Bertha Calles Cartas joins the CDEG committee

by Trista Smith

Bertha is a new and very welcome recruit to the CDEG committee! She brings a wealth of experience and an international perspective.

What is your current role?

I am a clinical and outreach librarian at Mid and South Essex Trust.

How did you get involved in equality, diversity and inclusion work?

I have an intellectual but also personal interest in equality, diversity and inclusion. Since I was very young, I have wanted to understand diversity, equality, and barriers to inclusion. As a female, I learned to normalise gender inequalities, discrimination and violence. I came to the UK from Mexico 17 years ago. Back then, when I arrived here, as a woman, I felt a sense of security and freedom I hadn't felt before in my country.

Before coming into librarianship, I studied indigenous peoples’ struggles and discrimination as part of my MRes in International Development. Through my friend Dr. Hazel Marsh, I learned about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveling community struggles. It took me sometime to understand gender, racial and cultural inequalities in the so-called developed countries. I joined the BAME group at Southend Hospital as soon as I started my role here at the Trust. In 2020, at the highest point of the Black Lives Matter movement, I started supporting the BAME group with knowledge management: I created a current awareness bulletin. This started as a local distribution that evolved into a national distribution.

What made you decide to join the CDEG committee? What are you hoping to do as member of the committee?

I was invited to be part of the committee to have a larger representation of health libraries. As a new member of the committee, I am looking forward to the first meeting.

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Welcome, Bertha!