PARLIAMENTARY LAUNCH OF THE BLACK ACADEMIA POLICY REPORTS
Keynote speaker
DAVID OLUSOGA
David Olusoga is a British-Nigerian historian, broadcaster and film-maker. His most recent TV series include Empire (BBC 2), Black and British: A Forgotten History (BBC 2), The World’s War (BBC 2), 4 seasons of A House Through Time (BBC 2) and the BAFTA winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners (BBC 2). David is also the author of Black & British: A Forgotten History which was awarded both the Longman-History Today Trustees Award and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize. His other books include The World’s War, which won First World War Book of the Year in 2015, The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism and Civilizations: Encounters and the Cult of Progress. David was also a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Black British History and writes for The Guardian and is a columnist for The Observer and BBC History Magazine. He is also one of the three presenters on the BBC’s landmark Arts series Civilizations. In 2020 he held an exclusive interview with former President of the United States, Barack Obama. David’s most recent book Black and British: A Short, Essential History won the Children’s Illustrated & Non-Fiction book of the year at the 2021 British Book Awards.
David Olusoga is receiving the 2023 BAFTA Special Award for outstanding contribution to television.
DIANE ABBOTT MP
Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group Race Equality in Education
Diane Abbott MP made history in 1987 as the first black woman elected to the British Parliament. Born in London in 1953, she graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge, with a Master’s in History. She began her career as a Home Office Civil Servant, later working for the National Council for Civil Liberties and in journalism.
In Parliament, Abbott has championed global justice, human rights, and race relations. She served on the Labour Party’s National Executive and the Treasury Select Committee, later becoming Shadow Secretary for International Development, Health, and Home Secretary. Founder of the London Schools and the Black Child initiative, Abbott is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for black children. She chairs the British-Caribbean All-Party Parliamentary Group and the APPG for Sickle Cell and Thalassemia.
LORD SIMON WOOLLEY
Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group Race Equality in Education
Simon Woolley became Principal of Homerton College on 1 October 2021. He founded Operation Black Vote (OBV) in 1996, serving as its Director until 2021. OBV aims to enhance ethnic minorities’ participation in UK civic society and promote equality. He was an Equality and Human Rights Commissioner (2009-2012) and led the UK Government’s Race Disparity Unit from 2018. Raised on a council estate, Woolley left school early, later earning a BA and MA. He has worked to increase BME representation in Parliament and co-developed the Pathway to Success program. Knighted in 2019 and a life peer since December 2019, he sits in the House of Lords and holds honorary doctorates and fellowships from multiple universities.
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L'MYAH SHERAE
L’myah Sherae is the Founder of Enact Equality, a leading non-profit advancing race and equality in the UK. She also founded the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Race Equality in Education, collaborating with MPs and Peers across parties. With extensive experience in politics and both Houses of Parliament, L’myah is a leading expert on race, diversity, and equality policies.
She holds a master’s degree in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge. L’myah worked in the House of Lords under Lord Bird MBE, managing a team for the UK Wellbeing of Future Generation Bill. She also worked in the Private Office of former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.
An award-winning advocate, she frequently appears on Sky News, BBC, ITV, and more, and has impacted policies like national guidance against Afro-hair discrimination in schools.
MALIK AL NASIR
Malik Al Nasir is an author, poet and academic from Liverpool. His memoir ‘Letters to Gil’ is a compelling account of his childhood experiences in a brutal UK Local Authority care system, which at eighteen, left him traumatised, semi-literate, homeless, and destitute. A chance meeting with poet and activist Gil Scott-Heron was to prove life changing, setting him on a path to success.
Malik is currently reading for a PhD in history at University of Cambridge on a full ESRC scholarship, and he’s just been awarded the prestigious ‘Sydney Smith Memorial Prize’ for ‘outstanding achievement’ at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Global Social Impact (2023). Malik is a co-founder of “Black Academia – Lifting the Barriers.”
DR LEONA VAUGHN
Dr Leona Vaughn is a sociologist with extensive experience in racial and social justice in higher education, central government and NGOs. She devised an award-winning national positive action programme to increase representation of Black prosecutors in England and Wales. Leona is an expert on studies of risk and vulnerability in social policy and the social impacts on racialised and minoritised populations, especially women and children.
Currently the University of Liverpool Derby Fellow for slavery and unfree labour research, she recently worked for the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (New York). She has led a number of interdisciplinary international research projects with academic, civil society, and community-based partners, and is the co-founder of Barriers to Black Academia.
RHIANNON LLYSTYN JONES
Rhiannon (she/her) is a PhD student in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests focus on social justice and tackling inequalities in higher education. Fully funded by the ESRC, her PhD explores the roles and relationships between government policy, institutional cultures, and personal identities on the conceptualisation of widening participation and the development of institutional Access and Participation Plan targets.
Alongside Malik, Rhiannon was awarded the Cambridge Students’ Awards for contributions to access and widening participation (2023). She currently teaches across multiple papers on the undergraduate Education Tripos at the University of Cambridge. She is also the current Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer, representing postgraduate students at St John’s College, Cambridge.
ACADEMIC PANEL
PROFESSOR PHILIP TAYLOR
Professor Phil Taylor is the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bath. He is a globally recognised researcher and industrial expert in energy systems with over 30 years of experience in both industry and academia.
Prior to joining the University of Bath Phil held positions at The University of Bristol, University of Newcastle and Durham University, as well as directorships of various energy and sustainability institutes. Phil was appointed to the Government’s Net Zero Innovation Board in 2022.
His industry experience includes several years at GEC Alstom, EPS (UK), Teradyne, and Senergy Econnect where he held the position of Research and Development Director.
Phil has co-authored six books and been published in multiple journals.
PROFESSOR FIONA BEVERIDGE
Fiona is Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Liverpool.
Fiona is a Professor of Law, specialising in international, in particular foreign investment law and gender equality law and policy. She has a particular expertise in gender mainstreaming (that is, the idea that gender concerns should be addressed systematically in all areas by all actors), and how this is implemented in international institutions, the EU, and in individual states.
Fiona is Chair of the Board of the University of Liverpool Press, and a Non-Executive Director at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
PAULETTE WILLIAMS
Founder and Managing Director, Leading Routes
Paulette has over 15 years experiences leading widening participation and student success projects in higher education. She is active in addressing racial inequities in higher education contributing to advisory groups led by organisations such as Universities UK (UUK) and London Higher as well as Co-Chairing the Race Equality Steering Group at UCL where she works as Co-Lead for the BAME Awarding Gap project.
Paulette has delivered training, given keynotes and contributed to panels on topics linked to race equity in higher education and the BAME Awarding Gap; and remains passionate about creating a network in higher education for the Black community that support students throughout the academic lifecycle.
PROFESSOR MALCOLM PRESS
Professor Malcolm Press CBE is Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University, having worked previously at the Universities of Birmingham, Sheffield, and Manchester.
Malcolm is a trustee of the British Council and UCAS, and a Board member of Universities UK and the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education.
Malcolm is an ecologist and has previously served as a trustee of WWF-UK, president of the British Ecological Society, a trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, a council member of the National Trust, a council member of the Society of Biology, and as a deputy chair for a Research Excellence Framework panel.
PROFESSOR DAME OTTOLINE LEYSER
Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser is the Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge. UKRI brings together the UK’s Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England, operating with a combined budget of more than £8bn per year.
Ottoline has a long-term interest in research culture and has worked extensively in science policy.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Member of the Leopoldina and EMBO, and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. In 2017 she was appointed DBE for services to plant science, science in society and equality and diversity in science.
