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<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nMy educational and career journey hasn\u2019t been the most straightforward trajectory. When I was a kid, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I responded with cartoonist or marine biologist, quite like my idol Stephen Hillenburg who created SpongeBob SquarePants and was both. I didn\u2019t really know that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) or diversity and inclusion (D&I) was something that I could work in. However, <\/span>I always knew I <\/span>wanted a career that helped people.<\/span> It all clicked for me when I selected Sociology as one of my A-Levels.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My interest in social sciences grew and I studied criminology at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, earning a Master\u2019s degree. My specific focus was eradicating violence against women and victimology. Both of my dissertations were focused on sexual violence on university campuses, and this was something I wanted to pursue career-wise.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n While completing my Master\u2019s degree, I worked part-time at<\/span> LSE and found out who managed the sexual violence response at the university. This was the first time I heard about the EDI team and what their remit is. It really resonated with me, and I remember telling a friend that the only way I\u2019d continue working at LSE is if I ended up working in the EDI team. I\u2019ve been working in <\/span>this field for almost four years now.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I work as the EDI Coordinator for the\u00a0 <\/span>Mechanical Engineering<\/span><\/a> (MechEng) and <\/span>Earth Science and Engineering<\/span><\/a> (ESE) departments. This is a new role introduced last year<\/span>,<\/span> and I started working at Imperial in September 2021. In short, I help both departments establish their EDI Committees, deliver their EDI strategies, and provide a link to the central College.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In ESE, there is a newly formed working group to diversify artwork. We have <\/span>a talented student whose artwork<\/span><\/a> will be displayed in the department. In MechEng, I have been part of an EDI seed fund project to produce videos about common mental health problems and signposting to resources. There is a wide range of initiatives I take on, and part of being departmental based rather than central means I have more interactions with students and can advocate for departmental voices. <\/span>I\u2019m always happy to meet <\/span>either online or for a coffee <\/span>with<\/span> anyone who is interested in working in EDI<\/span> or would like to find out what I\u2019m up to. EDI shouldn\u2019t have trade secrets.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n