The team

Alison is an internationally recognised consultant working with senior executives, funders and research leaders in organisational capacity building, transformational change and talent development with a focus on equality, diversity and inclusion in different research cultural contexts. She holds professional qualifications in management and executive coaching and enjoys developing leaders, individuals and teams, encouraging a systems approach to cultural change. Throughout her career, she has worked at senior level with a wide spectrum of education, business and government agencies, maintaining a strong commitment to enhancing opportunities for all in education, research, science and innovation.

Following a successful career in different universities, recognised as a Fellow of the Association of University Administrators, Alison became Director of Development for Vitae/CRAC, a non-profit educational charity, leading major national programmes for UK Research Councils and Funders.  The programmes involved accelerating the rise of researcher developers as a professional group, building networks for collaboration, and co-creating innovative training approaches and resources. The outcomes established researcher development in UK universities and positioned the UK as world leading in progressive professional development for researchers at all career stages.  Taking an international perspective on developing the next generation of researchers to meet global challenges, Alison has facilitated institutional capacity building in Africa, Australasia, South East Asia, North America, and Europe, working with research leaders and institutional champions, regional and national bodies, and research funders. 

Steve McKay is a Distinguished Professor in Social Research in the School of Social & Political Sciences. He joined the University in April 2013. Between 2007 and 2013 he was Professor in Social Research at the University of Birmingham, where he was also Director of the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre from 2010. He specialises in social research; inequality; family policy; quantitative methods; social security and pensions. 

Dr Julie Bayley is the Director of Research Impact Development at the University of Lincoln. She is an  impact specialist and Chartered Health Psychologist. Julie has been an applied researcher in behaviour change interventions since 2003 and now combines academic research, impact management and training to develop impact literacy across research environment. Julie is champion of the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) Impact Special Interest Group, leads ARMA impact training and sits on the ARMA Professional Development Committee. In 2015 she won the inaugural ARMA Impact award in recognition of her national reputation for building impact capacity. Julie is currently commissioned as Emerald Publishing Impact Literacy Advisor to support their ‘Real World Impact’ programme and works particularly with National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to strengthen impact governance and impact of public and patient involvement. You can find Julie on Twitter (@JulieEBayley) or visit her blog for more information. Academic profile

Mariana obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of Lincoln, where she focused on caregiving fathers and breadwinning mothers, analysing division of work and family roles, sexism and gender ideologies, work and life balance related issues. Prior to that, she received her MSc in Psychology and wrote her thesis on the effects of marital status and sexual orientation on social judgements, exploring the gender belief systems and perceptions of homosexuality. Mariana has also collaborated in research projects related to the concept of Masculinity in the UK and Student engagement fostering inclusion and integration of international students in the University. She has also carried out policy analysis, impact assessment and evaluation studies of policy measures for different projects appointed by the European Commission and local government (mainly in the areas of gender equality, research and innovation and equal opportunities). 

Pronouns: She/Her

Udeni holds a MA (Joint Hons) in English and Russian from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Computation from the University of Manchester and an MBA from the Open University. Her research interests are concerned with how power manifests itself in organisational relationships. She uses intersectionality, critical race theory, black feminist theory and Pierre Bourdieu's "thinking tools" to theoretically inform her work. She writes in the areas of family firms, entrepreneurship, innovation, and modern slavery. Academic profile

Rebecca was awarded a MA in Organisational Behaviour from the University of Leeds. She wrote her thesis on the influence inclusive leadership has on organisational culture, analysing the impact it has on women and LGBTQ+ employees from a cross-cultural UK-US perspective. Prior to that, she graduated from Michigan State University with a BSc in Neuroscience and a BSc in Psychology. She was published in Neuropharmacology in 2017 for her behavioral science research on identifying the neurobiological timeline of symptoms for addiction and depression in response to trauma. She has collaborated on projects related to health physiology, workplace behaviour, social connectivity, stress and emotional regulation, and most recently has been involved in the preservation of oral histories from LGBTQ+ people across West Yorkshire. She was a TEDx speaker in 2015, and has organised multiple conferences, taught workshops and facilitated conversations on the impact of diversity and inclusion.