Sally Orange | Mental Health Campaigner | Sally Orange Ltd
Sally Orange is a physiotherapist and dedicated mental health campaigner.
Having hidden her own battles with severe depression and chronic anxiety for over 20 years, she now speaks openly in person and through social media of her challenges, in an attempt to remove associated stigma.
She also encourages others to manage their own mental well being through physical activity and is the only person on the planet to complete a marathon on every continent in fancy dress (as different pieces of fruit!) , with the specific purpose of breaking the stigma.
By taking on physical challenges, dressed as fruit, she never fails to make people smile. More seriously however, she is often asked why she is dressed in the colourful costumes. When she tells of her dedication to break the stigma associated with mental illness, people often open up and talk about their own struggles or how they know someone who has or is currently having difficulties with their mental health.
It subtly starts a conversation, while also proving you don’t have to be the fastest or the fittest to gain a sense of achievement from physical activity.
From running a marathon in a pod of the London eye, symbolising the ups and downs the pandemic had on the Nations mental health to another underground deep in a mine, which she named 'beneath the surface', as you never know what is going on in someone else's mind, Sally always seeks to give purpose to her challenges for the benefit of others.
Cynthia Ko | Manager, Behavioural Designer | Cowry Consulting
Born in the Netherlands to Chinese/Malaysian parents, Cynthia has experienced inequality and mental health struggles which inspired her social impact journey.
She believes in influencing change through both private and charity sector work.
Private sector work:
- With a design research background, Cynthia started her post-university career as a Qualitative Researcher in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She’s helped clients (e.g. Channel 4, Youth Futures Foundation, MET office) uncover the needs of minoritised communities, leading to her recognition as a 30-under-30 Significant Insights Leader in market research.
- She currently works at Cowry Consulting, using her expertise in Human-Centred Design and Behavioural Science to improve customer journeys in the energy sector. During the cost–of-living and energy crisis, it is imperative that businesses: 1) help customers understand complex communications and available support, and 2) help employees deliver positive customer experience. One of the projects she’s leading is helping contact centre agents take care of their wellbeing and empowering them to help distressed customers.
Charity sector work:
- As the youngest trustee at Mind and only South-East Asian, Cynthia is a voice for intersectional change as the charity is working on supporting the mental health of ethnic minorities, youth and people in poverty.
- As a campaigner and board member at Slow Fashion Movement, she highlights environmental injustices in the fashion industry and the potential for a circular economy.
- This year, Cynthia's also an official UN Women UK Delegate for the UN’s 67th Commission on the Status of Women and fundraising for the Single Homelessness Project.
Ifrah Shafiq | Al Mu'Minun (The Believers)
Ifrah Shafiq is the youngest female Faith Leader in Kirklees.
She is the Women Empowerment Lead for Al Mu'Minun (The Believers). She believes strongly in educating women so that change can be bought about in society and gender disparity can be removed.
She holds an Alimah (Theology) qualification from Al Markaz Ul Islami and has completed the memorisation of the Qur'an (Hifdh) and is currently completing her BA Islamic Studies at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education.
She is involved in several projects advocating for women empowerment and has won several awards for her work.
Jessica Heagren | That Works For Me
Jess Heagren is an ex Financial Services Director, mother of four, award-winning CEO of That Works For Me, and author of landmark report Careers After Babies.
Jess was Strategy & Distribution director for insurance giant DLG before having children and set up their first Diversity Committee, leading the gender and working families strand. After having her first baby, she returned to work on a flexible working arrangement but as the only female primary caregiver on the board, and managing some 600 people across the UK, she couldn't make the two work alongside one another. She left her career 10 months later.
Realising just how many women lose their careers after having their children she made it her mission to keep more parents in the workplace and set up That Works For Me shortly afterwards.
Jess now works with businesses to make them better employers for parents through the Careers After Babies accreditation programme and supports hiring through That Works For Me, home to thousands of parents seeking flexible work.
Tori Ford | Medical Herstory
Tori Ford is the founder of Medical Herstory, an international award-winning youth-led non-profit on a mission to eliminate sexism, shame, and stigma from health experiences.
She is a feminist health researcher completing a DPhil in Primary Health Care at the University of Oxford funded by an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship. She holds a BA from McGill University in Gender Studies and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in Health, Medicine, and Society. Her work on advancing gender health equity has been recognized by the McGill Scarlet Key Award and the University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Social Impact Award. Tori is an outspoken patient advocate and has been featured by UNWomen, The Harvard Public Health Review, Hunger Magazine, and Cosmopolitan UK.
Dr Eleni Meletiadou | London Metropolitan University
Dr Eleni Meletiadou, Director of the Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Research Group, Senior Lecturer in Equality Diversity and Inclusion, researcher, and Course Director of the BA Business Management and HRM Course, is a fervent advocate for gender equality supporting women in the academy.
