Strategic Development Service UCLan

Location: Preston | UK

I have always been passionate about social justice and I am lucky to have been able to make a career out of it!

I have worked in the public sector as an equality practitioner across immigration, housing and local government with one mission: to ensure that everyone has access to services and opportunities in order to create fair life-chances. Working in immigration was not always easy, but knowing that I was helping the UK Border Agency to make fair decisions without bias made it worthwhile. One of the most important pieces of work I did there was reviewing the way asylum interviews were conducted with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender asylum seekers. Working in housing was equally challenging and I revelled in the opportunity to work more closely with communities on projects like community conversation dinners, which aimed to bring diverse communities together.

Most recently I have been working for the LGBT rights charity Stonewall, where I worked with universities to create truly inclusive workplaces. I have taken on a new position as Equality and Diversity Manager at UCLan and am relishing the challenge of engaging staff and students in issues of equality and diversity.

My pathway into equality and diversity was not a traditional one, and was really driven by my desire to improve the quality of decisions at the UK Border Agency. Most equality practitioners I speak to say the same, and this got me thinking, is there a community for equality practitioners or guidance for aspiring ones? I want to engage with these people and inspire people to get involved in equality careers! So, I have started developing a website devoted to equality careers. It aims to be a one stop shop for everything equality career related.