Linda Bellos, Chair
Linda Bellos is a management consultant and trainer, specialising in the field of equality, diversity and human rights. In 2007, Linda was awarded an OBE for her services to diversity. She is the founding Director of Diversity Solutions Consultancy (http://www.diversity-solutions.com). She is a published author, skilled motivational speaker and a regular guest contributor on radio and television, speaking on equality, diversity and human rights topics.
Linda joined the Spare Rib feminist collective in 1981, the first Black woman to do so. From 1984 to 1986, Linda was employed by the Greater London Council as the Equalities and Grants Monitoring Team Leader in the Women’s Committee Support Unit. She was vice-chair of the campaign to select Black candidates within the Labour Party. She was elected Leader of Lambeth Council in 1986, one of the first Black women to gain such a position in the UK.
As chair of the London Strategic Policy Unit in the mid 1980s, Linda introduced Black History Month, an annual event that is now celebrated across the UK. She was a founder member and first female Co-Chair of the LGBT Advisory Group to the Metropolitan Police from 2000 to 2003. She maintains an active involvement in the voluntary and community sector, which ensures that her work remains relevant and valid to grassroots communities.
Paul Carswell, Board Member
Paul has worked as an equality and diversity practitioner in both the public and private sector. He currently holds a board level equality and diversity post in the civil service, and has previously worked in both the NHS and police service. He was a founder member and General Secretary of the Gay Police Association, and member of the Metropolitan Police LGBT Advisory Group. He worked as a trainer and facilitator on the police service’s community and race relations training programme following the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. He worked in senior equality and diversity posts in both ambulance and acute hospital trusts, as well as working in the private sector as a learning and development consultant specialising in equality, diversity and human rights.
Paul completed a Masters degree in 2005 with a dissertation on the benefits of establishing a professional body for equality and diversity practitioners. His key area of interest is promoting equality, diversity and human rights through the development of individuals and organisational cultures and systems.
Tehmina Hammad, Board Member
Tehmina Hammad is an independent equality and diversity consultant. She specialises in equality strategy, research, monitoring systems, progress reporting and equality impact assessments. She has been on a number of policy and strategy groups, and is an associate of the Learning and Skills Network UK and Coffey International Limited world-wide.
Tehmina has held senior diversity positions in organisations, including the London School of Economics and Cambridge University Hospitals. Prior to that, she worked in international development (the Population Council and the Aga Khan Foundation), where she managed large scale research and evaluation projects, and worked closely with UN agencies (UNDP, UNFPA, Asian Development Bank and the World Bank). She holds master degrees in Economics, and Sociology and Politics.
Kate Hinton, Treasurer
Kate Hinton has a wide range of experience in education, mainly teaching in London schools and working as a Local Authority Adviser / Inspector, as well as an Ofsted Inspector.
Kate has a long standing commitment to all aspects of equality and has always sought opportunities to address equality issues through her work. This led to full-time equality posts at senior levels in Strathclyde Regional Council and, most recently, in Durham County Council. In these posts she played a leading role in developing policy and promoting effective practice in schools and in Children and Young People’s Services.
Kate now works independently and continues to be a member of the Children and Young People’s Services Equality Network. Recent work as a consultant for the Equality and Human Rights Commission gives her particular strengths in the implications for schools of the new Equality Bill. Kate is also a UNICEF Partner, supporting the dissemination of the Rights Respecting School Award.
Caroline Jones, Board Member
Caroline Jones has worked as an equality, diversity and human rights consultant and trainer for over 20 years. She is a Director of Diversity Solutions Consultancy (http://www.diversity-solutions.com). She has considerable expertise in designing policy and practice that delivers equality, diversity and human rights outcomes.
Caroline's published work includes equality impact assessments for the Office for National Statistics on their sexual identity project; on their design of ethnicity, national identity, language and religion questions for the 2011 Census; and on the design of a harmonised disability question for use in social surveys. For the Home Office and Housing Corporation, she devised a system of sustainable housing relocations for intimidated witnesses from all communities and cultures in the UK, (http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/upload/pdf/WitnessMobilityScheme.pdf). In 2003, she established the National Witness Mobility Service for the Home Office, which now operates as part of the National Policing Improvement Agency.
Caroline has contributed actively to the voluntary sector for many years. From 2000 to 2003, she served on the LGBT Advisory Group to the Metropolitan Police Service (http://www.lgbtag.org.uk). She was instrumental in founding Broken Rainbow LGBT Domestic Violence Service, serving as co-chair from 2001 to 2006 (http://www.broken-rainbow.org.uk).
