The Centre for Inclusion and Diversity

Tiffany is a project manager for Brad-ATTAIN and YCEDE in the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Bradford. She is co-founder and co-director of Same Skies Think Tank, as well as a part-time lecturer at RADA.

Her sociological research examines race and education in the UK and US and her historical research investigates King James VI&I in Early Modern Britain. She is the author of several articles, chapters, as well as a co-editor of two books.

Her activism stems from a desire to work with community members in the elevation of human development. She loves the Arts, NES ROMS, travelling, baseball, fishing, and chess.

James is the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) curriculum manager for the raising attainment team in CfID. This role sees James working in a number of areas all of which aim to help people achieve and develop in the STEM disciplines. This includes working closely with partner organisations including Bradford Council’s SkillsHouse Careers & Technical Education (CTE) supporting the ICE (Industrial Centres of Excellence).

James supports the foundation year at the University of Bradford, leading modules in Foundation in Chemistry and introduction to Life Sciences. He helps students to progress into Undergraduate degrees in the faculty of Life Science. James leads work at the STEM centre at the University, helping schools to engage with CfID resources for activities linked to school curriculums from KS2 through to KS5.

James has previously been involved with a number of national projects including:

• the Royal Society of Chemistry spectroscopy in a Suitcase,
• regional projects for HESTEM
• the Institution of Engineering and Technology UK FIRST® LEGO® League, helping to run the regional final at the University of Bradford for the last 10 years

James has worked with the University of Bradford team to deliver highly successful Bradford Based projects including Building STEM @Bradford, which oversaw the design, build and curriculum development of the University of Bradford’s STEM centre.  

James’ current area of interest involes working with young people to provide tutoring and other activities designed to help students with their GCSE Maths and English qualifications.

Soniya works closely with the Associate Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) to propose policies, develop strategies and measures to achieve and demonstrate good practice and compliance with equality legislation.

Soniya is responsible for providing advice and guidance on equality issues for staff and students and she works with colleagues across the University to ensure that staff are aware of their responsibilities under equality legislation and that University has the right policies and procedures in place to be legally compliant.

Alastair joined the University of Bradford as the Dean of Life Sciences in 2017. He recently transitioned to Director of Local Activity Partnerships.

He leads the Raising Achievement for Young People project. The work of this division forms part of the University’s Access and Participation plan, providing a robust response to the expectation of the Office for Students (OfS) that universities will “enhance and expand their partnerships with schools and other local and national organisations, to help raise the pre-16 attainment of young people from underrepresented groups across England”.

The project will deliver activities and creative solutions which help address educational disadvantage, improve educational circumstances, and positively impact on the achievement of young people in Bradford.

Rifat supports the implementation of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion [EDI] Delivery Plan, alongside associated activities and initiatives and focussed projects across the University. 

Rifat has over twenty years’ experience of high-level administrative co-ordination and has worked in HE for the past 11 years in various roles within Professional services and faculty.

Chris is the Associate Director of the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity, joining the University from De Montfort University, where he was the head Equality and Diversity.

He has supported universities in considering and advancing diversity and inclusion for many years. He undertook a leading role in De Montfort’s decolonising efforts. Chris first began to support EDI work when the Race Relations Act was introduced, supporting the University of the West of England develop and deliver its first ever Race Equality Action Plan. From there he went on to work in several universities, HEFCE (now the Office for Students) UCEA, and the Equality Challenge Unit.

Chris passionately believes in tackling injustice, unfairness and discrimination when and wherever it manifests. He has a legal background, with a specialist knowledge in rights at work and approaches to addressing pay gaps and pay inequality.

Outside of work, he enjoys running and spending time with his two young children.

Dr Kingsley Utam is the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Lecturer at the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity [CfID]. His job involves:

• making scholarly contributions to research,
• teaching and knowledge exchange,
• supporting the University’s sub-strategies of Research and Innovation and Learning, Teaching and Student Experience.

Before assuming this role, Utam was EDI Advisor at the CfID between April and October 2021. He worked within the CfID as a Research Associate on the Responsible Research and Innovation Networking Globally (RRING) project. This was a European Union sponsored Horizon 2020 research project involving 20 international partners from different parts of the world (September 2019 to April 2021). He co-authored two chapters of the Horizon 2020 RRING report. He has authored/co-authored several publications including journal articles, book chapters, and published instructional materials.

Utam earned his PhD in Inclusion and Diversity Management from the University of Bradford in 2021. He holds an MSc in Organisational Behaviour and BSc in Business Administration from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Before embarking on his PhD, he was a Lecturer at the Faculty of Management Sciences, National Open University of Nigeria. He played the role of Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Executive MBA and MPA (CEMBA/CEMPA) Programmes.

