Category Archives: Diversity

Disability, Diversity, Gender, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – December 2013

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 EVELYN GLENNIE – PERCUSSIONIST

Evelyn Glennie Pic 2

 

3rd December is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, with this in mind we have chosen Evelyn Glennie as our Diversity Champion for December.

Evelyn is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist.  She studied at Ellon Academy and the Royal Academy of Music, and was also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.  She has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12, having started to lose her hearing from the age of 8.

Evelyn  is the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist.

She regularly plays barefoot during both live performances and studio recordings in order to feel the music better.  Evelyn contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She claims to have taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. In response to criticism from the media, Glennie published “Hearing Essay” in which she discusses her condition.

She takes part in over 100 concerts a year as well as master classes and “music in schools” performances; she frequently commissions percussion works from composers and performs them in her concert repertoire.  She also plays the  Highland Bagpipes and has her own registered tartan known as “The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie”.  In 2012, she collaborated with Underworld at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games performing live in the stadium.

Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and became a Dame in 2007.

She has won many other awards, including:

  • Best Chamber Music Performance in the Grammy Awards of 1989
  • Scot of the Year 1982
  • Queen’s Commendation prize for all round excellence 1985
  • Scotswoman of the Decade 1990
  • Best Studio and Live Percussionist from Rhythm Magazine 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 & 2004
  • Walpole Medal of Excellence 2002
  • Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year 2003
  • Sabian Lifetime Achievement Award 2006
  • Percussive Arts Society: Hall of Fame – November 2008
Disability, Diversity, Gender, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – November 2013

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TANNI GREY-THOMPSON – PARALYMPIAN

Tanni

November is Inspirational Role Models Month and with this in mind we have chosen Tanni Grey-Thompson as our Inspirational Diversity Champion.

Tanni who was born with spina bifida is considered to be one of the most successful disabled athletes in the world. She was christened Carys, but her sister referred to her as “tiny” when she first saw her, pronouncing it “tanni” and the name stuck.

Tanni first representated Wales at wheelchair racing in 1984 making her paralympic debut in Seoul in 1988. Over her career she won a total of 16 paralympic medals, including 11 golds, held over 30 world records and won the London Marathon six times between 1992 and 2002.

She retired following the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in 2007. In preparation for her retirement from the track, she expanded her television presenting career on BBC Wales, SC4 and BBC One.

Tanni is a non-executive director for UK Athletics, sits on the board of the London Marathon and the board of Transport for London. She is Chair of the Women’s Sports and Fitness Foundation Commission on the Future of Women’s Sport. She is Vice-Chairman of the Laureus World Sport Academy and a trustee of the Sport for Good Foundation. She is also a Council member for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and an International Inspiration Ambassador. As well as this she is the Patron of the Tees Wheelyboats Club, a group providing disabled people with access to the Rivers Tees and Chair of the Tony Blaire Sports Foundation.

In March 2010, she was created a Life Peer, in 1993 she was awarded an MBE and OBE for “services to sport”, and in 2005 became a Dame. She has been BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year three times; in 1992, 2000 and 2004. In 2000, she came third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and she also received the Helen Rollason Award for her performance at the 2000 Summer Paralympics.

In July this year the University awarded Tanni a degree of Honorary Doctor of Science in recognition of her long service to disability and disadvantaged people, as well as to sport and the Paralympic games.

Diversity, Ethnicity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – October 2013

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Trevor McDonald 1

October is Black History Month and with this in mind we have chosen Trevor McDonald as our Inspirational Diversity Champion.

Trevor McDonald was born in Trinidad in 1939, he worked in various aspects of the media including local newspapers, radio and television before he joined the Caribbean regional service of the BBC World Service in 1960 as a producer.  He moved to London at the end of that decade to work for the corporation (BBC Radio, London).

In 1973 he moved to Independent Television News (ITN) and rose steadily through the ranks to become the first black newsreader in the UK.  He was twice voted Newscaster of the year, and is perceived as the face of ITN after years of fronting its flagship ‘News at Ten’ bulletin.

He is an accomplished journalist, he has written several books including autobiographies on cricketers Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards. His own biography, ‘Fortunate Circumstances’, was published in 1993.

Once viewed as the best-spoken person in the country, he fronted a two-year inquiry into the state of language learning. It warned that government education policy failed to teach pupils the necessary language skills needed for later life.

