Frances Gertrude Claire D'Souza

Frances Gertrude Claire D'Souza, Baroness D'Souza,(born 18 April 1944) is a British scientist and life peer in the House of Lords. She is currently Lord Speaker, having taken office on 1 September 2011.

Political Career

Baroness D’Souza joined the House of Lords on the 1st July 2004. She has been a member of a number of committees including: Freedom of Information Advisory Panel between 204-07, EU Sub-Committee between 2005-07, Procedure Committee in 2005, Accommodation Steering Group between 2007-11, House Commit-tee from 2007, Chairman of the House Committee from 2011, Administration and Works Committee between 2007-11, Liaison Committee between 2007-11, Privileges and Conduct Committee 2007-11, Joint Committee on Secuity 2008-11 and the Sub-Committee on Leave of Absence in 2011.

Education

Baroness D’Souza attended St Mary's School, Princethorpe and went to University College, London to read Anthropology, graduating BSc in 1970. She subsequently undertook further study at Lady Margaret Hall, obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in 1976 from the University of Oxford. She worked for the Nuffield Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition from 1973–77, Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) from 1977–80, and was an independent research consultant for the United Nations from 1985-88.

Notable Work

Between 1973-77 Baroness D’Souza was a research fellow at Nuffield Institute of Comparitive Medicine. Between 1974-81 she worked as a part-time lecturer at LSE Anthropology. In 1977 she founded The Relief and Development Institute, a company of which she was director between 1977-84. Whilst she held this po-sition she also worked as a Lecturer for Oxford Brookes University between 1977 and 1979. Between 1989-98 she worked as Director of Article 19 and subsequently undertook the role of Director at Redress Trust between 2003-06.