Project partners
Biographies
- Ian Cheetham, University Personnel Association Representative
- Liz Doherty, Sheffield Hallam University
- Katherine Gardiner, Sheffield Hallam University
- Kate Heasman, UCU
- Alison Hunt, Staffordshire University
- Simonetta Manfredi, Oxford Brookes University
- Kerry Platman, Warwick University
- Elaine Schegar, UCEA
- Shelly Smith, ECU
- Benjamin Thomas, UNISON
- Lucy Vickers, Oxford Brookes University
Ian Cheetham, University Personnel Association Representative
Ian Cheetham, Director of Human Resources, University of Bath
Ian started his career as a management trainee in the NHS before moving into human resources in the NHS. He has spent seventeen years in human resource management in London local government. He was appointed as Director of Human Resources at the University of Bath in July 2008 having previously been Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director of Human Resources at Middlesex University .
His particular areas of interest include equality and diversity, employee relations, organisational change and occupational health and safety. He is a former Chair of the UPA M25 Group and is currently a UPA representative on the UCEA Health and Safety Committee.
Liz Doherty, Sheffield Hallam University
Professor Liz Doherty is the Subject Leader for Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK . She has worked as a human resource practitioner in a variety of industries, including a period as manager of Oxfam’s equal opportunities programme. During the 1990s she was actively involved in Oxford Brookes University’s pioneering equality work and she was Head of Equal Opportunities for the University for three years. Prior to joining Sheffield Hallam University in 2005, she was Co-Director of the Centre for Diversity Policy Research at Oxford Brookes University.
Her past research projects include a comparison of women’s employment experiences in the hospitality industry in four European countries, a project aimed to improve work-life balance in the hospitality industry which was conducted with the HCIMA (the professional body for the industry) and the Department for Trade and Industry, and research into the reasons why women were not progressing in a local authority. More recently she has worked on externally funded projects exploring aspects of work-life balance in higher education and the reasons why women are under-represented at the highest levels in the HE sector in England.
Katherine Gardiner, Sheffield Hallam University
Katherine Gardiner is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Organisation and Management. Katherine joined the staff at Sheffield Hallam University in 1995 after completing a doctorate at the University of Strathclyde. Prior to joining Sheffield Hallam University, Katherine worked in Barclay's bank and also taught at the University of Ghana. She has a wide range of teaching experience at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels in the areas of organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management. Katherine's main research interests are in the areas of managerial work and equal opportunities- in particular age discrimination.
Kate Heasman, UCU
Kate Heasman has been the Equality Official of NATFHE and now of UCU since 2000.
Before taking up her post with NATFHE/UCU, Kate taught English at a Nottingham FE college for nearly 30 years. She was also a union activist, and held many posts in NATFHE, including President 1996-7.
Kate’s current priorities for the Equality Unit include; a campaign on Equal Pay; training for branch equality officers; negotiating equality policies nationally with the FE and HE employers; campaigning for a single equality act which covers all the strands, including age, effectively, and getting rid of the default retirement age.
Alison Hunt, Staffordshire University
Alison moved into the HE sector in 2000 having come from a background in li brary and information management in public sector. She holds a BA (Hons.) degree from Loughborough University.
Alison joined the HEFCE funded Flexible Employment Options Project based at Staffordshire University in 2002, working first as a researcher and then as a trainer and development advisor, delivering training nationally on implementing flexible working. Her research reports for the project include a guide to good practice in flexitime, eldercare provision, and academic staff and flexible working.
In 2006 Alison was appointed as Equality and Diversity Officer, and works as part of the Equality and Diversity Team based within the Vice Chancellor’s Office. She has particular responsibility for the disability and age strands with a remit that covers students as well as staff.
Simonetta Manfredi, Oxford Brookes University
Simonetta Manfredi is Co-Director of the Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice and a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Oxford Brookes University. She is interested in socio-legal research in the field of equality and diversity in employment. She has also an equality practitioner background.
Between1998-2000 she was seconded to the post of Head of Equal Opportunity at Oxford Brookes University and, between 2000 and 2002 was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Employment Equality Adviser for the Province of Bologna in Italy. She continues to work on a number of equality briefs for the Directorate of Human Resources as well as teaching Diversity Management and other aspects of HR in the Business School at Oxford Brookes University.
She has received funding from the European Commission, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the European Social fund, the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to undertake research that underpins policy development and inform best practice on equality and diversity in the workplace. In 2004 she led a project funded by the DTI to develop work-life balance policies and best practice in Higher Education. For the outputs and outcomes of this project Oxford Brookes University was highly commended by the Universities Personnel Association, under the HR Excellence Award in Higher Education and, it was singled out by the Equality Challenge Unit as an ‘exemplar of best practice and a model for the sector as a whole’.
Simonetta’s work has been published in a number of academic journals, book chapters and presented at national and international conferences.
Kerry Platman, Warwick University
Dr Kerry Platman is Senior Research Fellow at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick. She specializes in workforce ageing and its impact on labour market policies, management practices and career transitions. Her work is multi-disciplinary and international in scope. She is committed to bridging the theory-practice divide by working in partnership with sector bodies, policy-makers, unions and employers. She regularly addresses academic and practitioner audiences on a range of subjects related to demographic change and the labour market. She is currently part of two inter-disciplinary research networks funded by research councils in the United Kingdom and Canada. She is also a lead investigator on a 3-year comparative study of employer responses towards the ageing workforce in the European Union.
Elaine Schegar, UCEA
Elaine is a Senior Adviser in Human Resources at the Universities and Colleges Employers Association. Her role involves the delivery of UCEA's national advisory service on employment law and HR issues to the HE sector, including all matters relating to equalities and diversity; providing tailored advice to institutions; contributing to national policy on relevant issues such as emerging employment law; and developing good practice for the sector. Elaine has direct experience of working in both pre-92 and post-92 institutions having undertaken senior roles in HR at the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton, as well as working as a consultant for UCL.
Shelly Smith, ECU
Shelly Smith's career has spanned the private, charity and public sectors. Shelly joined the Equality Challenge Unit in July 2006 to work on age equality within the higher education sector. The Unit supports the higher education sector in its mission to realise the potential of all staff and students whatever their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief or age, to the benefit of those individuals, higher education institutions and society. Shelly is currently working on a number of multi-equality strand projects that involve researching and providing guidance on areas such as admissions to higher education and inclusive students' unions.
Benjamin Thomas, UNISON
Ben Thomas is a National Officer for UNISON in their Education Workforce Unit with responsibility for schools, sixth form colleges and the higher education sector. Ben has worked for UNISON since 1996 and is currently the UNISON representative on the Higher Education National Equalities Forum.
Lucy Vickers, Oxford Brookes University
Dr Lucy Vickers' main research area is the protection of human rights within the workplace and aspects of equality law. She is author of /Freedom of Speech and Employment/ (2002) OUP, and Her book /Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination and the Workplace /will be published by Hart Publishing in 2008. Her work has been published in the Cam bridge Law Journal, the Industrial Law Journal, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law and the International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations. She is the author of a report for the European Commission on Religion and Belief Discrimination in Employment – The EU Law (2007).