18 Feb 2026
A St Albans resident whose career has spanned the West End stage, broadcast journalism, military psychology and senior government leadership – all while raising seven children – has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by the University of Hertfordshire.
Dr Suzy Walton, who is also a Herts alumna with a BSc (Hons) and MSc in Psychology, is being celebrated for her astounding career and professional achievements.
Moving alone to London when she was just 16 in search of work, she found a position at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
“I remember standing in the wings with the late Dame Maggie Smith, running lines with her,” she said.
“Seeing the vulnerability of great people made me realise that courage was the single biggest skill I needed.”
That courage led her to audition, without any acting experience, for the West End production ‘Children of a Lesser God’. She landed a leading role of Lydia, a young deaf American girl that she had to learn American Sign Language for and stayed with the show for more than three years.
After theatre, Dr Walton moved into radio journalism with LBC, travelling the world for her show Time Off.
One of her most memorable moments was recording from the Concorde flight deck.
“We passed through the sound barrier several times,” she recalls. “Everything goes silent — even the instruments stop moving. And at 60,000 feet, you see the curvature of the earth. That was something.”
She later joined Sky News as a producer, but despite a flourishing media career, Dr Walton felt compelled to study.
“Everyone around me was a graduate, so I decided I needed to become one too,” she says.
With one small child — and another born during her second year — Dr Walton left television to study Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire.
“I was often asleep in the library after being up all night with a baby,” she admits. “But I wasn’t going to fail.”
After completing her Master’s degree on a scholarship, Dr Walton joined the Ministry of Defence as a military psychologist. During this time, she undertook a PhD through Cranfield University, focusing on suicide within the Armed Forces — research that was initially classified and which she says remains one of her proudest achievements.
Tragically, it was during this period that Dr Walton’s husband died of leukaemia.
Seeking a change and a new direction for her family, she moved into the former Department of Trade and Industry, before later joining the Cabinet Office, where she worked within the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.
“Whitehall is the engine of government,” she says. “Not a day goes by when I’m not honoured to work on issues that matter so deeply.”
Dr Walton has since held senior roles across several government departments, including the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office and the Home Office. A qualified Chartered Director, she has served on more than a dozen major boards, among them Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the Institute of Directors, the global Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Internet Watch Foundation.
She is also the former Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Medicine and former Deputy Chair of the Royal Society of Arts, a Vice President of Combat Stress, and a former Deputy Chair of the University of Westminster.
“Governance is hard, and it’s lonely,” she reflects. “But leaders must create cultures where mistakes lead to learning, not blame.”
Receiving an Honorary Doctorate is deeply meaningful for Dr Walton. “I came to Hertfordshire specifically for the University — and I’ve stayed and built my life here, raising seven children along the way with the youngest still only five. I have enormous gratitude for the welcome I received all those years ago.”
Looking ahead, she says her next chapter is a blank canvas: “I’ve pivoted many times — I can’t say where I’ll be in five years. But I’ll give it a go. And if all else fails, I still have my Equity card… I could well end up back in pantomime!”
