROFESSOR KATHRYN MITCHELL CBE DL: Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant, High Sheriff, Honoured guests, Graduands of 2024, and all our guests here today. It is with the greatest of pleasure that I am presenting today Theresa Peltier DL for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University of Derby. Can we just have a huge round of applause for just that award.
Theresa is very familiar with the format of our graduation ceremonies, having sat on this stage many times before in her role as High Sheriff of Derbyshire. However, it is her outstanding commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion over the course of her whole career that is being recognised here today.
Theresa grew up locally in Ashbourne before settling in Wirksworth. She was adopted at three months into an interracial adoption and experienced a challenging childhood growing up as a black child in the early 60s. She left school at 16 without taking her exams, and her first job was a chicken plucker.
She joined Nottinghamshire Police in 1992 as an Evidence Review Officer, gained a management degree from Nottingham Trent University in 1997 and moved to Derbyshire Police in 1998. She enjoyed a highly successful 27 year career in the police force in equality and diversity roles, retiring as Head of Equality for Derbyshire Police in 2019.
Theresa has always held a strong commitment to equality, to fairness and social justice. She immersed herself in the police force's staff support networks, holding various committee positions where she was able to influence change for the benefit of officers and staff. Her roles, including Chair of the Derbyshire Black Police Association and Vice President of the National Black Police Association, enabled her to work with the Home Office, National Police Chief's Council, Equality and Human Rights Commission, the College of Policing and national staff associations.
She received numerous prestigious awards during her career, including the national Police Staff of the Year Award from the British Association of Women in Policing, and Police Staff of the Year and lifetime achievement awards from the National and Derbyshire Black Police Associations.
She has also spent many years as a victim support volunteer, trained as a mediator and life coach, and in 2007 introduced a youth leadership and mentoring programme, working with the Derbyshire Probation Service and Connexions.
Since 2008, Theresa has sat on an adoption panel and is now one of the Vice-Chairs on the Adoption East Midlands Panel, supporting others through her lived experience. She also joined Derby City Fostering Panel in 2017, later becoming a Vice-Chair for Foster for East Midlands Panels.
Theresa was installed as High Sheriff of Derbyshire in April 2023, in her home town of Wirksworth, becoming the county's first black High Sheriff. During her year in office, she focused on adoption and fostering, deaf awareness, celebrating the 75th Windrush anniversary, and women in prison.
Theresa's passion, her compassion, her courage, her energy and her talents are felt throughout the county. She has been described as a local 'superwoman' and she lives up to it.
Theresa recently supported the University's Annual Inclusion Conference, delivering a keynote speech on cultural intelligence and working alongside minority groups.
Joining Theresa today to celebrate her much deserved award are her partner, George, her daughter, Natalie, and son-in-law, Christopher.
Chancellor, in recognition of Theresa's outstanding commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, we are delighted to award Theresa Peltier the honorary degree of Doctor of the University.
THERESA PELTIER DL: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Provost, Lord Lieutenant, High Sheriff, Honoured guests, Graduands of 2024, and all our guests here today. It is an absolute pleasure and honour to stand before you, and I am delighted to be in this most privileged position. It is what dreams are made of, and I never dared to dream such an honour would be bestowed upon me. Thank you to all of you who have made that happen.
So, picture the scene. It's 1961. Harold Macmillan is Prime Minister and the Conservatives are in power. Elvis Presley is number one in the pop charts. The contraceptive pill has been introduced. There are race riots in Middlesbrough and Sierra Leone has gained independence from the UK. Pele is the best footballer in the world. Children are eating gobstoppers aniseed balls, playing with Tonka toys, French elastic and doing hopscotch. And Barack Hussein Obama is born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and I am born in Kirby Moxley, Leicestershire.
I was raised in the market town of Ashbourne, Derbyshire, one of four children in care who were internationally adopted at a few weeks old. My adoption experience wasn't a positive one against a backdrop of racism and other problems. I left home and school aged 16 to forge my way in the world, moving to the bright lights of Derby as I saw it.
I discovered nightclubs, discotheques, chicken in a basket, and those of a certain vintage will know what I'm talking about. And my enduring love of dancing.
