"Building a more inclusive STEMM workforce starts long before university or the workplace. It begins with outreach, representation, and dismantling barriers at every stage. Events like this are crucial for driving real change by sharing strategies that work and sparking conversations that lead to action."
Lily Gregory
06 March 2025
Flagship event celebrates women in STEMM ahead of International Women's Day
Flagship event celebrates women in STEMM.
A flagship event has celebrated women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine), ahead of International Women’s Day this Saturday 8 March.
The cross-faculty session highlighted ways to inspire inclusion and increase representation of women and girls across STEMM-based education and careers.
It included guest speaker, Professor Stacy Johnson MBE – who was made a Member of the British Empire for her commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion in higher education. Professor Johnson is a health scientist at the University of Nottingham and founder of the spin out company, The Reverse Mentoring Practice Ltd – which aims to enhance diversity and inclusion in organisations through a reverse mentoring framework.
Afterwards a panel session explored the strategies and initiatives that individuals, institutions and sectors can do to increase and maintain representation of women and girls in STEMM education and careers. The panel was chaired by Professor Rebecca Oakey, Professor of Epigenetics and Dean for Doctoral Studies, King’s College London, and included Professor Johnson. Also involved in the panel were:
- Lily Gregory – final-year Engineering student at King's and the president of KCL Womxn in STEM
- Meléa Sinclair – Computational Biology PhD student, University of Nottingham
- Dr Josefien Breedvelt – Prudence Trust Research Fellow, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, King’s College London
The event marked the culmination of King's annual Women in STEMM Season – a period from the UN’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11thFebruary to International Women’s Day on 8th March.
Throughout the season, a series of talks, panel discussions and events helped to shine a light on the issues faced by women in STEMM that reduce representation – emphasising the importance of gender equality across the sciences.
King’s continues to supercharge science, with £45.5 million invested in science talent, research, education and infrastructure. This investment champions interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle major societal challenges, such as sustainability and healthcare fit for the future.
Read more about Science at King’s at www.kcl.ac.uk/science
In this story
Professor of Epigenetics
Prudence Trust Research Fellow