EGEA Individual Staff 2023

Individuals and teams across the University have been honoured in this year’s Excellence in Gender Equality award. The individual staff award recognises a member of staff that is making a positive difference within the gender equality agenda around the University.

See information about the great work of our 'Individual Staff' award winner and nominees below...

Winner: Anne Wilson

photo of Excellence in Gender Equality Individual Staff award winner

Nominated because Anne advocates, champions, and encourages women in the workplace raising their self-confidence, giving them a voice and a network of support that enables them to grow. Through the Springboard programme, they share key skills, useful literature, tips and advice to improve all aspects of life, not just in the workplace. Through their work co-organising 'Inspiring Women' events, they have given a spotlight to services, groups and networks available at the University that support women to achieve their goals.

The judging panel said:

This is an excellent ongoing programme from Anne which clearly has great benefits for staff and is making a substantial and fundamental difference to career progression possibilities for women at Warwick. We know this is a gap in development offer here at Warwick, and this programme is addressing that, and very successfully too. The sustained impact since 2020, of specific interventions across the institution, has been backed up with strong evidence of success. This fills an important gap for supporting women here at Warwick.

Read our Internal Communications Interview with Anne hereLink opens in a new window.

Winner: Professor Marie-Therese Wolfram

Nominated for her leadership, commitment and innovative work towards gender equality in the Mathematics Institute. Women are under-represented at all career stages in Mathematics, culminating in a severe lack of women in academic positions and even less in professorial roles. Marie-Therese has campaigned tirelessly and successfully to improve the Mathematical Institute’s gender balance, whilst simultaneously ensuring those currently present feel part of a network of women in Maths. They have improved processes for recruitment, developing a new ‘Diversity in Hiring’ document, creating a new ‘Diversity Database’ to attract a more representative pool of applicants to roles and engaging with networks of women mathematicians to promote these roles. The proportion of women recruited to the department has increased significantly through Marie-Therese efforts, with 25% of the latest appointments being female, and 25% of the senior positions being filled by women.

The judging panel said:

This was an excellent submission, clearly demonstrating impact and was obvious that Marie-Therese is taking colleagues on this journey to make change. The work has made a clear impact on recruitment practices (and, consequently, staff gender diversity) in a traditionally male-dominated area and is an example of good practice that could translate and be replicated in other departments as a model that can help to address issues of diversity in very competitive environments. It is fantastic to see this put into practice. An absolute winner!

Read our Internal Communications Interview with Marie-Therese hereLink opens in a new window

Very highly commended: Romain Chenet

Nominated because Romain Chenet is has gone above and beyond to support staff working towards true gender equity at Warwick and embedding gender positive learning opportunities for students in the department. Having developed the first module on Gender and Sustainable Development in Cross Faculty Studies which has been extremely popular and receiving very positive student feedback, Romain is also an excellent colleague who actively supports and rallies for development opportunities for staff and students, particularly focussed on challenging traditional academic gender role norms and unrealistic work expectations.

The judging panel said:

We found this to be an inspiring programme, with significant positive impact for students. The feedback on the programme is excellent and embedding positive gender norms for students and developing a new module on Gender and Sustainable Development has helped fill this gap in the curriculum. It is great that this is part of the degree in GSD.

Highly commended: Beatriz Lagunas

Photo of Excellence in Gender Equality individual staff award highly commended colleague

Nominated as co-lead of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (EDIC) in School of Life Sciences, Beatriz has shown outstanding and tireless enthusiasm and leadership, working to maintain and improve gender equality and EDI activities in SLS. As well as working on gender equality, the committee runs many activities related to ED&I, making sure SLS is an inclusive and welcoming place to work and learn. Beatriz has also worked collaboratively with Warwick Medical School and the SEM faculty on joint gender equality and EDI projects and initiatives.

The judging panel said:

This nominee has made a great contribution, having an impact both within and beyond the department. There is a clear endorsement from colleagues for their work and the initiatives sound like excellent projects, with the research culture related and leaky pipeline work being particularly positive. Strong work demonstrated in their home department and having wider impacts outside too.

Commended: Jane Dashwood

Photo of Excellence in Gender Equality individual staff award commended colleague

Nominated because Jane works tirelessly to co-run the Menopause Staff Network and promote Menopause Awareness in the workplace, as well as running events, meet-ups and a Teams site for people to discuss, and find support with their menopause symptoms and concerns.

The judging panel said:

It is clear that the Network is a highly appreciated initiative. Well done.

Certificate of Recognition:

Livia Bartok-Partay Rachel Hand

Nominated because Rachel has been dedicated to the support of women in science and has delivered several activities in her time here at Warwick. In February 2023 Rachel organised and hosted a breakfast event for anyone around campus to livestream the IUPAC Global Women's Breakfast panel from Burlington House, securing funding for from the Inclusive Education Fund.

Modupe Jimoh

Nominated because to mark International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) in June 2023, Modupe created several opportunities to showcase the excellent work of female staff and students within the School of Engineering and WMG. These activities spotlighted the talented engineering colleagues' achievements, showcased the wide-ranging impacts of Engineering and promoted the idea that women can and do excel in this field.

Professor Eileen John

Nominated because Eileen is Philosophy's Athena SWAN lead and chair of the department Equalities and Welfare Committee. In both roles, she has been a highly effective advocate and enabler for improvements in the culture and wider environment of the department, the faculty and university more widely. Eileen has played a central role within the department, responding to significant challenges of underrepresentation around gender and race. Eileen works closely with student groups such as Warwick's Minorities and Philosophy chapter, our Black Voices Network and with Philosophy's Teaching Exchange, to promote events that help students and staff reflect on intersecting issues of representation and inclusion.

Nita Lad

Nominated because Nita has done so much work in Warwick Business School and Warwick University to enhance gender equality, particularly in leading and championing projects that really embrace intersectionality. Their passion and drive comes from building confidence in people and creating communities where people thrive, whatever their gender and diverse background. Initiatives have included setting up the Empowering Women MBA Leaders Group and championing the Embracing Diversity Series.

Claire Rocks

Nominated because within the Department of Computer Science, Claire is the director of outreach and academic lead for widening participation. Claire is dedicated to widening participation, outreach and gender equality in the work she does, believes that science should be accessible to everyone and works tirelessly to help close the gender gap seen in STEM subjects. Claire regularly bringing the issue of gender equality to the forefront of all aspects of the department’s outreach program in inspiring young minds with the possibilities for Computer Science and encouraging other members of staﬀ to update their approaches and be mindful of the extra support that may prove valuable to students.

Clare Swift

Clare has been nominated for her individual involvement in the Women in IDG programme. Claire led a series of charismatic drop-in sessions and focus groups exploring topics such as Imposter Syndrome, Managing Stress, and Leadership Styles. This has made an excellent contribution to gender equality in IDG and in addressing the known gender imbalance of the IDG staff body and senior leadership positions.

See nominations for our other Gender Equality Award 2023 categories here.