[7] She moved to Queen Mary University of London, where she was promoted to Assistant Professor in Government and Politics from 1968.
[8] In 1985 she was promoted to Head of the Department of Politics, and was made an Honorary Fellow when she left in the early nineties.
[9] After leaving a full-time academic career, Vallance moved into the public sector, and was appointed Chairperson of St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
In 2006 Vallance was appointed by Tony Blair to the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
[13][14] In this capacity she oversaw the development of the YoungMinds organisational strategy, helping to implement the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.