Many congratulations to Charlotte Hamilton who has been elected Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Co-Chair for KMi. Charlotte is a Senior Research Manager in our Professional Services Team and a member of the Athena Swan Self Assessment Team. She will serve for a term of 2 years and work with Jane Whild to set up an EDI Board for the Unit. Jane was appointed as KMi EDI lead in August 2021 and will serve for a year. Going forwards, there will be one co-chair election per year which will provide continuity to the leadership. Many thanks to runners-up Aisling Third and Alessio Antonini, who were strong contenders for the role.

This was the first election of its type held in KMi, and it was well-supported by KMi members, with a 60% turnout. All staff members were invited to self-nominate for the position and to provide a candidate statement about what they would bring to the role. Each KMi staff member or student was then invited to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice and the one with the most votes was elected. We will watch with interest to see if this model for electing EDI chairs will be adopted across the STEM Faculty Schools or the rest of the University.  

Our EDI Board will be convened in February 2022 and will be comprised of KMi’s existing Athena Swan SAT members, who will automatically be co-opted to the Board. The Board will be led by a management team, comprised of the EDI co-chairs and the Athena Swan SAT co-chairs, Profs Miriam Fernandez and Advaith Siddharthan.  The management team’s first action will be to agree on terms of reference with the Board, following which KMi members will receive regular updates on the Board’s development and action plan.