Shirley Yearwood-Jackman - Chair

Shirley has had an extensive career, working primarily in Special Libraries and Higher Education. Currently, she is a Liaison Librarian at the University of Liverpool. She has also had an international career in the Caribbean, serving as Director, Regional Resource Centre, U.S. Embassy. During her career she has been actively involved in Library Associations serving as President of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL); Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for the ACURIL Conference, and a Regional Councillor of the Commonwealth Library Association (COMLA). Most recently, Shirley has been engaged in advancing equality policy at Liverpool as a member of the BAME network, the Equality Forum and the University’s Athena Swan Professional Services Self-Assessment team. She is currently a CILIP Trustee and Chair of the Steering Group to establish the BAME Network.

Adebola Dada

As a knowledge and Management Analyst within the communications team in the Home Office, I respond to Freedom of Information requests and Parliamentary questions in a high pressure environment.

I have a passion for the Information profession and I am happy to be part of the Steering group to promote the BAME members of the Library and Information community at CILIP.

I started my career at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as an Information officer; specialising in providing answers to enquiries and research requests from both Civil Servants and Ministers. I reviewed our library collections on a regular basis and ensured that our holdings were relevant to the priorities of the department. I provided IT support with information and management aspects of information flows and application of technical KIM solutions. I was active in the BAME activities at MHCLG and also across the Government departments.

I also did a secondment with the Library team at the Department for Works and Pensions.

I am a member of the Grad panel of the Cross-Government Crossing Thresholds programme.

Heena Karavadra

I began my career in public libraries, working as a library assistant for three years with Leicester City libraries. Through my contract with the council I worked at HMP Leicester library as well as the central and local library branches. In 2016 I was awarded the Sheffield Postgraduate Scholarship to undertake my Master’s degree in Librarianship at the University of Sheffield and graduated in 2018. In 2016 I transitioned to working in Higher Education libraries and I am currently working as an Academic Librarian at the University of Leicester.

Marilyn Clarke

Marilyn Clarke has a MSc in Race and Ethnic Relations. She has worked at Senate House Library, Imperial College, and now, Goldsmiths College. She is a co-Chair of the Goldsmiths Race Equality Group, and a member of the HR Equalities Committee. She leads the Liberate our Library Working Group at Goldsmiths, which includes Student Union representatives. She has co-delivered workshops on decolonising research and curricula with a colleague who is an academic skills lecturer; most recently at the Advance HE EDI Conference in Liverpool 2018, and, by invitation to Manchester University at their Decolonial Curricula workshop in January 2019. In February, she wrote a well-received Editorial for UKSG eNews on the liberation agenda.

Mobeena Khan

Mobeena has worked across public and academic libraries and is interested in reader development, training and professional development and equalities issues.

Paul Byfield

Paul is a Legal Knowledge Manager at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Paul is active in Diversity and Inclusion initiatives at EBRD and was previously Chair of the African Caribbean Network. He is actively involved with the Freshfields/Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Programme. Paul is keen to encourage BAME students to consider the information and library profession as a career option.

Regina Everitt

Regina Everitt began her professional career as a technical author/trainer working with computer companies that developed bespoke software for the manufacturing, pharmaceutical and financial sectors in the US and UK. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Central and West Africa, she taught English as a Foreign Language and ran a small Library and cultural centre. Her experience in Peace Corps set the scene for her future career as she later transitioned into the UK HE sector developing and managing libraries, social learning spaces, and other learning resources.

Regina enjoys the mixed portfolio of converged Library, IT and other learning support services. She is currently Director of Library and Learning Services at the University of East London with strategic responsibility for Libraries, Archives, and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT). She was previously Interim Director at SOAS, managing Library, IT Service Desk, Multimedia, and Printer Services. She developed and managed the University of the Arts London's first social learning space, the Learning Zone, which has now been expanded to other parts of the institution.

Concerned about the low representation of BAME staff members in leadership positions in academic libraries, she co-project managed SCONUL research to document BAME staff experiences in LIS with a view to working with the sector to positively influence the trend. She is also a member of the Steering Group for the M25 Consortium of Libraries.