Conference Speakers 2022
Marcial Boo
Marcial Boo is the chief executive of The Equality and Human Rights Commission.
He has previously worked as the chief executive for the UK’s Public Health Register, executive chair of the Institute for Regulation, chief executive for IPSA, and director at the NAO and Audit Commission.
He was a senior civil servant at the Department of Education, writing the government’s adult basic skills strategy and reforming sixth-form funding. At the Home Office, he led work on crime reduction and counter-terrorism.
He has written a book, The Public Sector Fox, to help improve the skills of public sector managers.
He started his career as a teacher, working in the British Council in Ecuador, and teaching adult literacy and numeracy in Kent.
Lavinya Stennett
Lavinya is a writer, activist, and Founder and CEO of The Black Curriculum. Graduating with a first class from SOAS in 2019, she has most recently authored a paper exploring Maroon ecology in Jamaica and Brazil.
Lavinya was recently named as one of the Sunday Times 50 Women of the Year and was awarded Trailblazer of The Year by Hello Magazine, as well as featuring in Vogue, and GQ for her activism.
The Black Curriculum is a social enterprise founded in 2019, working to teach and support the teaching of Black history all year round, aiming to empower all students with a sense of identity and belonging.
Jeffrey Boakye
Jeffrey Boakye is an author, broadcaster and educator. He has a particular interest in issues surrounding race, masculinity, education and popular culture.
Jeffrey, originally from Brixton in London, taught English to 11- to 18-year-olds for 15 years. He now lives in Yorkshire with his wife and two sons.
Jeffrey’s published books are: Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials and the Meaning of Grime (2017, longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2018), Black Listed: Black British Culture Explored (2019), What is Masculinity? Why Does it Matter? And Other Big Questions (co-authored, 2019, longlisted for the Information Book Awards 2020), Musical Truth: A Musical History of Modern Black Britain in 28 Songs (2021, longlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2022 and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize Children’s & YA 2022) and I Heard What You Said (June 2022). Jeffrey’s upcoming books are: Musical World (2023), and a middle grade series starting with Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer (2023).
Jeffrey is also a broadcaster, presenting BBC Radio 4’s Add to Playlist with co-host Cerys Matthews.
Jeffrey continues to be an educator, providing training and talks to schools, educational organisations and corporates around the topics of race, masculinity and education.
Cecile Halliday
Cecile Halliday is currently the Head of Northwood College for girls and has previously worked on the GDST Undivided steering group as a Trust consultant.
In her varied experience in the independent sector she has worked in Prep school, co-ed, and single sex settings across London. In her own words, she would say “ I come from humble beginnings but was fortunate to have excellent educational opportunities, the journey has provided me with interesting insights and experiences”.
During a recent ISI inspection earlier this year at her current school she was delighted that inspectors recognised the high-quality Diversity, Equity, and inclusion work that forms the day-to-day fabric at Northwood College. This was highlighted in their recommendations: In the context of the excellent outcomes, the school might wish to consider ‘Enabling pupils to extend the school’s approach to diversity and social issues in order that they may contribute more effectively to the wellbeing of young people in the wider community’.
Allana Gay
Allana Gay is a teacher, education advisor, and speaker. She started teaching and leading within innercity London secondary schools and is currently the Headmistress of Vita et Pax Preparatory School.
Allana cofounded BAMEed Network in 2017 with the aim of bringing attention and action to the issue of ethnic diversity throughout the education sector. As a recognisable figure for BAMEed, Allana works on the overarching strategy of normalising full ethnic presence through all areas and institutions of education.
Allana maintains keen interest and activity in the teaching profession. From deepening primary secondary partnership to improving recruitment to diversifying currcula, she has written for various publications, regularly presents these ideas at conferences and in the media. Allana has sat on Advisory panels as an educational professional who advocates for change within the education sector.
Ann Marie Christian
Ann Marie is a safeguarding tand a qualified social worker. She has worked for various local authorities on the front line, in management, as a local Safeguarding Children Board trainer, a LADO, a Safeguarding advisor to schools, a school improvement advisor, as a Designated Safeguarding Lead trainer, and Designated Safeguarding Lead coordinator.
She is well known amongst her peers and is very passionate about keeping children safe and sharing her knowledge about child abuse and violence against women and children.
In 2003 she managed a Child Protection Team for a Local Authority and supported 75 local schools with child protection advice, training and consultancy. In 2010, she became an independent social worker and provided associate consultancy and training to various organisations including the NSPCC, Local Authorities, the ISI, Early Years Teams, Youth Justice Teams, The Boarding School Association, The Key for Leaders, Optimus Education, The Council of International Schools, AEGIS, IAPS, Charities, Faith organisations, The Premier League, Multi-Academy Trusts and more. She writes articles and has contributed to Head Teachers Update, SEN Magazine, and Nursery World. She has also written courses for Optimus, Educare, and the Key for Leaders.
Ann Marie raises the awareness of child abuse and promotes child protection internationally and over the last few years delivers training and keynotes in Dubai, Singapore, Monaco, Jamaica, Japan and Armenia.
She was’ Highly Commended’ and received an award at the Win Trade Awards 2019 for ‘Woman in the Public Sector’ and was nominated in 2018 & 2019 for the NSPCC Child Protection Trainer of the Year.
Kiki Nartey
Kiki Nartey (she/her) is Education Lead at FLAIR. Kiki’s personal mission to drive racial equity in schools was heightened in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, writing an open letter to her former school to elevate Black pupil voice and galvanise senior leaders into taking firm action against racism.
