"This is just the beginning."
Celebrating the success of the
Imperial As One Media Academy
Science impacts us all. From technological innovation to medical breakthroughs, it is a field and practice built on the span of human knowledge, across cultures and borders. But the voices that we hear and faces that we see discussing scientific discovery are overwhelmingly White. This underrepresentation – as well as other statistics such as Black academic staff only make up one per cent of all professors in the UK and Black and minority ethnic researchers receive less funding than their White counterparts – can give the impression that they are not making significant contributions to scientific research and discovery.
While there have been initiatives to increase representation in academia, like the Office for Students (OfS) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) investing in Widening Participation in postgraduate research, the gap in representation remains.
It is imperative that institutions highlight the work and discoveries of minority ethnic researchers so their voices can be heard, their presence made known and their expertise showcased beyond the academic world.
The Imperial As One Media Academy was created in response to this, aiming to increase the number of minority ethnic researchers and PhD students in the media and wider public sphere. It is a collaboration between Imperial’s race equity network, Imperial As One (IAO), the Communications Division and the Faculty of Medicine – and is celebrating four years of success.
The Media Academy offers skills development in a range of communications areas like media training, public engagement and public affairs. Workshops are held on podcasts, how to use social media to promote your work, tips for engaging with journalists and how to craft blog posts and opinion pieces.
Go behind the scenes to see how the Media Academy is creating space for more diverse expert voices in science communication.
Through lessons and interactive activities, the programme aims to encourage and support participants to showcase their work more widely. The programme is organised and delivered by the Media Academy team whose members include Dr Wayne A Mitchell, Associate Provost for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Principal Teaching Fellow in the Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Faculty of Medicine; Ellie Cawthera, Project Manager for the Media Academy; Al McCartney, Head of Communications and Engagement in the Faculty of Medicine; and Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye, Imperial's first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Research Fellow.
Dr Sungano Chigogora, Principal Teaching Fellow, School of Public Health at Imperial College London
Dr Sungano Chigogora, Principal Teaching Fellow, School of Public Health at Imperial College London
Maxine Myers, Communications Manager for the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre, is also part of the Media Academy’s committee. She recognised that existing communications training programmes at Imperial were not attracting many minority ethnic academics and came up with the idea of starting the Media Academy, specifically targeting researchers from underrepresented backgrounds to try and bridge this gap.
According to Maxine, it felt essential to create this tailored programme as minority ethnic researchers face unique challenges that their White counterparts don’t. "As a minority ethnic researcher you can be invited to talk about your research, but then you might get asked a question about racism in academia. How do you navigate that if you just want to focus on your work?" This is why the Media Academy is so important. Researchers from underrepresented backgrounds can learn to represent themselves and their work in the media, navigate challenging questions, grow their presence online and showcase the contributions they make to scientific research and innovation.
New horizons, new ideas
The Media Academy is helping more researchers to see the impact they can have outside of the academic world. When asked about what the Media Academy taught her, Dareen Marghlani, a PhD candidate in Clinical Medicine Research in the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (who graduated from the Media Academy in 2025) explained how it expanded her understanding of what it can mean to have impact as a researcher and clinician.
"Being a clinician and a scientist is not just about being at the bedside, or about reading articles and conducting experiments. Now, things can really go beyond that such as having impact in policymaking. Until now, I didn't know that as a scientist and a clinician, my research could help inform policymaking."
Originally from Saudi Arabia, Dareen is a respiratory therapist. She moved to London to continue her research in cardiovascular and respiratory healthcare. She is researching a long-term fungal lung infection called chronic pulmonary aspergillosis that can cause persistent coughing, fatigue and weight loss. With her research, she is hoping to develop a disease-specific quality of life assessment tool, with the goal of enhancing how a patient’s health status is assessed and monitor their response to therapy over time.
She said how incredible it has been to gain a new community from the programme, “When I go back home, I will still be connected to the supervisors and the other participants. Those ties won’t be lost.”
Many of the researchers who participated in the Media Academy have experienced how engaging with the media and wider communications has led to increased visibility, opportunities and funding.
Dr Catherine Kibirige was a participant in the Media Academy’s first cohort, graduating in 2021. She is currently Intellectual Property Strategy Officer and Guest Lecturer at Imperial.
Dr Catherine Kibirige
Dr Catherine Kibirige
After witnessing the impact of HIV on populations in Uganda, where she is from, she is developing an accessible HIV test that can detect low levels of the virus in the blood to monitor whether antiretroviral treatment is working. Current tests are expensive and not easily available.
