Emma Cann, Head of Social Inclusion

I am passionate about creating working environments where everybody belongs and is supported to thrive and I’m excited to be bringing my experience to Warwick to help drive the Social Inclusion Strategy. My main focus is on embedding a psychologically safe and inclusive culture through training and discussion and helping dismantle barriers for under-represented or minority groups through inclusive practices and processes. I believe the responsibility for inclusion sits with every one of us and am looking forward to working with the social inclusion team and university stakeholders to support us all to make the University of Warwick inclusive for everyone.

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Andy Johnson, Social Inclusion Manager

I am a project manager with over 20 years’ experience in Widening Participation and Social Inclusion working to break down barriers within higher education. I believe that an individual’s background should have no profound impact on their ability to access, be part of, and succeed within university and have spent my career working to address this. My skills lie in pathfinding for new projects and approaches to inclusion, networking, collaborating widely, building strong professional relationships, and delivering high-quality engagement programmes with diverse audiences. Here at Warwick, my focus is to increase community diversity and build an inclusive culture, across all stages of the university lifecycle, by enhancing equality of opportunity and outcomes for everyone. I’m leading on a biennial staff-wide survey to assess the sense of belonging and culture here at Warwick, and working closely with colleagues to enhance gender equality, address challenges and remove barriers for staff and students.

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Read more about Andy's work in 5 questions with... Andy Johnson.

Claire Algar, Social Inclusion Manager

I regard myself as an accomplished individual who has the ability to independently manage and co-ordinate large scale projects, events, and champion cultural change. My strengths lie in having strong interpersonal skills, building trust-based relationships, engaging internal and external stakeholders to increase diversity, and create an environment where people feel a sense of belonging.

Here at Warwick, I lead on a number of inclusive recruitment initiatives that align with our aims to remove social, cultural and economic barriers that have prevented people from working, succeeding and studying. This includes, leading on the corporate partnership with the EY Foundation to deliver employability programmes to young people from low socio-economic backgrounds. I also lead on the social Inclusion Internship Programme, established as a result of this partnership. Piloting recruitment initiatives to engage with prison leavers, veterans, and other groups who may have been out of employment for various reasons.

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Read more about Claire's work in 5 questions with...Claire Algar.

Congratulations to Claire, winner of the 2022 EY Foundation 'Volunteer of the Year' award!

Michaela Hodges, Social Inclusion Manager

I have been passionate about equality and social justice since childhood, and achieving these goals has been the focus of my career. I worked in communications, strategy, and project management roles in environmental, domestic abuse, homelessness, and equality charities before moving to social inclusion in higher education.

In my personal life, I start each morning reading to expand my equality knowledge (email me if you want recommendations!). In my work life, I am currently working on Disability Smart (including membership of Business Disability Forum’s Disability Data Monitoring Working Group), University of Sanctuary (supporting refugee and asylum seeker students), the Social Inclusion website, Forum for Leaders of Inclusive Cultures, and supporting with social inclusion data.

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Read more about Michaela's work in 5 questions with... Michaela Hodges.

Nick Barker, Schools Outreach Fellow in Residence

I worked in state secondary schools for 12 years before being awarded a Teacher Fellowship by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2008. I came to Warwick University and worked in the Chemistry Department for 10 years where I delivered a successful schools' outreach programme. I moved to the Social Inclusion Group in 2018 and continue to deliver science outreach work with many schools all over the region but I am now based in a primary school. This year, with a lot of help, I hope to coordinate a scientific thinking challenge to inspire and encourage Year 10 students from schools all over the country.

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Read more about Nick's work in 5 questions with... Nick Barker.

Congratulations to Nick, winner of the October 2023 'Warwick Wonder' award!

Lorraine Martin, PA to Director of Social Inclusion and Team Administrator

I’m an experienced personal assistant with a strong administration background. I enjoy working and communicating with people from a wide range of backgrounds and at all levels, who deem me to be a very trustworthy and reliable team player. I joined Warwick university in November 2021. While working as PA to the Director of Social Inclusion, Kulbir Shergill, I also support the Social Inclusion team with a wide range of projects. I am the secretary for all the inclusion taskforces and SAT groups. Being part of these taskforce groups has given me a great opportunity to really understand the fantastic work we do here within social inclusion, I’m also secretary for the Social Inclusion Committee, again this is offers me a wealth of information on all the wonderful work being accomplished. Health and wellbeing have also been a big part of my career with being a champion for many years including a mental health first aider.

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Congratulations to Lorraine, finalist for the 2024 West Midlands PA Awards 'CSR & EDI Champion' award!