Floella left school at 16 with the aim of becoming Britain’s first ever black woman bank manager but changed direction and became an actress, presenter, writer, award winning independent producer, politician and an active advocate for the wellbeing, care and education of children throughout the world.

For the last 50 years she has appeared on stage, film and television, working with some Britain’s top drama directors. Her most recent film credits are Run Fat Boy Run, Rendition and Sarah Jane Adventures for CBBC. But she is best known for her in the iconic children’s programmes Playschool and Playaway, which she starred in 45 years ago.

Her creative work has been recognised with an OBE, a Special BAFTA Award and the JM Barrie Award for lasting contribution to children’s Arts. From 2006 to 2016 she was Chancellor of the University of Exeter, the first Afro-Caribbean woman to be a Chancellor in the UK.

Amatey Doku joined Nous Group, an Australian consulting firm with a particular focus on the public sector, as a consultant in August 2019. In that role he has worked with several clients, with a particular interest in those in the Higher Education sector. He previously served for two years as Deputy President of the National Union of Students, taking the lead on Higher Education policy. In that role he co-chaired on a joint project with Universities UK, to address solutions to tackling the awarding gap, which resulted in the #ClosingTheGap report, published April 2019. 

Maria Hansen is Executive Director of ELIA, the globally connected European network of Higher Arts Education.  In 2007, she became Managing Director of the Municipal Theater and Concert Hall Philharmonie of Haarlem. After 10 years in Haarlem, she decided to take on a new challenge and made the move to ELIA, becoming only the second Executive Director in the organisation’s almost 30 year history. Maria has served many boards and recently joined the Supervisory Board of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Board of Directors of the Gergiev Festival and is member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. She has been a member of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) for more than 20 years and served that organisation as Board and Executive member and congress chair.

Pascal Matthias is a Senior Fellow at the Winchester School of Art. He is also a designer, strategic thinker, public speaker and co-founder of FACE (Fashion Academics Creating Equality).

A fierce advocate of educational reform, Pascal is specifically concerned with race equality, facilitating the amplification of voices within education and business sectors and challenging people in positions of power to dismantle, transform and revolutionise the status quo.

Working with the FACE collective, Pascal campaigns for restructure of frameworks and metrics that have historically perpetuated bias and oppression through lack of recruitment, lack of progression, non-inclusive workplace cultures and unsatisfactory strategic planning.

Instagram: @backonair

Andrew Ibi is a designer, artist and educator. He is currently the programme leader for the BA Fashion: Design & Communication. 

Awarded Graduate of the Year at Middlesex University in 1996, starting his career at Joe Casely-Hayford, Ibi went on to head up menswear design for Burlington and Club Monaco, before launching his own labels. In 2019, Ibi launched arthouse swimwear brand, E.Macbean with his partner Eleanor, debuting during London Fashion Week.

As co-founder of BOLD (The Black Orientated Legacy Development Agency), Ibi works in partnership with the BFC and the IPF. He is the co-founder of FACE – Fashion Academics Creating Equality an active network of Black educators lobbying for educational change and equality.

Instagram: @andrew_ibi_

Sharon Lloyd FHEA, PGCLTHE, MA, is an academic in higher education and a former fashion textile designer, now leading a programme of courses from MA Make-up and Hair Design Futures, BA Make-up and Hair Design, BA Special Effects to BA Prosthetics and Special Effects at Solent University.  

The focus of Sharon’s leadership is the development of learning pathways to foster critical thinking in conjunction with creative practice, while facilitating inclusivity, engagement and integrity within production. Sharon has sat on several university committees that focus on race and equality and is a committee member for Solent’s Race Equality Charter (REC). Sharon is currently Equality and Education Advisor for the Education Pillar, British Beauty Council.  

Instagram: @FaceCulturalist 

Caryn Franklin MBE, BA (Arts) MSc (Psych) MBPsS, fashion and identity commentator, agent of change, visiting professor of diverse selfhood at Kingston School of Art and FACE member.

Former fashion editor and co-editor of i-D Magazine (82-88) and subsequently, TV broadcaster for 15 years on prime-time fashion programmes, Franklin has explored the politics of image, identity and self-esteem through self-authored documentaries, news and current affairs commentary, journalism and book publications. She has presented internationally in Athens, New York, Toronto, Montreal and Prague and projects have involved international design names, everyday users of fashion, refugees in battle zones, workers in free-trade-zone slums, mental-health and body-image experts, MP’s, Government and business leaders.

Instagram: @franklinonfashion

Tania Kovat will lead a drawing session during the conference day.

Kovats’ teaching practice is securely based in the belief in the transformative power of the creative process. All creative acts are acts of communication, how and why we communicate, and how we can communicate better is the reason to learn. Kovats lectures widely, here and abroad. 

Ruth Ewan is an internationally celebrated artist whose research-led and critically engaged practice has drawn attention within contemporary art and socio-political history. Engaging with the circulation of radical ideas and social movements, her work explores the processes by which ideas take form and spread from individuals to society. Ewan’s work is recognised internationally and she has shown extensively at major venues including; Edinburgh Art Festival (2018 & 2020); Pitzhanger Gallery (2020); Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2019); CAPC, Bordeux (2019); Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris (2019); Victoria and Albert Museum (2018); 32nd São Paulo Biennial (2016); Camden Arts Centre, London (2015); Tate Britain (2009 & 2014); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Glasgow International (2012); Dundee Contemporary Arts and Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla (2011); The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2010); the New Museum, New York (2009). She has realised projects for The High Line, New York (2019); Glasgow Women’s Library (2018); Create, London (2012); Art on the Underground (2011); Frieze Projects (2009) and Artangel (2007&2013). In 2016 she was awarded the Arts Foundation Yoma Sasburg Award for Art in Urban Space. ruthewan.com

Sophia Yadong Hao is a curator, writer and editor who situates the curatorial as a mode of critical inquiry directly engaging with culture and the political as an open question. Hao is currently Principal Curator of Cooper Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee. Hao has curated contemporary art exhibitions and events internationally and is the founding editor of the art journal &labels. Her publications include Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? (Sternberg Press, 2019), Hubs and Fictions: On Current Art and Imported Remoteness (co-edited with Edgar Schmitz, Sternberg Press, 2016), A CUT A SCRATCH A SCORE (2015) and NOTES on a return (2010). Hao is a committee member of British Art Network Steering Committee (Tate Britain and Paul Mellon Centre), a member of Art 360 Advisory Group, and a member of Live Art Sector Review Steering Group (Arts Council England).