Queen Mary’s community is made up of people with diverse identities and experiences. We are proud of our diverse community and recognise the importance of visibility.
Spotlight Profiles will be published weekly throughout the month, so check back regularly to meet more of the LGBTQA+ community across Queen Mary.
Thank you to colleagues who have provided their Spotlight Profiles. We hope you enjoy reading them.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Role/position: Professor in HIV Medicine
School/Directorate: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Blizard Institute
Can you describe your career path, current role and what attracted you to work at Queen Mary?
I was an NHS doctor for 18 years before moving to academia. During my training I looked after (almost exclusively) gay and bisexual men with HIV. I have always worked in HIV medicine and 18 years ago the therapies were not good enough to help everyone. This meant that offering people access to therapeutic drug trials gave them access to life-saving treatments. I was attracted to move from the NHS to academia (for some of my time) to get some protected time to produce research. I took a very unconventional path into academia and have not worked at a University prior to Professorship level.
How has your personal identity(ies) intersected with your work and role at Queen Mary?
I am the Academic EDI Lead for the Faculty of Medicine. My goal is to bring EDI into every aspect of academic life in FMD, most especially the understanding that diverse researchers ask different research questions and diverse educators modernise curriculae. I try to model inclusive leadership and that means owning my full identity as a woman in a leadership position, as a proud member of the LGBTQA+ community and as a disabled person. It is important for people to see that people like me and like them can hold national and academic leadership positions.
I work with committed EDI colleagues to understand and address the structural barriers that face people with protected characteristics. In our world power is held predominantly by White cisgendered men (men who were assigned male sex at birth and identify as men). Therefore, it is only with their allyship, commitment and bystandership that the experiences and concerns of people like me and others with various marginalised identities will ever be heard and addressed. My role is to communicate clearly and share the academic scholarship that underpins tackling racism, sexism, transphobia, ageism and ableism. I am greatly facilitated and supported by the allyship and commitment of Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, the Vice Principal for Health at FMD. Progress toward inclusion has accelerated during his tenure which fills me with hope.
What does Equality, Diversity and Inclusion mean to you and how important is Queen Mary's EDI work to you as a staff member and your sense of belonging at Queen Mary?
The main focus of my research group the SHARE collaborative is the intersection between infections and inequalities. My group is comprised of a predominantly female, richly ethnically diverse team of researchers also including colleagues who are transgender, LGBT and disabled, and a researcher who has retired and returned. Together we are working in true partnership with people with lived experience of HIV and other viruses such as mpox to produce the research that they and we want to showcase.
What one piece of advice or information would be you give to others in the Queen Mary community to help them foster an inclusive environment and / or be an effective ally?
Do the Queen Mary Bystander e-learning. It is vital for every member of staff who wants to speak up and create a better environment for themselves and others.
You can find out more about Queen Mary Bystander e-learning on our Month Long Events page.
Pronouns: He/Him or Them/They
Role/position: Marketing and Communications Officer
School/Directorate: School of Mathematical Sciences
I have worked in the education sector since graduating in 2008 and I feel very much at home here. I started out as an English language and translation teacher at a university in Mexico, and after toying with the idea of a research career, I moved into international student recruitment. This is where I really built up my professional experience and learned a lot about intercultural communication. I travelled to over 30 different countries for work and had some unforgettable experiences along the way.
I started at Queen Mary in January 2022 after spending 3 years in Canada. I was looking to stay in higher education and Queen Mary just seemed like the best fit for me. I’m not going to lie and pretend the 15-minute cycle to work wasn’t a big draw, but so were Queen Mary’s values. I remember preparing for my interview and learning about the University’s Strategy 2030 and there was one core value in particular that resonated with me: inclusive. That’s what I was looking for and that is what I have enjoyed most about working at Queen Mary.
Since day one, I have taken an active role in our School’s EDI activities, which is not something I had ever had the opportunity to do before. I knew I was going to find safe spaces as a queer person at Queen Mary, but what I didn’t realise is that I’d be encouraged to develop and shape these spaces.
I’ve always been out at work but when I look back on previous roles, I can see now that I edited myself. I often tried to hide my sexuality, especially when travelling to certain countries for work. I spoke in neutral, vague language when people asked me about my personal life because I was afraid people might not want to do business with me (my employer) if they knew I was queer.
This is not the case at Queen Mary and I feel I can be my authentic self. The simple act of writing this profile and celebrating my queer identity in the workplace is not something I could have imagined doing a few years ago.
EDI is really important to me but this wasn’t something I was expecting when I started at Queen Mary. Thanks to an inspirational EDI Lead in the School of Maths and a supportive wider community, I’ve not only got a strong sense of belonging at Queen Mary, but I believe that our EDI activities over the past year have resulted in some of my most important personal and professional development.
Show up!
If your School or Directorate is developing new EDI initiatives or organising events, get involved and support them however you can. There is so much incredible work being done across the University, but it does seem to be the same small group of people driving things.
We talk a lot about being allies these days and it’s very easy to say you’re an ally and take a passive role. Being an effective ally requires action, uncomfortable conversations, and taking time out of your day to truly help foster a more inclusive environment.