Maria Augusta Arruda is Head of Researcher Development at the University of Nottingham’s Researcher Academy, and Chair of the university’s Black and Asian Minority Ethnic Staff Network. Maria holds a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology and has over 25 years of experience in academic and non-academic research environments. She has led and managed large-scale international research and training programmes and has implemented Research Culture interventions for high-performance in Science.
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Gemma Bancroft is the Faculty of Social Sciences Education and Student Experience (ESE) Manager. Her role is to lead on ESE initiative across the Faculty working closely with the Faculty Head of ESE and Faculty APVC for ESE. Gemma has been the chair of the Faculty Sphere Challenge Group since July 2021 leading the group in the final development and publication of the Guidelines to Critical Reflection and Action. She joined the university in 2018 after working in Education initially as a secondary school Science Teacher, and then working in educational development in public and third sector organisations for 14 years.
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Dr Pat Brundell (he/him) is a Research Fellow at the Mixed Reality Lab. His Computer Science research spans kinaesthetics in interaction design, user experience research, psychology, museum studies. His recent work uses participatory design to investigate mental health, user experience, and mixed reality.
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Clare Burrage is a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham. Her research focuses on understanding dark energy, dark matter and the theory of gravity. Before coming to Nottingham she held research positions at the University of Geneva and at DESY (German Electron Synchrotron). She was awarded her PhD in 2008 from the University of Cambridge. In 2015 she was awarded the Maxwell Medal by the Institute of Physics for outstanding contributions to Theoretical Physics, and her group is currently funded by a Research Leadership Award from the Leverhulme Trust. She has been working for better representation of women and other under represented groups in STEM since she was her undergraduate college Women’s Officer, and she has been chair of the EDI committee in the School of Physics and Astronomy since 2017. In her spare time she reads detective novels and climbs mountains.
Dr Emma Chapman is a Royal Society research fellow based at the University of Nottingham. She is among the world’s leading researchers in search of the first stars to light up our Universe, and published her first popular science book, ‘First Light’, in 2020. Emma is a respected media commentator on astrophysical matters, but is also vocal about gender equality issues in the sciences. She has been the recipient of multiple commendations and prizes, including the Royal Society Athena Medal for driving nationally impactful policy changes concerning sexual harassment issues in higher education.
Sultan “Sully” Chaudhury (he/him) is a member of the 2021/22 full-time officer team of the UoN Students’ Union. Sully is the Liberation Officer and the second person to hold this role. He represents students from marginalised backgrounds, supporting each of the chairs of liberation networks around gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and disability and socioeconomic background. Sully is the representative for all things Liberation and Equality for the student body, the University of Nottingham, and all external bodies; it is his job to support the university on its positive actions and challenge the university on what needs improving.
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Dr Terri Cooper believes a strong culture of inclusion is key to serving clients with distinction, as complex global challenges increasingly require diversity of experience and perspective. As Deloitte’s Vice Chair of External DEI, Deliotte New York, Terri focuses on fostering Deloitte’s external brand and helping to drive market facing efforts. In her previous role as chief inclusion officer, Terri drove Deloitte’s strategy to recruit, develop, and advance a diverse workforce and foster an inclusive environment. Terri led Deloitte’s inaugural Inclusion Summit and Day of Understanding, which fostered courageous conversations on DEI topics. She advanced inclusive leadership at all levels and established inclusion as a core leadership capability.
Becca Craven (she/her) is currently a Research Masters student in the Department of Music at the University of Nottingham, and also the Mature Students' Officer within the Students' Union. Before coming to university Becca spent nearly 10 years working in the Education sector in Nottingham which led to her pursuing an undergraduate degree with the mindset of then returning to the sector as a teacher. The journey to university study required her to go back to college and change her employment, and due to her background she needed to work throughout her studies. Upon completing her undergraduate degree at the university in 2020 Becca took on the role of Education Officer within the Students' Union for the 2020/21 academic year, working alongside the SU and university. Becca would like to progress to further study at the university, or pursue a career within Music Education or Musical Theatre.