She continues to publish work in the field and uses her findings to inform point-of-care diagnostics – clinical medical tests performed near or at the patient's location, rather than in a laboratory – for resource-constrained settings. She hopes to improve access to testing in Uganda and other countries across Africa.
Since graduating from the Media Academy, Catherine has appeared on a podcast explaining her work on HIV testing, in a feature with The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (AIVI), and wrote about her research for the Faculty of Medicine’s blog. Catherine’s media presence has increased the visibility of her research and she includes her media coverage in grant applications, helping her to secure additional funding.
Representation matters
Minority ethnic researchers can also inspire the next generation of scientists by communicating their research, Karim El-Bouri believes. Karim is undertaking a PhD in Protein Biochemistry, Structural Biochemistry and Structural Proteomics at the Francis Crick Institute. He graduated from the Media Academy in 2025.
Born in Libya, he spoke about his hopes for using the skills he has gained from the programme to inspire more young North Africans to pursue a career in science.
"As a young boy growing up in North Africa, I wasn’t exposed to and didn’t know many role models from my ethnicity or background working as scientific researchers. I later came to learn that both historic and modern science are full of examples of brilliant scientists from a similar background to myself, who have provided monumental, transformative and world-class contributions that have changed the course of science globally.”
According to Karim, the Media Academy helped him realise the importance and power of doing media work as a researcher. “One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is how important it is for us to actively engage the public and inspire more people to think critically or consider careers in science. It's almost like we have a responsibility as ethnic minority scientists to showcase the work we're doing and become role models for young people from our countries, communities and ethnicities. I want to show them the importance of fundamental science research, and that they can have a curiosity-driven career in science, which is impactful, rewarding, intellectually stimulating and fruitful."
With the skills he gained through the Media Academy, Karim hopes to start writing articles about his work in Arabic and English. He also wants to start a podcast that focuses on the contributions scientists from the Global South have made to scientific discovery and the philosophy of science throughout history.
"The sessions on public engagement and podcasts in particular were fantastic. I am also interested in leveraging the programme's alumni network to see if I can collaborate and work together with colleagues on the projects I have in mind."
This sentiment of inspiring young minority ethnic academics is part of the Media Academy’s vision, according to Maxine Myers.
I truly believe you can't be what you can't see. I think if you've got somebody that looks like you out there, whether they're on TV, on radio, in the wider media, it really helps reinforce the idea, ‘I can do that. There's space for somebody like me in that world.’
Being a researcher from a minority ethnic background can sometimes make working in science feel isolating. The Media Academy has served as a safe place for researchers to find and build community with other researchers from similar backgrounds, something that many of the researchers who participated found to be one of the most valuable things they gained from the programme.
"It's not good to be in isolation," Professor Olubukola Oluranti Babalola, also known as Baba, stated as we discussed the importance of having people with whom you can identify with in the workplace. Baba graduated from the academy in 2025 and is an Honorary Visiting Professor in Microbial Ecology at Imperial, from South Africa’s North-West University.
"Seeing the trainers and also looking at my classmates in the program – they are my community who I can turn to, work with and support as our experiences are similar."
So far, 138 people have completed the Media Academy, and a survey showed that 100 per cent of participants would recommend the Media Academy to other researchers. Overall confidence in communicating their research increased by 42% while knowledge of the ways in which expertise can be communicated increased by 99%. Furthermore, 93% of participants said that the programme would help their careers. These statistics clearly demonstrate the positive impact of the Media Academy.
To bring the vision for the Media Academy to life, it first had to be funded. Former President, Professor Alice Gast, who recently passed away, provided the initial funding for the programme to determine its possible feasibility and impact.
Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye, who was already in conversations with Maxine Myers and former members of the Communications Division on how IAO could help bring the Media Academy to life, says Professor Gast's support was pivotal.
"When the pandemic hit, followed by the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd, the urgency of what we were trying to achieve became even clearer. It was crucial that Professor Gast chose to use her platform to not only highlight the work IAO was doing to support Imperial’s community, but also to actively commit resources to this project. Her backing ensured that our vision could move from an idea to a successful initiative."
Kani Kamara, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Imperial College London, has also played a key role in financing the programme. After learning about the Media Academy from the committee’s members, Kani and her team supported the programme and provided the funding for it in 2022 and 2023.