Her research aims to increase the visibility of inequalities faced by Female Young Researchers and Innovators (FYRIs) from a gender perspective and to promote a sustainable dialogue between FYRIs and stakeholders in the research ecosystem at the systemic level and at the institutional level.
Asia Sharif | Software Engineer | NatWest and ChainVerse
Asia Sharif is an multi-award winning software engineer working within the FinTech industry at a leading bank in the U.K, the founder of ChainVerse and TechNewbies, an engineering mentor, public speaker, blogger, role model, and tech enthusiast.
Asia came from a non-technical background and transitioned into technology in January 2021 with the sole purpose of becoming an inspiration, seeking change, and advocating for women in technology.
Asia’s mission is to build a technology school, provide scholarships for foster children and women in tech through communities and ChainVerse, and keep mentoring hundreds of women and people from underrepresented backgrounds. Asia has now inspired 1000s of people worldwide.
Coming from an underprivileged background, Asia takes pride in the importance of helping others and is an advocate for self-development. Asia strongly believes in mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional elevation and allocates time to host workshops and tech talks to encourage women to develop a growth mindset.
Asia has worked with and is a member of many vital communities who also share her goal to promote and elevate more women and people from underrepresented backgrounds into tech, Asia’s communities include Black Girls In Tech, Coding Black Females, Black Valley, Cajigo, Women Tech Network, Ignite, Code First Girls, Baddies In Tech, TechNewbies and more!
Holly Boothroyd | Software Engineer 2 | Microsoft
I am a Microsoft Software Engineer 2 originally from Seattle who has worked on multiple globally released products including Paint 3D, Xbox, Cortana in Windows, the Edge browser's New Tab page, and most recently the File Explorer Home page. My code is used by millions daily world-wide!
Within Microsoft, I lead several initiatives to uplift underrepresented groups in tech, such as spearheading the engineering internship program expansion and co-leading the Women @ Microsoft Professional Development event series.
Motivated to create the change I wished to see, I founded HerHelloWorld – now a 100k-strong online global community of technologists focused on providing tech and career advice. My mission is to educate and empower underrepresented communities to enter and thrive in tech in pursuit of an industry that creates products with everyone in mind.
Alongside collaborating with multiple well-known STEM organizations and producing regular content for Instagram and TikTok, I’ve also created a set of tools designed to help people advance people their careers.
My 100 Days of Code Daily Journals, used by thousands globally, help develop a learning plan, track progress, and stay motivated whilst learning to code and my 60+ page practical Career Guide covers essential career topics to democratize career coaching.
I have a BSc (Hons) in Computing and Information Technology from the University of Surrey, where I was awarded the IBM Prize for Best Final Year Performance, IBM Prize for Excellent Placement Year Performance, and Best Placement Student of the Year for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Science.
Karen Medhat | Customer Success Manager | IBM
I am a Customer Success Manager at IBM UKI and the youngest Chair of the IBM Technical Consultancy Group.
I am the youngest IBM thought leader and Open group distinguished technical specialist. I led mega projects for clients around the world in the public and private sectors. I graduated from the faculty of engineering at Cairo university with honors and 9th rank. When I was an undergraduate, I was a Microsoft Student Partner and led several initiatives for the benefit of other students at Cairo University. I worked as a research assistant and a developer in Microsoft along with my MSc part-time study which I continued with my full-time Job at IBM and published 5 publications and a patent. I have been progressing in my career at IBM, being a technical leader, inventor, Redbooks author, and creator of courses in different areas such as Cloud, IoT, AI, and blockchain which have been delivered to thousands of IT professionals, students, and university staff across the world. I joined volunteering initiatives for Women in Tech, engineering students, and mentoring IT professionals. I managed the IBM Digital Nation Africa project which has reached 50K students and professionals in Egypt and 250K in Africa to learn new technologies. Leading different teams and building enterprise applications that made difference for clients. I am the youngest member of the IBM Academy of Technology which is an elite community of top talented technical IBMers globally. I am on the editorial board of different internal journals and conferences.
Kirstin Kadé | Product Manager | ZOE
As a Registered Associate Nutritionist (ANutr), I have dedicated my career to improving human health through nutrition using technology.
My background in this field has been diverse, from working on the world's largest in-depth study of nutrition and the gut microbiome to date (PREDICT), to being involved in the launch of the ZOE COVID Study app, which has become the world's biggest app-based community epidemiological study into COVID-19.
I am currently working as a Product Manager at ZOE, a personalised nutrition company on a mission to improve the health of millions. In this role, I am responsible for the development and launch of ZOE's core nutrition product.
I bring a unique perspective to this role, having worked across many different areas in marketing and communications and a background in nutrition science.
As a member of the team at ZOE, I am excited to be part of an organisation that is making a real difference in people's lives through personalised nutrition. I am passionate about the work we do and am committed to developing innovative and effective products that help people achieve optimal health.