Dr Róisín McKelvey

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Biography

Background

As Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) EDI Officer for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, my work includes supporting the ongoing strategic development and implementation of the College EDI Action Plan, the delivery of EDI initiatives for staff and students and contributing to policy development at College and University levels. I provide bespoke EDI guidance to researchers undertaking funding application processes, consult on College Impact Fund cycles, provide training to researchers in developing inclusive research design and practice, and deliver sessions about integrating inclusive practice into demand management, impact and public engagement activity.

In addition to collaborating with EDI colleagues across Colleges, Information Services and Corporate Services Groups, I am a member of the University's Research Cultures Forum and Race Equality and Anti-Racist Sub-committee, the CMVM representative on the University’s LGBT+ Equality Sub-committee, and the Network Liaison for the Edinburgh Race Equality Network.

I completed an EDI secondment with the University's Curriculum Transformation Project, for which I mapped strategic drivers and data monitoring that are relevant to student retention, progression and awarding (RPA) gaps, produced an Action Plan, and consulted with staff across the institution in order to collate inclusive practice case studies. 

Previously, as Diversity and Inclusion Officer on the eBase project, within the College of Science and Engineering, I supported ongoing EDI work within the College of Science and Engineering, including initiatives related to underrepresentation, EDI data reporting, decolonising the curriculum, widening participation and developing inclusive research culture. Before joining the University of Edinburgh as a member of staff, I was engaged in several research projects related to equity and inclusion.

My research role at the University of Stirling comprised a critical investigation into how equity imperatives are translated into practice by education professionals in Scotland, throughout which I was a member of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education’s ‘Scottish Attainment Challenge Research Project’.

My doctoral research contributed to the European Commission funded Mobility and Inclusion in Multilingual Europe consortium, and addressed equalities obligations in the UK in relation to language provision in the Scottish public sector. This entailed analysis of multiple sources of data (quantitative and qualitative) to assess equality obligations and the nature of available language provision. I concluded by drawing together a cross-service perspective and compiling related policy recommendations, which were published in January 2021.

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