Communicating EDI

Communicating equality, diversity and inclusion (31.10.18)

About the event

More than 60 members of staff from across the College attended a panel event exploring the theme of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

A panel of external and internal communications, policy and operations professionals came together to share perspectives on how to champion EDI, and how we as communicators can carry this through to our day-to-day work.

The session, which was held in the Business School’s LT3 lecture theatre, aimed to provide communicators at Imperial with an opportunity to unpack EDI-related questions, including those relating to representation, unconscious bias and positive discrimination, while offering practical tips and advice on best practice.

The event marked the re-launch of Imperial College London’s Communications Network – bringing the family of communicators from across the College together in order to share best practice, work together and network.

Discussion and remarks were captured on social media using the hashtag #ImpCommsNet

About the panel

Panel members at the event — The panel (l-r) Sagar Sharma, Ben Wilson, Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye, Dr Jess Wade, Caz Ulley

Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye, Communications and Events Manager for Imperial As One, Imperial’s staff network for BME and Race.

Sagar Sharma, Director of Policy and Campaigns at children’s charity, Barnardo’s.

Caz Ulley, Student Recruitment Marketing Manager at Imperial and also the co-chair of Imperial 600, the staff network to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff at the College.

Dr Jess Wade, a post-doc at Imperial working on chiral organic light emitting diodes. Jess is well known for her efforts to raise the profile of female scientists.

Ben Wilson, Chief Operating Officer/Executive Director at the Equality and Human Rights Commission with responsibility for communications and engagement, finance, human resources, project management and infrastructure.

Image caption: The panel (l-r) Sagar Sharma, Ben Wilson, Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye, Dr Jess Wade, Caz Ulley

What they said

Ben Wilson on on the role communicators play in making EDI strategies have real impact:

“I think communication is more than just about the stories that are told. It’s also about the culture change it tries to create. It has a ‘truth to power’ role, I think. Whether it’s internal or external opinion, you are the people who are closest to it. So I believe communicators have the license to talk to the powers-that-be and management to help operationalise factors such as diversity. That’s the great thing about communications.”

Sagar Sharma on unconscious bias:

“As communicators you have power, you are amplifiers of that phrase: ‘be the change you want to see’. So you therefore have the responsibility to elicit unconscious bias so that you’re not looking at the world through a frame of reference that is intrinsically biased. Because you will be that amplification mechanism. It will come across as authentic when you challenge yourself.”

Caz Ulley on best practice among universities in attracting a diverse student body:

“I think the universities that we should be looking to emulate are those that have started to recognise the importance of appealing to students as individuals. And making sure that LGBT students, for instance, understand that there is a place for them, and they will fit in.”

Jess Wade on the media’s influence on our perception of scientists:

“I think the media massively influences how the public sees scientists. And I think Imperial does a really good job of making sure it gets a diverse range of people and experts on different topics. That really is quite different to a lot of other universities.”

Sarah Essilfie-Quaye on making sure Imperial’s new EDI strategy has an effect:

“We need to make sure that everybody understands what it really means to be equal, and that everybody can feel they belong. I was watching an interesting TED Talk by Janet Stovall where she made the very good point that a strategy should be used to identify real problems [...] and it should have real consequences. [...] So if we say we want real equality, diversity and inclusion, and we don’t do it correctly, what are going to be the consequences? There must be real consequences for this strategy to have a real effect.”