Taking my school exams wasn't an option. I was a chicken plucker when I left school because I'd been told that's what I had to do. But then I moved to Derby, got a bedsit and secured a job in a nursing home.
My own little home, and a job, I felt I'd made it. Because at that stage, I never dared to dream and entertain the possibility that I was worthy of more than a dingy bedsit to call home. Or that life offered something more.
You see, that's what happens when you have a poor sense of self, feel less than and no one to nurture you, guide you, and love you unconditionally. I hadn't yet learned that self-confidence is the best outfit to rock it, and own it.
I never imagined as a 16 year old chicken plucker that I would be the High Sheriff of Derbyshire decades later, just as I'm certain Barack Obama never imagined he would be the President of the United States.
For this little girl, being High Sheriff was a big deal. And so, to those of you who believed in me, and you know who you are, and put the wheels in motion for that to happen, I am filled with gratitude.
My life's journey has not been an easy or straightforward one, but many of us have that story, right? The concept of adoption is a positive outcome, ultimately with a happy ending. As seen in the TV programme 'Long Lost Family'. But for many adopted children, they feel shame, rejection, isolation and a profound sense of loss and identity. You grow up on the sidelines, never feeling quite part of the scrum. Your conscious self gives you the toolkit to navigate life. So I wore my mask and slipped on my cloak of confidence, pretending I'd got life sussed. But in reality it was a cloak of vulnerability. And when that cloak slips, your unconscious self becomes hyper vigilant, unleashing stored trauma.
Because of my vulnerability, not everyone treated me as they should. And many times I hit rock bottom. But then, of course, you have to make a choice whether to keep striving, no matter how hard it feels. I also learned a valuable lesson, it's not what we have in our lives, but who we have in our lives that matters most.
So, George, my love, you have been my harshest critic, but my most powerful advocate, champion, promoter, defender and comrade in arms. Thank you for supporting me to be bolder, wiser and stronger.
To my son Nathan, who hasn't been able to join us, and daughter Natalie, you motivated me to flip the script and write a different story. To all of you, I love you more than I can articulate right now.
My loved ones and my soul family, those individuals who are in your life for no other reason than they want to be, have fed and nourished me spiritually and emotionally. As does my passion for dance, the arts, and for walking, losing oneself in rhythm, spoken word and being out there in the elements and feeling free.
My 27 years with the police service, working in the field of fairness, inclusion and social justice and my work in adoption and fostering was inevitable really, because my lived experience nurtured a real passion for people. Knowing to scratch beneath the surface reveals human frailty, hopes, dreams and the beautifully rich tapestry of life.
I pay homage to every person who has honoured me with sharing their personal journeys, their fears, and their wise counsel. I pay homage to every child who grew up feeling less than, who eventually understood their fears were a reaction and their courage was a decision, so they became more than.
Because when you finally realise it's okay to be vulnerable, you have the capacity to learn from others. You have the capacity to have courageous conversations and become comfortable to voice the uncomfortable. You have the capacity to become a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else. You have the capacity to bring about change so other children and women never experience what you did.
I am me because of all that has gone before. I finally gave myself permission, picked up my pen, turned and started a masterpiece.
So, graduands of 2024, the messages and lessons I've picked up along the way, I gladly share in the hope you find something to inspire you, when your heart has been broken and shattered into a thousand pieces through the broken relationship, when experiencing the gut wrenching pain when someone you love dies, the intense disappointment and feeling of failure when you don't get that job. Because we all experience these things.
This is your day. It is a day when you now start a journey. and walk a path of untold possibilities. It is special and I really want you to remember it for the rest of your lives.
Tread boldly, courageously, safely, and wisely. And when life knocks you back, try and land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Your unique selling point is you and what you bring to the world no one else will.
Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.
Be curious. Never stop learning from others and never stop learning or listening. But don't confuse learning from others with comparing yourself to others as it undervalues or your unique strengths. Your mistakes will help you to grow, bring growth and wisdom.
Create your own family and surround yourself with positive people. By so doing, you will produce positive energy and positive energy produces positive outcomes.
Be authentic and remember a half truth is a full lie. Be non-judgmental. None of us have any control what we are born into. But you have control of the choices you later make.
So finally, go out there and conquer the world. You've got this. Thank you.
Theresa Peltier's commendation video
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