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 Rebecca and Laura who are UWE Bristol academics and Tara who we partnered with on our Green Skills for jobs and Entrepreneurship Programme.
Rebecca is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Planning and an award-winning researcher.
Rebecca’s research has focused on the development of renewable energy, including how to plan for the future of existing renewable energy sites and how communities are involved in decisions about renewable energy.
Rebecca is passionate about sharing her research findings with diverse audiences to influence policy and practice as well as to inform the public. Her research has been used to inform policy change and Rebecca has been quoted in a number of national newspapers and has recently appeared on BBC Newsnight.
Tara Miran is of Kurdish heritage. Her career and research ambitions are shaped by her ambitions for equality, equity & justice. Her background is in sociology, social and cultural research and she is fascinated by people and working towards a fairer world.
She has conducted research in areas such as mothers engaging in physical activity, women and employment and health inequalities. The central theme to her work is inclusion & diversity. In 2021, she was selected as a ‘Global Goals Hero’ by the Global Goals Centre.
More recently, she has co-founded The Green Melon; an award-winning social enterprise promoting community & food justice. Tara currently works in Community Development. She spends her free time involved in local initiatives, representation groups and trustee boards. She highlights that her most important and loved role remains being a mother to her brilliant daughters.
Laura is Associate Professor for Engineering in Society in the School of Engineering and a member of the Science Communication Unit. She explores the social psychology of communications and public engagement, particularly involvement in decision-making for sustainable development with under-served audiences and communities.
Laura leads the Inspire education outreach work for the initiative for Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation, inspiring diverse young people to make a difference through climate education and action. She is the founder of the Women Like Me mentoring scheme for engineers, set up the DETI Diversity Demonstrator for diverse engineering role models, and founder of the primary STEM network Curiosity Connections.