About the Inclusive Environments Project Team
Professor Chantal Davies (University of Chester)
After graduating with a Law degree from Oxford University, Chantal Davies qualified as a solicitor with Eversheds in Cardiff specialising in Employment, Human Rights and Discrimination Law. In 1998, she moved to work as a solicitor for the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in Manchester heading up a department tackling strategic and wider enforcement of the gender equality legislation. Chantal is now Professor of Law, Equality and Diversity in the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Chester. She has also developed and is Director of the Forum for Research into Equality and Diversity. Past research focuses on the experiences of minority ethnic students within HE and the use of positive action by organisations in the UK. Chantal has also completed a funded project looking at the gendered obstacles to research activity faced by academics in the UK. More recently Chantal has been funded by the Young Women’s Trust and the Equality and Human Rights Commission to research the use of positive action in apprenticeships. Chantal has also worked with the Higher Education Authority in Ireland to roll out a groundbreaking positive action initiative aimed at increasing female representation within professorships. She has sat on the board of Cheshire Halton and Warrington Race and Equality Centre and the Equality Challenge Unit and in this latter role worked with them to develop institutional confidence in developing positive action initiatives within higher education. Chantal also sat on the review panel for the national Subject Benchmark Statement for Law. Chantal has recently completed a 6 month project funded by Advance HE developing an Equality Impact Assessment framework for the Higher Education sector in England. Chantal currently sits on the Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Commission and is Co Vice Chair of the Law Society’s Women’s Solicitors Network Committee. She also sits on AdvanceHE’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Dr Holly White (University of Chester)
Dr Holly White is the Head of the Social and Political Science Division and is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Chester. Holly’s primary areas of interest and expertise are public social science, challenging social harm and injustice with a particular focus on poverty, and universities making positive contributions to local communities and region. Holly was a trustee of Cheshire West Voluntary Action with responsibilities for research and strategic partnerships. Holly was also a Board member of the Trussell Trust Changing Minds on Poverty Board, utilising her research and voluntary experience to inform the organisation’s national strategy on public sense-making of poverty. Holly holds a PhD in Social Science from Edge Hill University. Holly recently produced ‘Principles for Co-Production’ which are being piloted by local third sector organisations.
Dr Kim Ross (University of Chester)
Dr Kim Ross is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Deputy Head of the Social and Political Science Division at the University of Chester. Kim’s research interests include public social science, harm reduction and health risk behaviours in addition to the development of creative research methods. Before joining the University of Chester, Kim was a Senior Researcher in the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University where she specialized in research with vulnerable communities. Kim holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Liverpool. Kim recently led a research exhibition that was co-produced with research partners from the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission which presented research findings that explored the lived experience of poverty to a public audience. Kim also collaborated with Dr White in producing the ‘Principles for Co-Production’
Dr Eghosa Ekhator (University of Derby)
Dr Eghosa Ekhator is an Associate Professor in law at the University of Derby, United Kingdom. His main research areas include International Environmental Law, African International Legal History, and Natural Resources Governance. Dr Ekhator has published extensively on his research areas and his academic papers have been cited by a plethora of public and international agencies including the United Kingdom Parliament’s International Trade Committee and the United Nations Refugee Council. Dr Ekhator is also the Convenor, Comparative Law Section (Society of Legal Scholars), Chair Committee on the Teaching of International Law and the SDGs – International Law Association (Nigerian Branch) and Senior Fellow Environmental Law and Sustainable Development – Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute) Afe Babalola University Nigeria. Dr Ekhator is the current Deputy Editor-in-Chief, the Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, Afe Babalola University, Nigeria and the Co-Lead of the International Law, Environment and Human Rights Research Cluster University of Derby Law School