Her subsequent role at FLAIR has led to over 100 UK schools using the company’s data platform to measure and benchmark progress towards racially equitable cultures.
Fran Colombo
Fran Colombo (he/him) is Education Client Success Manager at FLAIR. As a former Secondary School Teacher, Fran became aware first hand of the challenges that schools go through to promote a racially equitable culture.
His role is to ensure that schools that work with FLAIR make significant change and keep tracking the progress within the Racial Equity space, providing personalised support and growing the community.
Veryan Exelby
Veryan is a senior counsel within the Safeguarding Unit, with a particular focus on safeguarding in schools. Previously she was a partner of the Family team at Farrer & Co. Alongside client work, Veryan runs the firm’s annual Governor and DSL Training days as well as events for AGBIS.
Veryan is a Governor of Downe House School, and she is the Safeguarding Governor at St Paul’s School and of a local primary school. She is a Trustee of the Nicola Benedetti Foundation and she volunteers weekly at a family law clinic in West London.
Shehnal Amin
Shehnal advises educational institutions on safeguarding matters and qualified into the Farrer & Co Employment team in September 2016.
Shehnal advises a variety of clients, including schools, universities, charities, businesses and individuals.
A recent highlight was advising a client in relation to a potential discrimination claim he had against his employer and successfully negotiating a generous compensation payment. This enabled him to move on from his employment and focus on improving his health.
Shehnal is also part of the firm’s Faith-based organisations grouping and advises such organisations in relation to their employment and safeguarding practices.
Dr Malcolm Cocks
Dr Cocks is an Inclusion expert and English Teacher with 15 years’ experience. He is Head of D&I at St Paul’s School and lead on D&I at Dulwich College prior to this. He is also on the advisory board for the African and Caribbean Education Network with a particular focus on Research, Policy, and Teaching & Learning.
He is also on the Steering Group for the Schools’ Inclusion Alliance and remains committed to helping schools foster anti-racist cultures and champions the inclusion of pupils and teachers with African and Caribbean heritage.
Malcolm has worked as a teacher or Inclusion Lead in some of London’s most prominent Independent Schools. Educated in Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, he studied for his BA at Oxford and his PhD at King’s College, London. He has lectured in Literature and Visual Cultures at the University of London and in 2014, he was elected to a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Rebecca Davies
Rebecca is Deputy Head at Bristol Grammar School where she is also the EDI lead, working with pupils, staff, parents and governors to improve the experiences of minoritized groups. A History and Politics teacher by trade, Rebecca has taught in the Bristol and Bath area since 2005. She started her career at Colston’s School and has enjoyed positions as Head of History & Politics at King Edward’s School, Bath and as Head of Sixth Form at Clifton College, before moving to Bristol Grammar School. Since 2013, Rebecca and her partner have been sharing their busy lives with their two adopted children of British-Jamaican heritage. She sits on the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference ‘Inclusion Working Group’; Bristol City Council’s ‘Race Equality in Education’ steering group, and the Bristol Educational Partnership’s group on ‘Equality and Diversity’. Her academic interests lie in the experiences of migrants in Britain in the 1960s, and ethnic tensions in eastern Europe throughout the twentieth century.
Jordan Sonko Crawford
Jordan is Associate Deputy Headteacher at Queens Park Community School, with ten years of experience working in secondary schools – the majority of which fall in the Lambeth borough.
Prior to his new appointment, Jordan was instrumental in the design and delivery of the DE&I work at Lilian Baylis Technology School, a school renowned for its specialist anti-racism work.
For the past few years, he has dedicated himself to ensuring the schools he works with are truly committed to becoming anti-racist, not only through building a decolonized curriculum, but also by developing the racial literacy of all members of the school community.
Jordan began his teaching career as a Computer Science teacher.
Andrew Isama
Andrew is currently an Economics teacher and Inclusion Education Officer at Eton College. After earning an Economics degree from the University of Edinburgh, he began his teaching career at Eton. He also holds a graduate certificate in Leading Educational and Business Change from Harvard Online Graduate School of Education and is passionate about the role that D&I plays within education, public policy and the private sector. He is a passionate advocate of social mobility, as he received a sixth-form scholarship to Eton. He now sits on the advisory board of the Royal National Springboard Children’s Foundation and helps deserving students to assimilate to their new environments alongside helping schools to tailor their scholarship and outreach programs.
David Powell
David Powell is a passionate educator who has consistently aimed to push the creative boundaries of the conversation around race. As a former pupil of Whitgift School, where he now is employed as a Head of Year, he has a unique understanding of both the student and faculty perspective. His initiatives have contributed to kickstarting progress in racial integration in many schools and community groups while influencing local policy.
Enya Doyle
Dr Enya Doyle is Director of Inclusion at Highgate School, where she has worked since January 2021. Complementing what she does at Highgate, Dr Doyle also works as an inclusion consultant in the arts and education. She has a PhD on gender diversity and inclusion in music-making, which reflects her commitment to scrutinising the often subtle and underlying forms of exclusion embedded in organisational systems and culture. She has presented her research in the UK, Australia and the United States. Dr Doyle takes a pragmatic approach to leading what are often perceived to be difficult and uncomfortable conversations and her collaborative, compassionate and creative approach to driving social change has been recognised on local and national levels for over 10 years.