Dr Charlie Davis is originally from the north coast of Northern Ireland. He has been working in higher education since 2009 and began his role as an Assistant Professor in Higher Education at UoN in January 2020. Prior to his career in HE, Charlie spent eight years teaching English to speakers of other languages in the Republic of Ireland, Barcelona and England. Charlie’s primary research focus is on the use of participatory narrative approaches to co-produce knowledge with participants to challenge forms of social injustice they experience. His current SRHE-funded project involves working with Russell Group academics who identify as being of working-class heritage to create composite stories about their routes into academia. The project mobilises critical storytelling methods to provide the participants creative opportunities to represent their lived experiences on their terms.
Professor Richard Emes (he/him) is a scientist with over 20 years specialism in bioinformatics. In his role as faculty Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor research and knowledge exchange for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences his priority is to support success through their teams of researchers, professional services and expert technicians.
Richard is passionate about the creation of a vibrant culture where engaged people are central to delivery of research and innovation that has real-world impact locally, regionally, and internationally.
Mary Graham is the Business Operations Senior Manager in Registry and Academic Affairs. Mary joined the university in 2017 following 10 years in NHS management roles. Her current role includes anything relating to the operational running of the department, such as the management of office space, risk, assurance, strategy, finance and recruitment. Mary is a member of the RAA EDI working group, which gives a grounded perspective on matters of EDI strategy and action planning. She is passionate about EDI and the opportunity to learn more about how we could change department practices for the improvement of EDI.
Raheela Khan is Professor of Cellular Physiology in the School of Medicine. Raheela believes in the core principles of EDI being embedded and practiced across our staff and student communities and in our processes at the university. Her external roles relating to EDI include working with grant funders and she is a trustee of the Physiological Society, one of the oldest learned societies in the UK, where she leads its diversity and Inclusion task force. Raheela is Chair of the Sphere programme, which has funded new initiatives that are leading to positive cultural change at the university.
Zach Jones, University of Nottingham alumnus.
Todd Landman is Professor of Political Science, Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Executive Director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham. He is a member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Council. He teaches and researches on human rights with a particular focus on modern slavery. His new book will be published by Anthem Press in July 2022 and is entitled The Rights Track: Sound Evidence on Human Rights and Modern Slavery.
Shomari Lewis-Wilson is Senior Manager, Research Culture and Communities at the Wellcome Trust. Shomari graduated from the University of Nottingham with a 2:1 in Neuroscience and, after a brief time in academic research, became a Funding Manager for the Neuroscience & Mental Health team at the Wellcome Trust. He is now turning his attention to the area of systems change as the Senior Manager of Wellcome's brand new Research Culture and Communities team. He has interests in strategic planning, design and is passionate about helping academics from underserved backgrounds reach their full potential. Shomari is also the Vice-Chair of the Wellcome Race Equity Network and is a Co-Founder of the New Fables Collective.
Professor Katherine Linehan (she/her) is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and People. Katherine champions equality of opportunity for all protected characteristics, ensuring all practices are fair and inclusive. She was Professor of Anatomical Education at the University of Sheffield, Director for EDI for its Faculty of Science, and deputy EDI lead for the institution overall.
A graduate of the University of Sheffield, she attained her PhD at the University of Hull and started her career in academia at the University of Liverpool. Katherine has expertise in the disciplines of Human Anatomy, the focus of her career being the creation of inclusive adult educational experiences that appeal to all learners, irrespective of their ethnic or social background.
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Doug Little (he/him)is a Senior Project Manager at the University of Nottingham, recently seeing the successful launch of the international student mental health project. Doug joined the university in 2018, having previously worked in professional roles within Canterbury Christ Church University, Birmingham City University and University of Essex.
Doug attended the University of Essex (2008-11) and the LSE (2011-12), studying politics.
