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 Jenna and Jo who are both UWE Bristol academics and Maya who worked with us to provide support and consultancy around creating a safe and inclusive learning environment for our Green Skills programme provision.
Jenna Pandeli is a Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies interested in using qualitative methodologies, namely ethnography, to provide a greater understanding of the everyday experiences of work.
She has a special interest in prison labour and invisible forms of work. She was awarded the SAGE prize for Excellence and Innovation 2020 for her publication ‘Captives in Cycles of Invisibility’. She is currently undertaking two projects:
1) Collaborating with a charity, Project Remake, to create, deliver and evaluate enterprise education for previously incarcerated people
2) Researching women’s experiences of maternity leave during the covid pandemic.
With over a decade’s experience in youth, community and social work, Maya currently manages the award winning Call In Programme in partnership with Avon & Somerset Police Constabulary; offering a trauma informed diversionary scheme to Black, and minoritised young people involved in serious youth violence, criminal exploitation and drug related offending.
Maya has also worked as a commissioner for the Mayoral Commission on Race Equality; leading the criminal justice task group and Chairing the Youth Justice Task Group for ‘The Identifying disproportionality with Avon and Somerset Criminal Justice System Report’ to influence systemic change in relation to structural inequality. Maya continues to advocate for the inclusion of young people with lived experience in strategic planning and to co-produce services with local communities.
Jo Barnes has 18+ years’ research experience in air quality management, policy and practice at local, national, European and international levels.
Since 2008, she has been employed in the Air Quality Management Resource Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol, where she completed her PhD researching the effectiveness of Local Air Quality Management.
In this role, she has worked with and on behalf of numerous local authorities, Defra and the Devolved Administrations of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Greater London, other Member States, the EEA and the European Commission to implement and develop air quality management policies and practices.