Parkhead Housing Association has announced that the Rt Honourable Dame Elish Angiolini QC will deliver the 3rd annual John Wheatley Lecture in October 2017.

Dame Elish will follow in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Guardian columnist Owen Jones in delivering the now well-established lecture.

Dame Elish Angiolini grew up in Govan in Glasgow and studied Law at the University of Strathclyde, graduating in 1982. Immediately after graduation she joined the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and, following her traineeship, spent 8 years as a Depute Procurator Fiscal in Airdrie, prosecuting in Airdrie Sheriff Court.

A long and prestigious career has seen Dame Elish go from head of policy in the Crown Office, to becoming the first woman, first Procurator Fiscal and the first solicitor to hold the post of Solicitor General for Scotland. In 2006, Dame Elish was installed as Lord Advocate, and remained in post following the change in government at the 2007 election, again being the first to do so.

A trailblazer and a force for good in her field, Dame Elish was also the first patron of LawWorks Scotland, a charity which helps people who cannot afford legal advice. In February 2012, it was announced that Dame Elish would become Principal of St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford, and in 2013 it was also announced that she would replace Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Kelvin, as Chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland.

Parkhead Housing Association in association with the Wheatley Group established the Annual John Wheatley lecture as a way of honouring the contribution of the former Member of Parliament for Glasgow Shettleston made to the social and housing policy agenda. The lecture is designed enable a debate on the social issues of the day and their solutions and the role housing can play in them. The invited audience is drawn from civic Scotland across a number of different sectors.

Parkhead chief executive, Jim Strang, said: “The John Wheatley Lecture is becoming an established event in the civic sector and we are very lucky and honoured to attract speakers of such calibre as Dame Elish. We are certainly looking forward to hearing her speak in our annual lecture next year.”