Trevor McDonald read the news for ITN for over 30 years, in 1992 he received an OBE in the Queen’s Honours List, and in 1999 received a knighthood for services to journalism.  Although now retired from reading the news Trevor continues to broadcast on TV most recently last month when he presented the show ‘Women Behind Bars’ an insight into the Indiana Rockville Correctional Facility.

 

Diversity, Gender, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – September 2013

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Clare Balding

This month see’s the launch of the university’s LGBT network and with this in mind we have chosen Clare Balding as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Clare is a television presenter and journalist who from 1988 to 1993, was a leading amateur flat jockey and Champion Lady Rider in 1990 and was one of the first women elected to membership of the Jockey Club.  In December 1997 she became the BBC’s lead horse racing presenter and now fronts the horse racing for Channel 4.

She has reported from five Olympic Games, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London. She has presented two Paralympic Games, the Winter Olympics from Turin and Vancouver as well as the Commonwealth Games from Melbourne and Delhi, and is the face of the BBC’s rugby league coverage.

In October 2012, she appeared before an All Party Parliamentary Group on Women’s Sport, with Katherine Grainger, Hope Powell and Tanni Grey-Thompson. “Women having freedom to play sport leads directly to women having political freedom,” said Balding.

In 2013 Clare was awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting and journalism.

She has written regular columns for The Observer, the Evening Standard and The Sporting Life.  Her autobiography entitled My Animals and Other Family, published on September 2012 won the ‘Biography\Autobiography of the Year’ Award at the National Book Awards.

In February 2013 she was assessed as being one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 and also won the award for Sports Presenter at the Television and Radio Industries Club Awards

She formalised her relationship with the BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer and newsreader Alice Arnold in September 2006 by entering into a civil partnership. In July 2010, she made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission over an article by writer A. A Gill in The Sunday Times that she felt had mocked her sexuality and appearance and for which the newspaper refused to apologise. The PCC found in her favour, judging that A. A Gill had “refer[red] to the complainant’s sexuality in a demeaning and gratuitous way”.

Diversity, Ethnicity, Gender, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – August 2013

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DIANE ABBOTT – MOTHER AND POLITICIAN

Diane Abbott 2

World Breastfeeding Week takes place between 1 – 7 August and as such, we have chosen someone who has combined their role as a mother with a successful working life as our Diversity Champion for August.

Diane Abbott is a mother and politician. She has been the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, when she was elected to the House of Commons and became part of the first Black and Asian intake in Parliament for almost 100 years. She was the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons. In 2010, she became Shadow Public Health Minister after unsuccessfully standing for election as leader of the Labour Party.

She has a record of differing from some party policies; voting against the Iraq War, opposing ID cards and campaigning against the renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons. She has been seen as a “maverick, a free-thinker, willing to rebel against the party machine”.

More … http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/hr/ere/e-and-d/our-inspirational-diversity-champion-of-the-month

Diversity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – July 2013

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James Wharton joined the British Army in August 2003 and entered into the ranks of the Blues and Royals.

In 2007 James served in Southern Iraq for seven months carrying out his duties as an Armoured Reconnaissance soldier. In 2008 he spent 4 months assisting in the training of other troops preparing for active service at the British Army’s training facility in Alberta, Canada.

James has played a part on all major state occasions including the State Opening of Parliament, Lord Mayor’s Parade, Cenotaph Parade and the Queen’s Birthday Parade.  In April 2011, James was honoured to be escorting the Sovereign on the occasion of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding.

James was the first gay person to appear on the front cover of Soldier magazine, the British Army’s official publication, which also had an in-depth article on James’ life as its feature.

Marrying his long term partner Thomas in March 2010, James and his husband became the first same sex couple to have their relationship formalised in the Household Cavalry’s 350 year history. They enjoyed the celebrations within the walls of the London barracks.

James tours secondary schools in the UK as a positive role model for Stonewall as part of their Education for All campaign, talking of his experiences as an ‘out’ gay soldier in the British Military. He has also featured in Stonewall’s Role Model guide, published in 2012.

James has ranked in the top 20 of the Independent on Sunday’s Pink List for the past 3 consecutive years down to his work fighting homophobia within Britain’s Schools and his LGB activism commitments.

His first book, ‘Out In The Army: My Life As A Gay Soldier’ was released in June 2013.

Diversity, Ethnicity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – June 2013

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This month is Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month.  With this in mind we have chosen Ian Hancock as our Inspirational Diversity Champion for June.

Hancock was born in Britain of both British and Hungarian Romani descent and was raised according to Romani traditions. He experienced firsthand the prejudice, discrimination and alienation that so many centuries of Romanies before him had endured.

