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Strategic responsibility for Culture, Equality and Inclusion (CEI) sits with Pro-Vice-Chancellor David Ruebain, supported by the Assistant Director of CEI, Isobel Pearce. Oversight and delivery are embedded across the four Faculties through Associate Deans for CEI, who operate in a dual capacity: leading one of the University’s equality and inclusion steering groups while leading CEI within Faculty Executive Boards. This reciprocal model, along with membership of the University’s CEI Leadership Team, ensures alignment with the Inclusive Sussex Framework and enables Faculties to shape University-wide priorities. The EDI Board, meeting termly, oversees CEI activity and reports to the University Executive Board.

While Faculty structures vary, EDI governance processes are consistent. Larger Faculties typically appoint EDI Leads at School level, whereas smaller Faculties, such as USBS, have a single EDI Lead. Across the University, EDI Leads work closely with Associate Deans to advance EDI priorities and foster inclusion for staff and students across all protected characteristics.

The CEI portfolio aligns with the EDI Unit’s workstreams to deliver the University’s Inclusive Sussex commitments. The work has achieved national recognition, including an institutional Athena Swan Bronze award, Faculty and School-level Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards, Stonewall Top 30 Employer status, and Disability Confident Leader status. The University also demonstrates a strong commitment to race equality through its Race Equality Charter Bronze award and initiatives such as the Black at Sussex programme and Faculty-based Race Equity Advocates. Progress is driven through close collaboration with relevant steering groups, EDI Champions, Staff Networks, and the Students’ Union.

Meet the Associate Deans

Lilith Whiley, Associate Dean CEI  - University of Sussex Business School (USBS)

I am the Associate Dean for Culture, Equality and Inclusion (CEI) in the USBS Faculty and I also chair the LGBTQ+ Steering Group. I work closely with a team leading key areas, including Alison McGregor and Josh Moon as Mentoring Co-Chairs, Kathy Jiang as Student Mentoring Programme Lead, and Hong Yu Liu as EDI Events Lead. From September, Krystallia Moysidou will join as EDI Lead. In addition, the CEI Collective brings together stakeholders committed to co-creating an inclusive Faculty and delivering the School’s CEI Thematic Plan. I am also an Associate Professor in Occupational and Organisational Psychology. My research is rooted in the EDI field, with a focus on gender and health at work. My recent and ongoing projects include reproductive health at work, reducing violence against women and girls, and LGBTQ+ identities. I am passionate about tackling stigma and working collaboratively with stakeholders, and over the years have partnered with various national charities, advocacy groups, and communities to raise awareness and promote inclusion.

Sarah Guthrie, Associate Dean CEI – Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine (SEM)

By training I’m a neuroscientist,  who has spent most of her career researching the molecular processes of nerve growth in embryonic development. My teaching has spanned a large range of subjects in bioscience and medicine, and I’ve mentored hundreds of students and young scientists along the way. I joined Sussex in 2016 after some decades at King’s College London, where I led neuroscience education. Recruited to Sussex as Deputy Head of the School of Life Sciences, I became Head of School in 2017 and worked in this role for 6 years.

I’ve always been strongly motivated by a strong sense of fairness and sometimes outrage, when I saw others encountering discrimination, or encountered it myself. A huge influence on me was my feminist mother, who came from a working class background to become a University academic. Back in the 1960s, it was made impossible for her to combine motherhood and career success; her frustration at these barriers was evident. When I was at King’s, this inspired me to lead gender equality work around the Athena Swan charter, and to join efforts to widen participation for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Inclusive practice and creation of a more positive culture have been at the core of my practice all my life. I’m so delighted to be FoSEM Associate Dean (CEI), working with wonderful people in the EDI field. In my role as chair of the Gender Equality Steering Group, I’m also co-leading the University’s Athena Swan Silver application, which will be submitted later in the year. Despite difficult circumstances, I hope our new plans for Inclusive Sussex will make a difference to people’s lives.

Tamsin Hinton-Smith, Associate Dean CEI -  Faculty of Social Sciences

I came to Sussex as a teenage single parent undergraduate student in sociology with my 8 month old daughter. I lived on campus for 3 years, before staying for my MA and a PhD on lone parents’ experiences as higher education students. This means that I have always felt very close to the challenges and gains around EDI in higher education, and at Sussex. 

I have been at Sussex for 30 years now, and continued to develop my research, teaching and leadership around EDI. My research has included around widening participation in HE, and experiences of students and staff from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds, and care experienced young people entering higher education. I set up the University’s current Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education 12 years ago, embedding EDI throughout that, and have led research into EDI in HE curricula and pedagogies. I became the first EDI lead in the School of Education and Social Work.

Being Associate Dean for Culture, Equality and Inclusion means bringing an EDI lens to diverse tasks and questions that span all the dimensions of higher education organisational activity, rather than focusing on one specific area of the university’s work. As part of my role I am also pleased to have recently taken on chairing of the University Religion and Belief Forum. One of the aspects of my role I most value is bringing colleagues and students together around priorities relating to  our institutional community and culture. This month we are looking forward to coming together for an event developed with our student Race Equity Advocates to focus on addressing ethnicity awarding gaps by sharing inclusive teaching approaches and activities. With so much changing and unknown around us at every level from our course teams and departments to our wider world, creating these opportunities to connect and learn from each other are so important.

Sarah Maltby, Associate Dean CEI -  Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities (MAH)

I am the Associate Dean for Culture, Equality and Inclusion (CEI) in Media, Arts and Humanities and part of a wider team of EDI Leads, including Flora Derounian (Gender Equality and Athena Swan Lead), Em Harrison (Disability and Neurodiversity Equality Lead), Cecile Chevalier (Race Equality EDI Lead) and Avey Nelson, who is currently supporting LGBTQ+ Equality work.  I also serve as Chair of the Disability Equality and Inclusion Steering Group, working in partnership with brilliant colleagues across the University to support and advance disability equality initiatives. While this remains a complex and evolving area, I have found there to be a strong and collective commitment to progressing change, and ensuring continued momentum in this work, which is both rewarding and motivating.  

I joined Sussex in 2013 but my engagement with equality and diversity has a longer trajectory, shaped by personal and professional experience, from having disabled family members to working with disabled people and women as part of my academic career. My research focuses on the intersection of media, memory and identity in war and post-war contexts. This has involved extensive work with disabled military veterans and survivors of war—particularly amputees—whose experiences reflect the long-term impacts of conflict and recovery, and from whom I have learnt significantly about the complex realities of living with disability. I have also worked closely with female soldiers and female partners of military personnel, gaining a deeper understanding of the persistent gender inequalities within large institutions, as well as the disproportionate impact of conflict on women.

These insights inform my approach to the Associate Dean role, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to engage with so many different and wonderful colleagues across the University to think about how we progress EDI work in a meaningful manner, with sustained engagement and ongoing listening. For me, the importance of this is reinforced during periods of institutional and societal change where inclusive dialogue and learning from each other feel paramount.   

For more information about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University please visit: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion : University of Sussex