Past invited speaking engagements include UK, European and International events covering a range of topics related to diversity and inclusion in STEM and knowledge transfer.
I have been and continue to serve, at both national and international level, advisory bodies on gender and STEM for organisations including the Institute of Physics, Construction Skills and Royal Society of Chemistry.
I have provided evidence and advice on policies, projects and programmes surrounding diversity in STEM to inquiries and research.
As well as a track record of radio and TV I have chaired debates and facilitated meetings and workshops on many topics around diversity and innovation. Some of the key note presentations I have recently given are summarised below.
A Gallup certified strengths coach, Jan speaks with knowledge and conviction about taking a strengths approach to help you deliver on your equality and diversity action plans as an organisation.
The talk is tailored for leaders, manager or teams.Jan tailors her talk to suit a students, academic or corporate audience.
For too long the world has focused on addressing the low participation of women in engineering as a numbers game, “simply recruit more and we’ll solve the problem”, or taken the ‘leaky pipeline’ model. Jan argues that a more fundamental approach is needed if we are to produce engineers, regardless of their gender, who cannot understand and apply their technical knowledge to diverse end users but are also able to innovate, driven by end users’ needs and differences.
Exploring the forces that are shaping our future including peak oil, population growth and migration and climate change Jan explores the issues we face and asks of her audience – ‘will it be you that makes a difference?’ while she outlines some of the scientists and engineers who have inspired her and who are making great strides to address the many problems and challenges we face in society.
Past talks include Malvern St James Girls School, Bournemouth Collegiate and Bournemouth University as part of the Expanding Horizons event
Women, and men, have long suffered the indignity and inconvenience with typical wry humour about ill-fitting Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). To be fair, some manufacturers have tried: making standard male fit clothing in smaller sizes, adding pink, sparkly laces to boots and even using preposterous ‘female’ style names such as ‘vixen’. Happily things have moved on. A bit. Catch up with this energising talk about why and what more you could do.
The Athena SWAN equality charter for women is well known across the UK as having a tremendous impact on how university departments have taken notice of the wasted talent among women academics. AS a key member of the Athena Steering Group and the lead policy make at the outset of the project Jan is uniquely placed to give an overview of how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.