Emma is a Diversity and Inclusion Lead for The Employer’s Network for Equality and Inclusion (enei). She provides guidance and consultancy on equality, diversity and inclusion and supports organisations on their inclusive policies, practices and EDI strategies. Emma has led inclusive culture change projects, delivered key equality and diversity training and understands the importance of an intersectional approach. Emma has experience delivering specialist support on LGBT+ inclusion, including facilitating workshops on inclusive staff networks and allyship. She speaks from lived experience and has supported a number of organisations in their objectives of becoming more LGBT+ inclusive.

Emma is the Assistant Director of External Relations at the GLA. In this role Emma is responsible for all external-facing communications and engagement on behalf of the Mayor of London. She leads a series of high-performing comms and engagement teams covering marketing campaigns and digital communication, press, creative services, digital, the public liaison unit and internal communications. Emma is also responsible for the Mayor’s London events programme, the delivery of major sporting events in London and commercial partnerships. In addition to this, Emma is the Authority’s statutory Monitoring Officer. Emma is also the Executive Sponsor of the GLA’s LGBTQ+ staff network. Emma joined the GLA in 2011 and worked in a number of different roles in the GLA’s environment and housing teams before going on to lead the GLA’s External Relations Unit. Prior to this, Emma worked in programme delivery and policy roles in Transport for London and the London Development Agency. Before beginning her tour of the GLA group, Emma worked in the private sector, spending 6 years in a leading management consultancy firm specialising in project and programme management across a broad range of sectors including energy, banking, transport, telecoms and retail.

Shumailla is a senior strategy and policy specialist with over 18 years’ experience having served as both a Whitehall-based civil servant and in local government. As a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Shumailla has a proven track record for her skills in strategy, management and advising boards and senior teams, and innovatively leading teams towards inclusive, transformational change. In 2021, Shumailla became the council’s first Head of Equality, Diversity, and is also one of the founding members of the award-winning Harrow Council Black Lives Matter Staff Group.

Shumailla previously served as the Vice-Chair of Rising Girl, helping them to launch their first ever Rise Together programme aimed at disadvantaged young girls. She currently serves on the Board of Governors at an internationally renowned girls’ independent school in North London. Shumailla is a regular guest speaker to a wide range of audiences, including universities, schools, leadership programmes and HR professionals, internationally.

In her spare time, Shumailla is a mentor at Femme Palette and a workplace coach, providing support and guidance to staff within the organisation.

Sonia has been Head of Policy and Partnerships at London Borough of Hackney since April 2011. She is responsible for Policy and Insight, Community Partnerships (Voluntary Sector), Equality and Cohesion and Scrutiny. As lead for equality and cohesion, Sonia led the Council through the process of reaching Excellent on the equality framework for local government in 2013, and re-securing this status in 2018.

She has initiated a number of innovative programmes such as the Improving Outcomes for Young Black Men Programme and since last year has led on workforce diversity. Since then, she has designed and set up the Inclusive Leadership Champions Programme which empowers staff from diverse backgrounds to train senior leads in the features of inclusive leadership and has led work to address the lack of black and minority ethnic senior leaders in the Council.

Sonia joined the Council in 2009 as Head of Strategic Commissioning, overseeing, commissioning a programme focused on public service improvement and transformation. Prior to that, she worked in community arts, skills and regeneration roles in the not for profit sector from 1996-2008.

Tarig is currently leading on equalities for a workforce of around 7,000 employees. She has paved the way for equalities to be considered across each department by enhancing the structure and governance of diversity and inclusion to ensure it is embedded within each department.

Having recently been awarded Disability Confident Leader at Nottinghamshire County Council, Tarig is now keen to ensure that the council works to improve on more focussed areas – she has recently commissioned a review of every department in relation to ensuring that the needs of the deaf community are met.

Tarig is currently managing the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) pilot project – Nottinghamshire was one of 18 sites nationally to be selected for this project. Soon to become a WRES expert, Tarig is developing a wider race equality strategy within Nottinghamshire to eliminate barriers and eradicate racism within the workforce.

Tarig previously led on equalities within an NHS Trust during the height of the pandemic, she ensured that colleagues had safe spaces to voice concerns and initiated a campaign which promoted cultural competence and supported recruitment teams in the national campaign to recruit more Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority staff into senior posts.

Tarig’s area of expertise and studies is Human Rights, in particular the impact of religious symbols. At the University of Nottingham Tarig designed a programme to help address the under representation of Asian female students in certain subject areas. Tarig has always kept up her engagement with local gender equality projects and has been involved in improving the lives of women subjected to domestic abuse by delivering the Freedom course.

Rebecca joined local government in 2020 at Bristol City Council. She has worked across the public, private and non-governmental sectors as well as doing a range of consultancy and coaching work. She has set-up gender networks within Central Government and across the European diplomatic services and was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to gender equality in the workplace. As well as equalities work she has a background in international affairs and diplomacy, sustainability and climate change and studied at postgraduate level at the School of Oriental & African Studies.