Olivia is a Senior Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) Consultant within the Inclusive Sports Team at Inclusive Employers. She is an experienced I&D practitioner with a background in academic research. Olivia is a published author, with articles in high-impact, peer-reviewed scientific journals. Her research addresses contemporary social problems such as prejudice against immigrants and gender bias within the criminal justice system.

Olivia has worked at several I&D consultancies prior to joining Inclusive Employers, where she designed and delivered training, reviewed policies to ensure that recruitment was fair and inclusive, and served as a subject matter expert on a podcast on I&D data collection best practices.

What do you enjoy about your role at Inclusive Employers?

One of my biggest passions in life is riding horses. This is something that I have done since I was young, and it has been great for both my physical and mental health. I am fortunate to be able to work with clients in equestrian sports, where I have the opportunity to drive positive cultural change through consulting and training.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

My proudest professional achievement to date is having published two research articles in academic journals. These were projects that took years to complete and focused on I&D topics that were meaningful to me. I spearheaded the research design and data collection process, and drafted the copy for both articles. I persisted despite multiple setbacks and rejections, but ultimately succeeded in adding to the knowledge base from which I&D practitioners can draw from in order to better understand the biases that impact the way people treat each other.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to it.”

Often in life, you encounter situations where you feel powerless or that seem unfair. I have found that the best response in such circumstances is to focus on what you can do about it and try to make the best of any situations that feel less than ideal.

Tell us something about you that we might not know

I had a brief career in television, working as a reporter on the Paul O’Grady show from the age of 9 to 13.