I am grateful to have been the Faculty Lead of the BAME Awarding Gap Project when the FBS awarding gap reduced from 14.6% to .5%.

My overarching vision is that our students and staff are equally valued, included, recognised, awarded, promoted and supported.

I enjoy meeting with others who are enthusiastic about EDI in our faculty (there are many!) and we are working together to share good practices throughout FBS. Avili Feese, the FBS EDI manager, is the co-founder of the UCL EDI Community of Practice, which can help us to share and utilise good practices more widely across UCL. I’m looking forward to attending the CoP Welcome Event on 6 November, and would like to encourage others to join too!

Over the next two years, we plan to actively beacon our existing EDI work, engaging with colleagues both within and beyond the faculty to enhance collaboration. Additionally, we will prioritise reducing inequalities for students by understanding and addressing awarding gaps for postgraduate taught students, which is an area that we have not previously examined in FBS, and involving students in the co-production of FBS EDI initiatives. Beyond that, we would like to identify ways to support women and staff from ethnically minoritised backgrounds for promotion.

I would magically create an office space that connects all of the FBS, with natural light, fresh air, plants, meeting/group areas, access to outdoor space and free coffee/tea!

Chicken soup with kneidel, roast chicken and roast potatoes, followed by hot chocolate cake.

I’m from Texas and I grew up going to beautiful Mexico on holiday.  I’d love to go back now as an adult with my husband and family.

It always seems to surprise people that I have 5 children (probably because the work/life balance in academia is challenging) — three of which are young teens and two who are young adults.  I also have a three year old grandson, who is my little treasure.

As many of you may be aware, you can now review and update your equality monitoring information using Inside UCL, the staff app. Equality monitoring information includes data on protected characteristics such as disability status, sexual orientation, ethnic identity and other characteristics.

The Faculty of Brain Sciences is committed to providing equal and equitable opportunities for staff. Monitoring data is necessary to make our equality vision a reality and ensure that all colleagues have the same access to training, promotion, and other opportunities.

Equality monitoring helps us:

· Better understand the faculty profile and help us take targeted action to support and respond to staff needs

· Promote awareness of the diversity of faculty

· Investigate trends or patterns of potential disadvantage or discrimination

· Inform decision-making and make relevant improvements

Equality monitoring also helps UCL comply with the Equality Act 2010 in being responsible for protecting members of staff from discrimination and harassment at work.

Below are the ‘unknown’ disclosure rates across 5 characteristics in each institute/division:

Ethnicity Gender identity Disability Religion Sexual orientation

We’d like to encourage all of you to log into the app and check and update your information (you can find this under the ‘My details’ tile) – the process only takes a few minutes and contributes towards creating positive change. You can select ‘prefer not to say’ if you wish.

It is also important to note that your identity characteristics can change over your time at UCL, so please do ensure your information is up to date over time. If you’d like to know more about how this data is used by UCL, the explanatory article on Staff News and the FAQs on the EDI website have more information.

The Faculty has recently appointed Avili Feese (IoO Athena SWAN Project Manager) to the role of EDI Manager, taking over from Ciara Wright, who is shortly leaving UCL.

Avili has worked within EDI in the Faculty since 2019, and has championed a number of EDI initiatives including career support for Professional Services and Technical Staff, and most notably as the driving force behind IoO’s recent Silver Athena SWAN Award.

The Faculty EDI Team looks forward to continuing to address inequalities and create an inclusive culture with Avili’s leadership and support in the coming academic year.