Sue Pester is Director of the West and Mid Wales Widening Access Partnership and of the Centre for Widening Participation at Aberystwyth.

Dr Sue Pester has been involved in Widening Participation for some 18 years, firstly as an Access to Higher Education tutor, then as a Development Officer for the Open College Network and over the last 14 years as a Lifelong Learning Officer and now a Widening Access Manager.

She is responsible for a raft of Widening Access programmes across two rural counties involving five HEIs and FEIs. She was formerly secretary to the Universities Adult Continuing Education network in Wales (UACE Cymru) and Chair of the (UACE) Continuing Education in Rural Areas Network. Her most recent research focus has been that of rural deprivation and the development of innovative, partnership approaches to Widening Access to Higher Education.