Julie Kaya, Board Member
Julie started her equalities career in community activism 18 years ago. Widely travelled and commercially aware Julie has worked in intercultural learning and development in all sectors and specializes in process interventions. She has a BA in Social Anthropology (SOAS) and a Masters in International Education (NYU).
For the past 5 years Julie has worked as a business consultant in equality and diversity, primarily in strategy, community engagement and implementation in the private sector. She has worked with over 50 companies, written two standards in equality and diversity and leads a popular peer learning group. She is a school governor, a foster carer and volunteers in two other organizations. Julie has recently run a series of popular events raising the profile of LGB issues in her home city, Birmingham.
Shelagh Prosser, Vice-Chair
Shelagh is an established equality and diversity practitioner with over 19 years experience. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, she held senior diversity posts in the Civil Service, the BBC and the transport industry. Her areas of expertise include strategy and policy development, equality reviews and impact assessments, action planning, designing and delivering innovative diversity projects, writing for publication, research and partnership working.
As an independent consultant she has worked with a range of public, private and third sector organisations. These have included Age Concern London, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Independent Living Fund and London Development Agency (Diversity Works for London). She also works as an associate for a number of equality and diversity consultancies.
Shelagh is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Chair of the Westminster Equalities Partnership and a trustee of ‘Women and Manual Trades’ (an organisation supporting women training for and working in the construction industry) and ‘Border Crossings’, an intercultural theatre company.
Dipen Rajyaguru, Board Member
Dipen has been involved in human rights and social justice issues for over 15 years. He produced a submission that was used for the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. As an Independent Advisor to the Metropolitan Police (and founding member) for the highly successful Operation Trident, has helped build links with the Black communities and the manner in which they are policed and represented.
In his professional capacity he has developed systems to address issues of equality, that follow good practice and that have mechanisms for response, monitoring, evaluation and review. He has equality proofed and impact assessed strategic and national policies for national decision making bodies and national service providers.
Dipen was commissioned to produce an NVQ module for the criminal justice and related fields on ‘Diversity and Ethics’. He is the secretary for In-Volve, a charity to help re-engage people with or who are likely to get involved in substance abuse and crime. He is also an executive member of the Hindu Council UK with the remit on social and human rights.
Steve Rouse, Board Member
Steve is an established Learning & Development Consultant with a strong focus on Equality & Diversity.
Prior to working as a freelance, Steve was head of Learning Design for the Department for Work & Pensions’ corporate centre, where he was responsible for the department’s award-winning “Diversity Toolkit”, an online Equality & Diversity resource. Since becoming freelance, Steve has designed and delivered Equality & Diversity training for organisations as wide-ranging as RBS Group, Manchester City Council, UFI, Age Concern and Le Crossing Company Ltd. His other specialisms include Leadership, Performance Management and blended learning design.
Steve is also the Technical & Research Director of the Learning Practitioners’ Association, as well as being a Licentiate Fellow of ITOL and a CIPD associate member. He has a long-standing involvement with the Manchester literary scene, including as a past Secretary of the community publisher Commonword/Cultureword.
Joanna Rowland-Stuart, Board Member
Joanna Rowland-Stuart has been the Equality and Diversity Adviser for the Learning and Skills Council in the South East for the last seven years, based in Brighton. In her job she is responsible for ensuring that the LSC and their providers (colleges, further educational institutions, and employers who provide training in the workplace) meet their obligations under existing equality legislation. She is also tasked with educating staff and management (at LSC and providers) in being active rather than passive in their approach to, and acceptance of, diversity. The LSC has about 300 staff in the South East, and has 6 local offices and one regional office.
From April 2010 Joanna will transfer to the Skills Funding Agency, in a similar role as their Inclusion Adviser. Jo holds a BTEC Postgraduate Professional Diploma in Managing Diversity in the Workplace, awarded by EdExcel, as result of a one-year course at Digitalife in Bradford. The course was one of the initiatives of the LSC, as indeed was the feasibility study that gave rise to the Institute of Equality and Diversity Practitioners (IEDP).
Jo has been a trade union activist for the last five years and is active in Equality and Diversity within her union, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), for which she is their Transgender Officer and a Lay Tutor. She also sits on several LGBT working groups organised by Brighton and Hove Council in conjunction with the local PCT and the Brighton LGBT umbrella group, Spectrum, and is the LSC representative on the City Inclusion Partnership.