Hillary is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her PhD research looks at previous experiences of labour displacement to understand its impacts on communities and families. She has also worked as a campaigner on a range of issues, all challenging inequalities.

Previously, Hillary worked in the Inequality campaign team for Oxfam GB, where she was involved in a pan-European tax justice campaign. Her other campaigning work has included work on urban green space (poorer communities have significantly less access to the health benefits of green space, which are substantial); climate justice campaigns; and a global sexual and reproductive rights campaign with Amnesty International.

Hillary read for an undergraduate degree in philosophy at McGill University, Canada, and then undertook an M.Litt in philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland. She also gained an MSc degree in Inequalities and Social Science from LSE as part of the fellowship. At St. Andrews, Hillary concentrated her energies on campaigning for the University to adopt an ethical investment policy. She had been a grassroots activist in Montreal and was steeped in a student protest culture, but her experience at St. Andrews marked the first time she’d been part of a strategic and successful civil society campaign, working at an institutional level. The experience of directly taking on and redesigning a structure that had encouraged system injustice was life-changing and, instead of becoming an academic, she moved into campaigning.