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DIVERSITY CHAMPION: Miranda Brawn, second left

THE MIRANDA Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation has recognised the work of 10 young diversity leaders at the annual Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Annual Lecture.

The event, which made UK history in 2016, is the brainchild of the foundation’s founder Dr Miranda Brawn. Brawn is known as one of the UK’s top diversity champions, helping to close the diversity gap in our workforce and across the globe. This year’s theme was “together we can make a positive change in the world and the workplace”.

Brawn said: “Helping one next generation is not going to change the world, but it will change the world for one next generation. If each one of us helps the next generation, together we will change the world, one future leader at a time.

The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Scholarship winners

"I am delighted to announce that the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation will be launching a strategy at this year’s annual diversity leadership lecture aiming to transform the lives of at least 25,000 lives by 2025. To close the diversity gap at a faster pace it will involve everyone coming together to make the change not just women, ethnic minorities and those from other diverse backgrounds like LGBT.

"This year’s diversity leadership annual lecture will be making a powerful case for diversity and how together we can change the world and close the diversity gap to enable a more successful and happier economy.”

Brawn and speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow who delivered the opening keynote speech at the event

Nearly 200 student and current leaders from diverse backgrounds came together to turn ideas into action at the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Annual Lecture. The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation engaged the next generation and current leaders to develop solutions for closing the diversity gap.

Each year, the foundation awards some of the best diversity leaders of the next generation with a scholarship to assist with their funding, mentoring and work experience within their chosen sector. The event awarded 10 scholarships to diversity leaders from a diverse background. This included new women empowerment, age inclusion and social mobility scholarships. To date, the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation has helped thousands of the next generation of diversity leaders and awarded 30 scholarships.

The foundation’s collaborations and partnerships include The Prince’s Trust, Lambeth Council, The Patchwork Foundation and Cancer Research UK to help increase diversity in Government, Politics and STEAM.

At the event, which took place on October 27, opera soprano Nadine Benjamin, who is currently starring in the English National Opera’s Porgy and Bess, as part of an all black cast, sang Summertime as well as sharing her experiences on diversity and rising up the ranks in the world of opera as a black woman from her beginnings in Brixton.

Brawn will delivered the annual diversity leadership lecture providing ideas on how to close the diversity gap at a quicker pace within the workplace and across the globe ahead of her TEDx Women talk in December.

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