ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

Hiya! I'm Liz (she/her), I'm 29 years old and I'm Director of Programmes at Europe's biggest LGBT organisation, Stonewall.

So what do you actually do?

I sit across three incredible programmes - Workplace, which features the UK's biggest change programme 'Diversity Champions' and the Workplace Equality Index, Empowerment, training and developing people across sectors in LGBT inclusion and Community Engagement - harnessing the power of grassroots organisations to make change in communities, in sports and to fight boldly for our trans community.

In short - I work with three teams of amazing people who are trying to make the world a better place.

What has your career path been?

I went to a Catholic state school that didn't teach sex-ed and had actual monks and nuns walking around the corridors. I loved school, which I know isn't the case for some, but high school was a really great time for me. Looking back I realise how queerphobic the place was, and how not every year 9 student in the country has to pray before Science. I left with a string of impressive GCSEs, 6As and 4A*s which got me into a local, very good, sixth form.

It was here I stumbled. I didn't have much direction and with 2000 pupils in a tiny campus, no one really cared. I wanted to study English, French and Politics, but I was pushed into doing triple Science as it 'looked good' to have someone 'like me' doing physics. I hated it, and didn't get into my first choice University. I took an offer at Reading to study Zoology (the only way I could travel the world without being able to afford a gap year) and spent three years working out that I didn't want to be a Zoologist. I moved back to my hometown with no clue what to do.

I worked in a bar in Liverpool and worked 60 hour weeks. In the days off that I had (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) I volunteered at a local Oxfam and got really into climate activism. I was living at home, but couldn't drive, so would get the bus or walk everywhere. It was here I began to launch a political campaign and became the first (and youngest) Green Party Parliamentary Candidate in the town. This whirlwind threw me into politics and within a year I had been around the country speaking at events, attending protests and was even a UK delegate for the European Green Council, sitting alongside MEPs. I would get phone calls from the BBC whilst in the glass-wash room of the bar I worked in. I'd also started a business where I had been 'upcycling' old sportswear and selling it online. I sold all my stock and with £2000 in my bank, I moved to London.

I started by getting a job as a facilitator. I love meeting people and speaking about social justice so it was perfect for me. I travelled up and down the UK speaking to students in schools about the issues that mattered to them. After doing this for a while, I wanted to focus my work on particular issue that was close to my heart: serious youth violence. I had grown up in Handsworth, Birmingham, and we had to leave due to very real threats to our lives.

I began working on a project based in North London, carrying out deep transformative work with young people, whilst also working strategically to hold institutions to account, for the actions they took in trying to solve these issues. I was young - often 20, 30 years younger than people who sat next to me, but I always felt that my voice had to be heard, and that it was my duty to represent young people in those spaces.

I carried on working in youth work, adding more management skills and project development/delivery skills along the way, until finally I felt as though my time in youth work was done. I wanted to work in the LGBT sector and I wanted to commit myself to the fight for LGBT lives, especially fighting for our trans siblings. And that brought me to Stonewall.

What is the best part of your job?

To be at the forefront of fighting for LGBT rights is a complete honour. I get to bring to life ideas and initiatives that make tangible change for people. The best part about my job in undoubtedly the amazing people I work with. I get to stand alongside colleagues who fight for LGBT inclusion everyday. I've worked in the charity sector my whole career and to be waking up everyday to work at Stonewall is dream-level feels. I pinch myself everyday.

What inspired you to do your job?

I've always wanted to help people. I grew up in a single parent family and had a mum who kept a very watchful eye over everything I did. I knew from a young age that being Black mixed-race and working class, meant I would have to work harder to prove myself. I scrambled through the education system and once I'd graduated, I wanted to tackle to structural inequalities that exist in society.

I wanted to start at the root - school. So I spent years building up my knowledge and skills in youth work and radical education, whilst always being driven by a social justice praxis.

I remember first being able to tell my workplace I was queer. I remember how liberating that was. I told the people I worked with before some of my friends, and some of my family members still don't know. I was only able to do that thanks to the work that Stonewall had put into making my workplace inclusive. It was at that moment that I knew one day I would join Europe's biggest LGBT organisation.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

Change, success, winning - it's all closer than you think. We can leave it up to other people to sort out societies problems, but there's no one better placed to start on them than you.

The charity sector is beautiful and flawed, and not always a friendly place for Black mixed-race, working class people like me. And I recognise the privilege I have even saying that. But our voices and visions are valid.

