Rosemary Preston researched development in Andean America, the South Pacific and southern Africa, with multi-disciplinary studies of labour and refugee migration, post-war reconstruction and partnerships, prioritising gender, inclusion and community, latterly in contexts of lifelong learning. As Director of the International Centre for Education in Development at Warwick, she chaired BAICE, UKFIET, the CEC and other bodies. She edited Compare and Gender and Education, and recently written on the Commonwealth and Cuba’s support of education in poor states. An early Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, she is skilled in several languages.