Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network

Lydiah Igweh

Chair, BAME Staff Network

Experienced in senior management including at Board Level with a demonstrated history of working in enterprise, employability, entrepreneurship development, and integrated marketing communications.

Lydiah has extensive experience working within the private sector, public sector and education.

As the Brookes Enterprise Support Manager, Lydiah leads on University-wide initiatives which support students, graduates and staff to take their entrepreneurial ideas forward. In addition, she is undertaking a PhD with Brookes Business School focused on Digital Leadership.

She is a passionate advocate for social justice and as Chair of Brookes BAME Network, she is committed to inspiring and celebrating the excellence of BAME staff across the University and within the sector. In addition, to consider any issues important to the group, provide an opportunity to comment on a range of policies and to feed ideas into event and policy planning. She hopes the network will provide a platform for improving representation, progression and success of minority ethnic groups within higher education.

Ashley-Patson Aryee

Deputy Chair, BAME Staff Network

I am the Recruitment Schools Accounts Manager at Brookes and hold responsibility for our recruitment outreach to schools across England.

I am keen to ensure we have representation at the top level of the University and that both our staff profile and student makeup have a much greater range of diversity.

I hope to grow our BAME network to support all staff to progress and make the best possible version of themselves as we can.

Nahid Tonge

Secretary, BAME Staff Network

Nahid is an experienced higher education professional, committed to enhancing the student experience. Her career has been focused on improving service provision within Academic and Student Administration at Oxford Brookes University, more specifically Student Services.

She’s been at Brookes for 19 years, starting with undergraduate studies in 2000, working in Student Services as part of the Induction, Dyslexia and Disability teams. She then moved to the Admissions Office managing International Admissions, before joining the International Student Advice Team as an Adviser. In 2018 she moved to Wellbeing to work as a Student Disability Advisor.

She brings a whole host of administrative skills to her role as BAME Network Secretary and would like to utilise the skills she has gained whilst improving the student experience to help to improve the staff experience too.