The Kent Athena SWAN event held in Canterbury on 14th September 2016 and the first Athena SWAN Champion was announced as part of morning plenary sessions.
Members of the Athena SWAN working group (ASWG) nominated staff members who had shown outstanding ‘on the ground’ commitment, leadership and/or visibility with the Athena SWAN initiative at Kent.
Simon Kirchin, incoming chair of the ASWG and host of the Canterbury event, announced the winner as Professor Peter Clarkson, who received the most nominations from working group members. One staff member wrote that she wanted to nominate Peter “in recognition for his major contributions to a significant number of changes implemented at School level that have changed the culture and greatly improved the quality of our work envrionment”.
The runner-up was announced as Dr Erika Nurmsoo. One staff member praised Erika for her mentoring to other Schools at Kent for Athena SWAN awards and her work in the sector, including working as an ECU panel member and being an active part of the Critical Friends network for Psychology.