For all of us working in education, we appreciate the more we learn, the more ignorant we are. Over the past two years I have taken far more time to listen to and learn an immense amount from diverse individuals, groups and communities. Their patience, generosity of spirit and mentorship has helped me to learn how I can be a better person within advancement and wider education circles to be an advocate, ally and leader of EDIB change.

For me, complacency quite simply isn’t an option – there is so much we need to do to make our profession and institutions more equitable, diverse, inclusive and where a sense of belonging is accessible to all. For any advancement leader, this is a programme we can’t afford to miss and why I’ve already signed up. Whether you’re worried about what language to use, doing the wrong thing and causing upset, unsure about intersectionality, questioning how inclusive your advancement strategy and practices are, all the way through to being a confident leader in this field fully utilising your diverse networks of students, staff, alumni, friends and partners, I look forward to meeting with as many of you as possible in March - sharing experiences, learning more and acting together. Let’s take a leap together and build lifelong networks so we all work together to create a more inclusive and diverse profession now, and for the future.