Although he dropped out of school to go to work, which was very common for Romani people, Ian went onto study at London University and became the first Romani in Britain to receive a Ph.D. He has since devoted most of his adult life to dispelling ignorance about his ethnic origins.

Since his London University days, Hancock has used his somewhat unique position as a Romani-born, university-educated scholar to speak for an oppressed population that has traditionally had no voice or representation, to preserve information about Romani customs and history and to fight for Romani political and civil rights.

He is the Chairman of the United Romani Educational Foundation Inc., the official ambassador to the United Nations and UNICEF for the world’s 15 million Romanies and the only Romani to have been appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Educating the public about Romani history and culture has been a colossal task for Hancock because most individuals do, unfortunately, have a graphic mental image of the “typical gypsy,” but they have formed their ideas from all the wrong information.

“They do not know that seventy percent of the Romani population of Nazi-occupied Europe were murdered during the Holocaust.”

“This ridiculous fictional image has taken on a life of its own,” says Hancock. “The cliché description of Romanies is so deeply rooted that it may never totally be eradicated. There are countless representations in films and books of Italians as Mafia members, but no one actually believes that all Italians are Mafia members. That is not true for my people”.

 

Disability, Diversity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT, Mental Health

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – May 2013

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This month is Mental Health Awareness Month, being celebrated in England between 23 and 30 May. With this in mind we have chosen Stephen Fry as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Stephen is well known for his variety of talents including; being an actor, quiz show host, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director, activist, and board member of Norwich City Football Club. However, what is less known about Stephen is that he suffers from Bipolar Disorder.  He was finally diagnosed when he was 37 years old having experienced mental health problems for much of his life.

He has spoken publicly about his experience with bipolar disorder, which was also depicted in the documentary ‘Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive’. During the programme, he was dismayed to discover the extent of prejudice surrounding mental health problems;

“I want to speak out, to fight the public stigma and to give a clearer picture of mental illness that most people know little about.

“Once the understanding is there, we can all stand up and not be ashamed of ourselves, then it makes the rest of the population realise that we are just like them but with something extra.”

He is involved with the mental health charity Stand to Reason and is a celebrity supporter of the mental health charity ‘Time to Change’.

 

Disability, Diversity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, Mental Health

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – April 2013

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April is Autism Awareness month and with this in mind we have chosen Luke Jackson as our Inspirational Diversity Champion.

Luke Christopher Jackson is a British author who rose to fame at the age of 13, when he wrote a book from first-hand experience about his life with Asperger syndrome. In the book, entitled ‘Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence’, Luke writes about his younger autistic and ADHD brothers, providing amusing insights into the antics of his younger years and advice for parents, carers and teachers of children with Asperger’s.

Luke’s main reason for writing was because “so many books are written about us, but none are written directly to adolescents with Asperger Syndrome. I thought I would write one in the hope that we could all learn together”.  The book created a sensation and greatly increased general awareness of the condition.

Luke left school at the age of 14 “after completely having had enough”. He has since been singing and playing in a band, has written two further books and has appeared in documentaries about Autism.

Diversity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – February 2013

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February is LBGT History Month and with this in mind we have chosen Ben Summerskill as our Inspirational Diversity Champion.

Ben Summerskill OBE is the Chief Executive of Stonewall – the largest gay equality organisation in Europe.

He has successfully expanded Stonewall’s work from parliamentary lobbying into other fields including, workplace equality and campaigning against homophobia in schools. He led successful campaigns for the repeal of anti-gay legislation, the introduction of Civil Partnerships and the introduction protections against discrimination in the provision of “goods and services”, covering areas from healthcare and housing, to hotels and holidays. Highlights of his achievements include leading a successful parliamentary campaign in 2007-2008 for the introduction of a criminal offence of incitement to homophobic hatred and a campaign in 2009-2010 to enable gay people to celebrate civil partnerships in religious premises.

Under his direction, Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme, promoting good practice among major UK employers, has grown from 35 to 600 members, who employ 5.5 million people between them, ranging from IBM and Tesco to the armed services and MI5. Stonewall’s ‘Education for All’ programme, launched in 2005 to help tackle homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools, is supported by 70 major teaching and children’s organisations.

In 2006, he was appointed a Commissioner on Britain’s new Equality and Human Rights Commission. He was awarded an OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours list and was appointed to the committee of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2009. In 2010 he was a finalist as Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year and in 2011 he was shortlisted as Britain’s Most Admired Charity Chief Executive in the Third Sector Awards.