Judith James is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, where she leads the working of the 'Reimagining Inclusive Economic Futures' Learning City Network of the PASCAL Observatory. Previous she worked in Swansea University for 25 years and was responsible for strategic regional engagement.

She has had extensive experience in developing student entrepreneurship and employability ,student experience, equality and diversity, widening participation from under-represented groups, finance and external funding. Her recent roles focused on the change management of university functions, first as manager of the Swansea Employability Academy, as Programme Manager Student Experience and finally before retirement as Programme Manager Strategic Regional Engagement. Her previous role as the Deputy Head of Department of Adult Continuing Education gave her wide experience in widening participation in higher education, including accessing external funding, within a financial and staff management role.

Judith has been a member of the UNESCO Expert Group on Developing Learning Cities and has contributed to the development of the UNESCO Global Platform for Learning Cities (GPLC). She presented 'Swansea Learning City' at the International Conference on Learning Cities in Beijing with 570 delegates from over 100 countries (October 2013) One of the outcomes of the Learning Cities Declaration from this conference was a proposal to establish a UNESCO Global Learning Cities Network. Judith has been influential in bringing the UNESCO Learning City pilot to Swansea, and the city subsequent became the first in the UK to receive the prestigious UNESCO Learning City Award.