As part of Women’s History Month 2023, we are spotlighting some of the amazing women we work with or who inspire us.
In this blog we highlight Ann, Jac and Sarah who are all UWE Bristol academics, and Katherine and Sado who have partnered with us on different projects.
After being made redundant back in 2018, Katherine used her redundancy money to re-train and completed the UWE Bristol’s Masters in Sustainable Development. She received an award for her dissertation on carbon management within business, which then formed the content of a publication, co-authored with her supervisor, Prof. Jim Longhurst.
As such, she graduated not only feeling able to confidently work in sustainability but also with a job o‑er, which came about due to her winning UWE Bristol Sustainability Student of the Year, the sponsor of the award being the Director of Future Leap, where she now works as Head of Partnerships and Sustainability. Katherine also sits on Bristol’s One City Environment Board and she is the South West Sustainability Ambassador for the Institute of Directors.
UWE English Literature colleagues, Dr Sarah Robertson (left) and Dr Ann Alston (right), are collaborating on a climate change and literature research project.
Sarah founded a climate change book club in 2022 and is running a 2023 climate book club challenge. Ann has worked with Education and Environmental Sciences colleagues on a VCC Challenge project ‘The Use and Impact of Scientific Literary Materials in Primary Schools.’
They both run CPD events for KS3 teachers on integrating climate change into the English classroom, and are working with Environmental Management colleagues to run a book for young people, “Reading for the Planet.”
As Director of Black South West Network (BSWN) since 2013, Sado Jirde rebuilt the organisation’s profile and repositioned its role from an infrastructure body to a racial justice incubator, developed with the Black and Minoritised communities across Bristol and the South West region.
Sado sits on Bristol’s One City Economy Board and Bristol University Court and is also the Vice-Chair of Bristol Old Vic Board.
She was awarded The African Achievers Award in 2015, and the Most Inspirational Role Model Award in 2019 and listed as a Women of Inspiration: 100 social enterprise leaders showing Covid who’s boss in 2020.
Jac is a Product Design Lecturer, passionate about research that helps to design a better world for people.
She co-designs sensory products for people with dementia, learning disabilities and autism. One product, the HUG, that she developed with colleagues at Cardiff Met University, in collaboration with NHS, care homes, charities and people living with dementia, has been evaluated with great success showing it has significant impact on a person’s wellbeing. In partnership with Alzheimer’s Society, it’s sold across the world through their spin-out HUG by LAUGH, bringing comfort and joy to thousands of people.
