“As a Black woman working in education, I understand that there are many barriers to women of colour taking up leadership positions. I want to help dismantle not just race, but disability and gender-based biases, making NHLI’s working environment as inclusive as possible.”
When I graduated from Aston university with a degree in Management and Strategy in 2010, I didn’t have a clear vision of what my career would lead to. During that time, the economy was just recovering from a recession, it was a huge struggle to find graduate level jobs, and I felt overwhelmed and lost. I applied for a great number of jobs and eventually stumbled into the wonderful world of education.
I worked as a student support officer at an independent education provider and then I moved on to another role in a contemporary music college as a wellbeing adviser. I felt like I had finally found my feet, but three years later I was made redundant. I knew I wanted to stay in education as I really enjoyed helping students and working within a learning-focused environment.
Imperial came to the rescue, and I landed a job at the School of Public Health. Seven years later I made a sideways move to the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) where I now work as a Staffing and EDI Coordinator. My job is incredibly varied, and I cover a range of roles from HR (academic recruitment, promotion, probation), event planning and helping coordinate the NHLI EDI activities.
Being a part of the EDI committee has been a great source of pride for me. As a Black woman working in education, I understand that there are many barriers to women of colour taking up leadership positions. I want to help dismantle not just race, but disability and gender-based biases, making NHLI’s working environment as inclusive as possible. One of the main tasks I look forward to working on is improving parity across the job levels especially for Professional, Technical and Operational staff.
As my eighth year working at Imperial approaches, I look forward to seeing how my portfolio of work evolves and how the College adapts to all the changes ahead.
Outside of work I enjoy writing, watching true crime documentaries and listening to a very wide variety of music genres.