Saher Ahmed

Blog

  • Women and Leadership

    Selfie of Julia Gillard and me

    2 years ago I had the incredible privilege to host The Hon. Julia Gillard AC (Chair of Wellcome Board of Governors, inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and former Prime Minster of Australia) at the Sanger Institute for a dedicated visit focussing on equity and inclusion. Such an honour!!! It was a jam-packed day – starting with a thought-provoking “In Conversation” with Julia and Dame Cilla Snowball, DBE, with lots of enthusiastic audience participation. Of course we invited Julia to share her reflections on her iconic misogyny speech from 2012: “Not Now, Not Ever” – [side thought: I feel that whilst some progress has been made, there is still more to do. Perhaps this is a blog for another day] – we filled every single precious minute with impactful conversation and discussion that was laced with bucketloads of humour and optimism.

    My signed copy of Julia and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s book “Women and Leadership”

    It was so joyful being able to introduce Julia to some of the fabulous Campus EDI community, including members of the staff engagement networks, Excellence Fellows, Janet Thornton Fellows and the special people I worked with who always went the extra mile to catalyse change (ykwya).  We also grasped the nettles with the more thornier aspects of research and scientific culture, including unpacking what can drive negative behaviours across the research ecosystem and what funders can do to lead positive change. Julia was so generous with her time – warm, inquisitive and laser-focused – she missed nothing!

    Cilla Snowball, Julia Gillard and me

    3 personal take-ways from my time with Julia:

    1. Stay true to your values and principles. There are things that we are entitled to feel angry about – sitting comfortably with that anger can be empowering.
    2. Be aware of superficiality – it’s important to get beneath the froth and bubbles on the surface (and not get distracted by them) in order to be able to see the tides and movements underneath to really understand what is happening.
    3. Authentic inclusive leadership is demonstrated through every day actions and behaviours (doing it, role-modelling it, bringing it to life – not just talking about it). When Julia became Australia’s first female prime minister, I read that she accepted the role with the “greatest humility, resolve and enthusiasm”. This is the person who I met – genuine, committed and humble.

    To have this time with such an inspirational leader was just a dream. Until next time (fingers crossed…!)

  • 10 Year Reflections

    10 Year Reflections

    [First posted on LinkedIn]

    It’s been a whirlwind few years, months, weeks, days and hours… 😊
    As I step away from nearly a decade at Wellcome Sanger Institute as Head of EDI, a moment to reflect on what has been an exciting journey in #equity, #inclusion and #leadership. 10 years = 10 (mini) reflections 😉:
    1. Leading the creation of the Excellence Fellowship will always be so special to me. The opportunity to connect with inspiring and brilliant people who whole-heartedly and enthusiastically put their trust in me was so humbling. A huge thank you to the inaugural advisory group – I was blown away by your support and it was an honour to Chair this group: Maria Augusta Arruda, Professor Jason Arday, Tomi Akingbade, Diego Baptista, Professor Dawn Edge; Matt Kaiser; Dr. Esther Mukuka; Professor Rachel Oliver; Cilla Snowball; Nicholas Thomson; David Adams; Paula Bailey and Mike Stratton – it was truly exciting times!!! And thank you to Yulye Jessica Romo Ramos from Nexus Evaluation LTD, it was a pleasure to work with you on the evaluation and review processes 😀 I was thrilled by the partnerships offered by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) (thank you to Matt Kaiser with his CR-UK hat on at the time) and the Medical Research Council (thank you to Sarah Goler Solecki) which enabled us to expand the scheme much earlier than we had anticipated 🙏🏽 I am so happy to see the Fellowship going from strength to strength and the wonderful Excellence Fellows thriving (Dr Onalenna Neo; Oumie Kuyateh, PhD; Kudzai Nyamondo, PhD; Michael Ansah; Ore Francis; Samantha Jumbe; Mona Suleiman) 🙌🏽 I know that everyone is looking forward to welcoming the new Fellows to the Excellence community (Stanley Otoboh, PhD; Tumie Ntereke, PhD; Silvia Ogbeide; Antonia Cuff) 😍
    2. Creating Sanger’s first Race Equity strategy and leading on: the roll-out of the first ethnicity pay gap reporting (working with the wonderful Nancy Roberts); Reverse Mentoring scheme (with the phenomenal The Reverse Mentoring Practice); Inclusive Leadership with the Board of Management (with the brilliant Stephen Frost) and designing a bespoke Anti-Racism Development programme (with Prof. Laura Serrant CBE PhD and MA Consultancy Ltd). The conversations were not easy, but leadership took them on with compassion, humility and integrity – this was an incredibly enriching experience.
    3. Working with the Director and leadership on driving forward a consolidated and established #EDI #strategy that can be operationalised #equityinresearch
    4. Invited to be involved in sector-leading transformational change initiatives, such as assessing Wellcome Trust’s first Institutional Research Culture grant call #researchenvironment, #researchculture. Amazing to see the excitement the call generated across the sector – huge congratulations to Shomari Lewis-Wilson; Dan O’Connor, Sonya Towers, Harriet Wykeham for leading this work with such dedication, purpose and laser-focus. It was a privilege to play a part in this ground-breaking first 😍