Kellie has a bachelor’s degree in business management and joined the University of Bradford in 2005. Kellie provides and co-ordinates comprehensive executive support to the Pro Vice-Chancellor [Equality, Diversity and Inclusion].

She works collaboratively and develops excellent working relations with colleagues across the University and with external stakeholders.

Kath is the Evaluation and Insight Lead within CfID, advising on the development of frameworks and methods to mainstream effective evaluation across EDI activities and interventions. Kath is also supporting the Equality Charters Adviser in the University’s Race Equality Charter application process, and the PVC EDI in other EDI strategic delivery activity.

Since 2009 Kath has worked as an Equality Consultant, with a track record in developing and implementing inclusive policy and practice to create change.  She has provided independent research, evaluation, and consultancy support to a range of public, private and third sector clients, working extensively in the Higher Education sector UK wide.

As well as a range of research and evaluation projects, Kath’s work with HE clients included the development of effective, embedded approaches to the delivery of equality impact assessment in HEIs; the development of inclusive learning and teaching practice; and supporting the delivery of the Equality Challenge Unit’s longitudinal programme to mainstream equality in FE and HE in Scotland.

Kath previously worked as the Senior Lead for Access and Widening Participation and as Research Associate for the Graduate Workforce Bradford Project at the University of Bradford, EDI and Business Manager for the Open University, and Regional Director for Aimhigher across the Yorkshire and Humber Region.

Currently Kath works one day a week with the CfID team, combining this with family and caring responsibilities.

Kath holds a BA (Hons) English and Education and a MA Social Policy, focusing on the impact of social policy on equality, inclusion and integration.

Rachael is an Equality Charters Adviser within the CfID, leading on project work relating to a range of Institutional Equality Charter submissions and advising on the development of all equality charters work within the University. She has a personal and a professional interest in equality charters within higher education and advises on all things related to charters and submissions.

Since 2012, Rachael has worked in several HEIs, in a variety of support and professional roles. She has a track record in delivering successful projects and a wealth of HR generalist and management support experience. Rachael previously worked as an Athena Swan Project Officer at the University of Leeds and was involved in three successful submissions to this charter whilst in role.

Rachael holds a BA (Hons) Theatre Studies and a PG Dip in Human Resources Management, focusing on change management in her research dissertation.

Uduak Archibong PhD MBE is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion). She directs the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity (CfID) and provides strategic oversight for equality, diversity and inclusion [EDI] across the institution. She is a Fellow of the West African College of Nursing and a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing. She was listed in the New Year Honours list 2015 and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to higher education and equality.

Recognised as a foremost authority with a sustained, distinguished presence in the field of diversity management, she is currently leading in setting agenda to drive research, learning and knowledge exchange activities internationally. She has published extensively on inclusion and diversity, informed by over 30 years experience of working in the health and higher education sectors. Her academic and professional work has major impacts locally, nationally and globally. Key among these impacts is that the body of her research work has provided the evidence base for, and a robust understanding of, the development and application of cultural solutions and diversity interventions in public, private and third sector organisations.

Lenka is the YCEDE and Access and Participation Coordinator and works within the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Bradford. She has extensive experience in managing and coordinating various projects and half her career has been focused on EDI development within the FE education sector. She is passionate about human rights and committed to challenging discrimination and injustice.

Originally from Slovakia, she considers Bradford her second home. She enjoys a good book, walk in a countryside, spending time with her family and occasional baking if time allows it.

Harnek has a background in Equality and Diversity work within a local authority background. He has supported the development of staff support groups.

Harnek has worked in the voluntary sector, supporting individuals, families and young people experiencing issues of racial harassment on community estates.

Harnek has delivered awareness training for organisations and groups around unconscious bias; how to be an effective ally and meaning participation and engagement of service users. 

He has trained practitioner on informal conflict resolution, via a restorative practice approach. He supports and encourages ‘seldom heard’ groups to voice their lived experiences and influence and change organisational practices and values.

Thomas started his journey at the University of Bradford as a student in 2012, graduating with a degree in Psychology in 2015.

He then began his professional journey with the University as a recruitment assistant, in the summer of 2015 and has since worked in multiple roles across the University.

His experiences have ranged from delivering Outreach and Recruitment work across the UK, to engaging our alumni community and supporting current students as an adviser. Notably, his work within Outreach and Recruitment saw him lead on engagement with schools across Bradford and develop partnerships with multiple educational partners, including Bradford Pathways, Children’s University, Ahead Partnership and Aspire Igen. Ultimately, his work in this area saw him work to raise aspirations and help young people across Bradford make informed decisions about their futures. This commitment to supporting people transitioned to current university students, when, during his role as a Student Life Adviser, Thomas provided financial and welfare advice to our student body.

This current role will see Thomas manage multiple local activity partnerships to support the goals of the University’s Access and Participation Plan and help raise aspirations, address inequalities and develop our strategic partnerships to support this work.