CONSULTANCY & RESEARCH

White Allies Resource

This resource is informed by the findings of an international study which explored the characteristics and motivations of white colleagues identified by their peers as allies in the fight for racial justice. The project fulfilled a longterm curiosity about why some white people are more committed to racial justice than others.

The unique interactive guide is sponsored by two corporate organisations and aims to support white colleagues who are keen to improve their understanding and engagement with racial justice.

Designed to be used by individuals or as part of a facilitated group, the White Allies Resource includes practical tips to implement in the workplace, suggested readings and a useful glossary of terms.

Deep Dive Sessions

Aimed at Board Members, Senior Leaders and Executives, our Deep Dive Sessions help to build client’s understanding, critical judgement and awareness of racial justice.

Uniquely grounded in the disciplines of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Sociology, clients engage in a series of intensive one-to-one sessions to explore how their own identity and experiences influence their workplace perspectives, behaviour and decisions.

Deep Dive Sessions empower clients to embrace racially inclusive leadership and better support underserved racially minoritised colleagues and communities.

Nicola is wise and skilled and steered me, with care and kind challenge, to recognise and address what I had been blind to.

Peer, House of Lords

Nicola encourages deep reflective practice through discussion of personal experience, expertly questions beliefs and feelings, and always heads towards a practical action-based outcome. (…) highly empathetic, Nicola succeeds in the difficult skill of being challenging yet supportive (…) and always seemed to recognise where I was in my own development, and paced sessions accordingly.

Member, Executive Leadership Team, Wellcome Trust

Black middle classes and education

This research examines, for the first time in the UK, the experiences of Black British middle-class families as they work to navigate their children successfully through the education system. We found that although these families possess and make use of class related strategies these alone are not sufficient to help avoid continued setbacks and barriers in the school system.

The full findings are discussed in the book The Colour of Class: the educational strategies of the Black middle classes.

Black female professors

Black women are least likely to be professors compared with any other group. In 2018, I spoke with 20 of the then 25 UK Black female professors. Published in 2019, my research revealed the barriers faced by Black female scholars as they work to navigate higher education, the impact on their well-being and the strategies they use to help them reach professorship.

This was the first study of its kind about this little-known group of academics.

The full findings are detailed in the report Staying Power: the career experiences and strategies of Black female professors.

LAUNCH OF PHENOMENAL WOMEN

Black female professors gather at the London private view of ‘Phenomenal Women’ in March 2020 hosted by our sponsor Paul Hastings LLP.

PHENOMENAL WOMEN Exhibition

The Phenomenal Women exhibition went on display at London Southbank Centre in 2020 and the University of Cambridge in 2021. It includes Black female scholars who were professors at a UK higher education institution between 2016 and 2019.

News about the research and exhibition was covered by: The Guardian; BBC News; Stylist; The Voice Newspaper; TimeOut; and The Financial Times carried a special feature where they interviewed me about the project.

Advisory Roles

Member, MOPAC London Policing Board set up following a recommendation in Baroness Casey’s review of culture and standards in the Metropolitan Police (September 2023 - present)

Advisor, Being Black in the United Kingdom, research carried out by the US firm Coqual (January - July 2022)

Senior Advisor (Race & Higher Education) to the Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge (October 2020 - September 2022)

Specialist Advisor, Macpherson Inquiry: 22 Years On Home Affairs Select Committee (January 2019 - December 2021)

Member, Anti-racism Expert Group, Wellcome Trust (November 2022 - March 2022)

Member, Equality & Diversity Advisory Group, British Science Association (January 2019 - December 2021)