    5. Being inspired by the trailblazing work of Sara Rankin and Prof. Amanda Kirby and working with the wonderful Catherine Gater to establish Sanger’s first neurodiversity strategy.
    6. Key note speaker on #equityandinclusion leadership in high performing research settings, and connecting with stimulating and thought-provoking people from across the Globe. Including speaking at Helmholtz Munich’s first Munich-wide women in Science event – thank you to Eleftheria Zeggini 😊 Speaking at Human Technopole’s first Gender Equality and Diversity symposium– thank you Nicole Soranzo! Delivering the key note lecture at EMBL‘s women in science conference…
    Hugely rewarding and enriching experiences that I will never forget 😀
    7. Developing a holistic approach to support individuals return into scientific research after a career break, including leading the Janet Thornton Fellowship with Mara Lawniczak and Gosia Trynka; setting-up flexible Returners Grants for people coming back from extended leave; working with Diane Swallow on the Research Support Scheme; maternity coaching with Returning Works, and updating systems, practices and policies to ensure bespoke, versatile support #returntoscience; #returners
    8. Evolving and expanding the Wellcome Genome Campus Equality in Science programme, including establishing the first staff engagement networks and connecting the Campus community with inspirational and distinguished speakers. Over the years it has been a joy and utter treat to host a rich and thought-provoking range of speakers including Angela Saini; Dr Annabel Sowemimo; Jeremy Farrar; Professor Ottoline Leyser; Ijeoma Uchegbu FMedSci; Camilla Pang, Jim Smith; Julia Gillard… Working with the dedicated Stephanie Paul, and fabulous Lindsey Crosswell and wonderful scientific leadership including Sarah Teichmann FMedSci FRS and Muzlifah Haniffa to bring this to life.
    9. Working with fantastic colleagues including Anna Middleton to lead the creation and secure funding for a PhD studentship programme exploring race equity and representation – encompassing a rich lens of #socialjustice, #antiracism, #ethics and #socialscience. Awe-inspiring to see the thoughtful work being led by Sasha Henriques – I am excited to see what comes next 😍
    10. The opportunity to explore, from the inside, the culture at Sanger. I am proud of the work that I did for the Board of Management with Stacy Johnson around tackling the thornier aspects of #researchculture
    11. Driving an evidence-based approach to EDI using data to analyse trends and drawing on qualitative data to enrich approaches. Working with Martin Dougherty to lead Sanger’s #genderpaygap analysis and reporting.
    12. Expanding Sanger’s Equality Charters, including elevating #AthenaSWAN from Bronze to Silver; submitting the first Working Families benchmark; working with the brilliant Anette Grindsted on Sanger’s first Stonewall workplace equality index

    Sorry – this was more than 10 things… 😅

    What has always made working at Sanger so special is the people 😊 I am so grateful to the members of the Equality in Science Working Group; EDI Forum; Excellence Fellowship advisory and steering groups; Chairs of the staff engagement networks… It would be impossible for me to list everyone’s names – but you know who you are 🤗 Thank you for trusting me to lead this important work.
    #Worldleading science cannot be done without ensuring that we have a research ecosystem that is #equitable, #fair, #just and #inclusive. It has been an honour to have had the opportunity to work with 100s and 100s of people over the past decade, who are genuinely passionate, authentic and committed to driving positive change. Without you, none of this work could have happened – thank you!

    Next – it’s summer 🌞 and family-time 💚 I have got some exciting plans coming up 😊 Please message me, if you would like to catch-up ☕

    Lots of love to my awesome network of friends and collaborators ❤️