Final words?

Don't underestimate:
1. Your ability
2. Your story
3. How much you need to drink water. Drink more water, trust me.

Check out Liz’s socials below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

I don't know when this happened, but I've become an early bird. It's actually wild as when I was 17 my mum would have to literally spray me with water to wake me up. But these days I'm up at 6.30am. I work out first thing - a run if I'm feeling super ambitious, but usually it's a workout. I play football in my spare time, so I like to keep fit, and in lockdown it's become so important for my mental health. I swear by Nike Training Club as it's free and they have loads of varied workouts on there, including ones that are designed for sport performance.

By 7.30am I'm having breakfast - a mixture of fruit, cereal, oat milk, coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds and some cinnamon if I'm feeling it. Breakfast is so essential to me. I've battled eating disorders in the past, and it's something I often talk about. Breakfast is key for me to anchor my day. I also have the first of way too many coffees. I check emails at this point too, accompanied by the news. I like to know what day I'm walking into - both in a work sense and politically. By 8.30 I'm showered, dressed, and at my desk (or on my bike to work if we're in the office).

First meeting of the day might be a team meeting. This is a space where the Senior Leadership team fill each other in on what's been happening. I have to have a good sense of how the teams I sit across are feeling, and I often think about how best I can represent them in the space. There are around 45 people that I represent who all work immensely hard in difficult and challenging situations. These meetings might be a 20 minute check in, or a 90 minutes decision-making session. I love thinking on the spot and as I've grown into management I've realised this is a useful skill to have!

Mid morning may see me having a line management meeting. I love managing people. I see it as a privilege to really get to know someone and work out how best you can support them. My management ethos is very much 'how can I support you to make you your happiest and most fulfilled self'. I've had excellent and terrible managers over the years. I think youth work has also helped me in how I manage people. I'm a firm believer in managing people to their goals, so if the aim is to take my job, let's work out how we do that! (with my consent, of course!) I think as a queer Black mixed-race person, there is an element of collectivism and collaboration that comes from growing up in a community where you have to work together to survive. Competition is the enemy of progress!

Lunch is always at 12.01pm as I get hungry QUICK. I'd like to say I make it outside, but honestly I'm usually at my desk with some kind of soup/sandwich/salad and delve into the 24hour news cycle again. If it's a Wednesday I watch PMQs. It's ridiculous, but also important to see exactly how the lawmakers of this country conduct themselves. I often think what people would think of me if I jeered and laughed at people I was debating.

Afternoons might see me have some team or project specific meetings. We work on so many incredible things at Stonewall such as the Diversity Champions programme, Decolonising Queer Leadership Programme or Rainbow Laces. These things don't happen overnight and I'll often help support or provide a steer on decisions for campaigns that are coming up in my teams.

I love it when I have external meetings. Often times I get to meet with some of the world's biggest organisations - from brands to sporting bodies, as they will come to Stonewall to try and make their workplaces better. I really enjoy influencing these organisations, and I find some of the skills from my days doing political organising and activism really useful here. I love researching who I'm meeting, and I think that no matter who the organisation is, it's always good to know who you'll be sitting opposite. I will write down before the meeting the aims I hope to achieve and plan out a few different pathways to getting there.

Sadly the UK is extremely transphobic. I will often have meetings in which I am giving my thoughts on a statement expressing outrage at the latest news. It is our collective responsibility to fight for trans rights and I'm very grateful to work alongside organisations such as Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence who are leading this work.

I try and finish meetings by 5pm and finish work by 6.30pm. Having worked in the charity sector my whole career, work-life balance is often more work-life 'integration'. I've been burnt out on more than one occasion, exploited by organisations - and I've vowed never to let work get the most of me again. I love work, for sure, but work won't love you back.

I spend my evenings doing one of three things (or ideally all three) 1. playing football 2. seeing my friends and 3. making food. I'm lucky to have a bubble of amazing people who I'm inspired by daily. From working in academia, the NHS, international development, TV, art, I am surrounded by incredible people that check me when I'm working too hard. My partner is my lifeline and she is incredible and calls me out when I'm sacrificing my soul!

Honestly, I'd like to say I read loads but most of the time I find it hard to pick up a book. It's always a New Year's resolution though, so maybe one day I will have a pile of books that I've read rather than just books I buy and don't read!

As I wake up so early, I try and get to bed by 10.30 to get that full 8 hours...some days are ore successful than others though!