Doug has a keen passion for equality, diversity and inclusion. Inspired by role models during his career, he launched Pride Mentoring, the university’s LGBTQIA+ Mentoring Community, to connect with others.
Dr Yvonne Mbaki is an Associate Professor in Medical Physiology in the School of Life Sciences, having gained a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences from University of Bradford and a MSc (Neuroscience) and PhD (Urology Pharmacology) from University College London. Dr Mbaki is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. As a teaching focussed academic, Dr Mbaki teaches medical physiology across the degree programmes of life sciences, medicine and pharmacy. Dr Mbaki has a diverse range of educational interests including student mental health and wellbeing as well as embedding inclusivity in teaching.
Helen McNamara is the university's new Director of Organisation and People Development, joining in March 2022. Helen is also a Non-Executive Director with L.E.A.D. Academy Trust. Helen started her career as an HR professional within the construction industry including global roles with AMEC and Davis Langdon PLC, before moving into the public sector. For the last 12 years she has worked for the Care Quality Commission, the regulator of Health and Social Care, and led CQC’s approach to Organisational and People Development; The role developed alongside the organisation which was created in 2010. Helen has led the development of organisational values and behaviours which remain very relevant, and specifically leads programmes of leadership and management development, individual learning, wellbeing, performance management, inclusion, reward and recognition. As a keen HR professional Helen is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.
Armaghan Moemeni (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science, and the school’s director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Her research concerns applying computer vision and machine learning techniques in multidisciplinary research subjects including medical applications, gamification, intelligent sensing to develop new methods for recognising abnormal data patterns and behaviours, as well as supporting human computer/machine interaction. She has also a great interest in designing innovative pedagogical methodologies in teaching and learning, and a senior fellow of HEA - SFHEA.
Robert Mokaya received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Nairobi in 1988 after which he spent a year working for Unilever in Kenya. He was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1992. In 1992, he was elected to a Research Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge and in 1996 was awarded an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship. He joined the School of Chemistry in Nottingham as a lecturer in Materials Chemistry in 2000, was promoted to Reader in 2005, and to Professor of Materials Chemistry in 2008. He is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2017-2022) and has previously served as Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement (2016 – 2018). In 2022, Robert was awarded an OBE for Services to the Chemical Sciences.
Robert’s research interest is on the design, synthesis and characterisation of new forms of sustainable porous materials and the study of their structure-property relations. The research involves exploring fundamentally new synthesis methods that are simpler, cheaper, and more efficient and offer valorisation routes to materials with optimised properties for targeted sustainable energy applications.
Louise Mullany is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham, UK and is the Director of the university's Diversity and Inclusion Research Hub. She specialises in investigations of language and equality in professional settings, including businesses, politics, healthcare and the mass media. She has published books, numerous articles and book chapters in these areas.
Dr Isobel O'Neil, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, University of Nottingham, is based within the Haydn Green Institute in the Business School, Isobel’s research focuses on early-stage entrepreneurial actors to explore processes relating to identity evolution and those relating to gaining legitimacy. More recently, Isobel has been involved in EDI research, especially in the context of low-income self-employed women. Isobel is devoted to achieving impact outside of the university and pursues this through supporting local women from Nottingham and beyond as they explore self-employment, entrepreneurship and/or their career next steps. This work led Isobel to co-found a small social enterprise – The My Way Project CIC. For the 2021-22 period Isobel took on the role of Chair for the FoSS Sphere Challenge “Supporting Women* during Covid and its aftermath”.
Ife Oyedeji (she/they) has always been passionate about community work and activism, especially in relation to celebrating and empowering marginalised communities. Over the past few years, they have served as the feminist society’s president, two years in a row, the women’s* representative of the BME network, the co-founder and deputy chair of the new Queer People of Colour project at UoN and, was recently elected to be the UoNSU Liberation officer for the next academic session. Ife believes that true liberation can only occur via decolonisation, through the acknowledgement of oppressive systems and the celebration of our differences.