"We saw that this was something that could really work and that there was an appetite for something bigger and more well organised within the university. We could see that this was going to move from being an initiative to something more embedded."
Kani Kamara (right), Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre at Imperial College London and 2025 Media Academy graduate Dr Rahwa Osman (left), Research Associate in the Department of Life Sciences
Kani Kamara (right), Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre at Imperial College London and 2025 Media Academy graduate Dr Rahwa Osman (left), Research Associate in the Department of Life Sciences
Since then, the Media Academy has been funded through the Research England’s ‘Enhancing Research Culture’ Grant.
When asked how she felt about seeing the Media Academy grow over these four years, she is proud of the efforts of the Media Academy’s team. "Staff who work on the Media Academy do this alongside their busy day jobs. They have demonstrated so much enthusiasm, passion and strategic intent. I continue to be amazed and impressed that we have that calibre of staff here at Imperial who dedicate their time to doing this.”
Dr Wayne A Mitchell added, “without the initial funding from Alice, the subsequent support from EDIC, and most recently from Research England, the Media Academy may not have had the opportunity to flourish in the way it has.”
Professor Alice Gast (right) together with Dr Wayne A Mitchell (left) and Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye (middle) on Commemoration Day 2021.
Professor Alice Gast (right) together with Dr Wayne A Mitchell (left) and Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye (middle) on Commemoration Day 2021.
Wayne also explained how seeing the Media Academy develop, from working with Imperial staff and postgraduate students to widening involvement to include cohorts from external institutions such as the Institute of Cancer Research has been awe-inspiring for him.
“It’s testament to the quality of the training provided by our amazing trainers, the ongoing dedication of our project manager and management team that have made this expansion possible.”
He added that what has been most important is seeing the participants utilising the skills learnt from their training in the delivery of articles, blog posts and podcasts, and raising their personal profile and brand, truly highlighting the impact of the Media Academy.
The impact
Many graduates of the programme have gone on to engage with the media, sharing their work and expertise with the world. Between September 2024 and September 2025, 20 Media Academy graduates were featured in 654 news stories in industry, national and international media outlets.
Dr Mehdi Saeidi, a Research Fellow at Imperial's Department of Bioengineering, graduated from the Media Academy in 2023. He was interviewed in the Observer for his work on a tool kit that makes limb-saving devices.
Dr Chao Wu, Reader of Civil Engineering Materials and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at Imperial, graduated from the Media Academy in 2021 and took part in the 2023 Great Exhibition Road Festival, collaborating with an artist to grind down a wind turbine blade and incorporate the material into paint used in the Festival, highlighting how wind turbines can be recycled to reduce waste.
Dr Sunday Popo-Ola, a 2021 graduate, appeared on National Geographic’s Disaster Autopsy programme discussing the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Dr Christian Malaga Chuquitaype, a 2021 graduate, featured in global news coverage of the Myanmar earthquake in March 2025 with his comments featured in news media including the BBC, France 24, and Times India.
Dr Rutendo Muzambi, a 2025 graduate, was able to put her learnings into practice immediately after graduating from the programme. In May, she presented a report she contributed to on the disparities in sickle cell care in the UK at the House of Lords. Her quotes featured in Imperial’s news story and the report was covered in The Guardian and the BMJ.
The Media Academy team has received internal and external recognition for their work. In 2024, they were awarded Imperial's President’s Award for Excellence in Culture and Community and were shortlisted for Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the Times Higher Education Awards.
In September 2025, the Media Academy was awarded the ‘Public Sector Campaign of the Year’ at the Pros Awards – which celebrates inclusive communications work.
Past and present Media Academy committee members at the Pros Awards
Past and present Media Academy committee members at the Pros Awards
The journey continues
The Media Academy team plans to expand the programme to other institutions to have further impact across research institutions as well as continuing to deliver its training to more minority ethnic staff at Imperial.
The Imperial As One Media Academy is creating real impact in the communications space for those within Imperial and beyond. Their work continues to grow the representation of the scientific work of minority ethnic researchers and show the next generation that there is space for them too.
Graduating class of 2025
Graduating class of 2025
Imperial As One Media Academy staff (from left to right: Ellie Cawthera, Maxine Myers, Al McCartney, Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye, Dr Wayne A Mitchell)
Imperial As One Media Academy staff (from left to right: Ellie Cawthera, Maxine Myers, Al McCartney, Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye, Dr Wayne A Mitchell)
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