Social Inclusion Staff Award Winner

The 2024 Social Inclusion Staff Award winner is... Dr Jagjeet Jutley-Neilson!

June

At our annual Inclusion Conference we presented the Social Inclusion Staff Award to recognise staff contributions to celebrating diversity, supporting an inclusive culture, and demonstrating leadership in social inclusion.

Professor Beccy Freeman, Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education), announced our shortlist and throughout the day attendees had the chance to vote for the winner. At the close of the conference, Kulbir Shergill, Director of Social Inclusion, announced Dr Jagjeet Jutley-Neilson the winner of the Social Inclusion Staff Award 2024. (See photo of, L-R, Kulbir, Jag, and Beccy).

Jag was nominated for her work to create an inclusive student experience, always with a focus on co-creation to ensure students lived-experiences are centre-placed.

She worked with students to co-create a Neurodiversity Toolkit and continues to work with neurodivergent students and staff to develop wider training for departments. She was also central to co-creation of the Code of Practice for Disabled Students, designed to provide key information and resources for staff across the University to improve inclusive practice and support for disabled students.

In addition, Jag is a facilitator on the Tackling Racial Inequality at Warwick programme and has co-created projects with Black, Asian, and minority ethnic students, leading to the development of an Inclusive Psychology Toolkit.

And, she is sharing this work across the sector to support others to develop their own inclusive practice, for example presenting on the Inclusive Psychology Toolkit at a British Psychological Society event.

Congratulations and well done Jag!

Runners Up

As our PVC (Education), Beccy Freeman, said at the conference, we had so many great nominations all of whom deserve recognition. Our runners up are:

Aqsa Akhtar, Beth Russell, and Siân Bolton were nominated for their work in developing and delivering training on 'Designing and Running Inclusive Events'.

They first delivered a workshop on this topic for the Widening Participation team, then at UCAS headquarters in Cheltenham Spa for the Midlands Widening Participation Forum (a collection of WP professionals across universities in the Midlands), and most recently to a sold-out room at the Warwick Institute of Engagement’s annual conference. The information will also be available as a resource on the Warwick Institute of Engagement's Skills Festival. The training is designed to explore practical steps people can take to make their events more inclusive, and all participants are asked to write down one concrete action that they pledge to do to embed a new inclusive element in their event.

Dr Craig Carneige was nominated for his work to support and create employability programmes for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who have the talent and potential to excel in STEM but need the right spark to light their inspiration.

Craig hosted five young people for EY Foundation and Nuffield Research Work Placements for work experience programmes. These experiences led him to create a team in WMG to expand the support for employability programmes and run a series of related workshops for WMG colleagues (supported by a successful Enhancing Research Culture funding bid). He has received further funding to build on this work and expand support in the wider Faculty of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

Dr Ian Saunders was nominated for his work to promote inclusion and diversity within the Computer Science department, as well as the wider Mathematical Sciences community at Warwick.

Ian supports several inclusion projects, including the department's Athena Swan work, but the focus on his nomination was as chair of MOSAIC - a committee run by students and staff of all levels to organise events that foster a more diverse and inclusive environment. Ian plays a very active role in MOSAIC, helping substantially with the planning, administration and organisation of the events. Furthermore, he has supported students involved to build skills and confidence, and celebrated and valued the difference experiences and perspectives they bring.

Dr Shweta Singh was nominated for her work to centre inclusion in her teaching and advocate for equality in education through her research and other work.

She believes education is the strongest medium to achieve social justice; she is committed to empowering students with education which can set their minds free. To support this, she uses her own personal journey, which she shared in WBS Embracing Diversity Series webinar and was published in #1 British Asian Weekly Newspaper on International Women’s Day. For her research on teaching and technology initiatives to support justice, equality, and inclusion, she was named in the Top 5 Tech for Good Women in the UK. And, this year she has been selected as a UN Women UK Delegate for the commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, and will spend the year contributing to multiple projects alongside government representatives, senior civil servants, lawmakers, and other stakeholders to address gender inequalities in education.

Want to know more?

Thanks to everyone who made a nomination for the award or voted for our winner during the Inclusion Conference. And a big thank you to everyone engaged in social inclusion work at the University. You can see information about our previous award winners here.