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Shash Patel is Principal Consultant at Asym IG. In this part-time role Shash provides pragmatic guidance, advice and awareness on Information Governance, Risk Management, Data Privacy and Records Management. Previous jobs include Director of Information Risk Management at Air Products, which encompassed Intellectual Asset Protection (IAP), Data Privacy (acting as the Chief Privacy Officer) and Enterprise Records Management.
Shash has been Co-Chair of Air Products’ LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group and was on the UK Tech Skills Employer Board. Previous IT leadership roles include Director of Business Relationship Management and Director of IT Security, Compliance and Risk Management. Over his career he has lived and worked in Germany, the Netherlands and the USA.
Professor Sarah Speight is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, and Professor of Higher Education. Sarah leads the university’s strategy to deliver an outstanding educational experience for every student in our community.
Reporting directly to the Vice-Chancellor, and working across the university’s executive team, Sarah is responsible for strategic leadership and oversight for policies and activities to enhance teaching, curriculum, and the broader student experience.
Jocelyn Spence (she/her) is a Research Fellow at the Mixed Reality Lab. Her Computer Science research focuses on the intersection of theatrical performance and interaction design to explore personally meaningful, aesthetic, and/or emotional experiences mediated by digital technologies. Her recent work explores hybrid gifting and mixed-reality cultural heritage experiences.
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University Radio Nottingham is the multi-award-winning student radio station of the University of Nottingham, broadcasting via their website twenty-four hours a day. Everyday they present and produce a diverse range of programmes completely run by students. Their output is a mix of daytime entertainment-based programmes, student-focused news, discussion shows, a broad range of specialist music programmes covering almost every genre of music as well as interviews and podcasts to highlight both global and national artists, issues and events. During the Diversity Festival, tune in everyday to listen to shows talking about diversity from a range of different angles.
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Abigail “Abie” Whitehead is 22 and studying Liberal Arts with History at the University of Nottingham. Abie is originally from Cambridgeshire. She came to the university in 2018 through the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year which helps students to realise their potential and access the university’s humanities degrees. Abie has used her Liberal Arts degree as a way of educating herself on issues she cares about, with a particular focus on challenges facing young people. These include Youth, Crime and Justice through to Curriculum and the Politics of Knowledge, even writing her dissertation on the limitations of Free School Meals policy.
Jeanette Woolard is Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology and Pharmacology and Director of COMPARE at the University of Nottingham. Her work has focussed on elucidating the molecular pharmacology of growth factors involved in blood vessel growth during tumour development, where she has been involved in developing novel approaches to monitor ligand/receptor interactions. Professor Woolard is lead of the Nottingham Haemodynamic Laboratories, where her team works to investigate the safety pharmacology of drugs in order to better understand why, and how, some drug treatments for cancer cause significant side effects in the cardiovascular system. Her work has been supported by an MRC Programme grant, project grants from BBSRC, BHF and MRC, and collaborative grants with Heptares, Promega and AstraZeneca.
David Woolley is the Director of Student and Community Engagement at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and on the Board of Trustees for the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) and Grit Breakthrough Programmes.
At NTU he leads on the social mobility agenda. His department focuses on research and insights into this topic; learner analytics; and student and community engagement (outreach) across the student lifecycle. David’s previous roles include Deputy Head of Widening Participation at the University of Nottingham and a teaching career before that, both abroad and in UK Further Education.
Baroness Young of Hornsey OBE was appointed as the University of Nottingham’s Chancellor with effect from the 6 February 2020. Baroness Young is an author, actor and peer. She became an independent Crossbench member of the House of Lords in 2004 where she works on legislation to eliminate modern slavery, and is the founding co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion and Sport, Modern Slavery and Human Rights. Lola has recently been appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Bloomsbury Publishing and to Futerra, the sustainability agency.
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