NEW HONARARY Fellow Baroness (Sue) Black of Strome paid tribute to the “sparkle and magic” of diversity at Homerton College.
Baroness Black was speaking after the Fellows swearing-in ceremony on Monday (11 March), where Dr Philip Graham and Dr Dawit Tibebu Tiruneh were both made Bye Fellows, and Pooya Kamvari became an Associate Fellow.
Baroness Black is a forensic anthropologist, anatomist, and academic who was the lead forensic anthropologist to the British Forensic Team in Kosovo in 1999 and also served in this role during two tours of Iraq in 2003.
She said: “I’m enormously grateful. It is such an honour to be asked to be part of the college. Having met Simon [Lord Woolley] on a few occasions now I’m getting to understand the heartbeat of the college, and I’m deeply privileged to be a part of that.
“I like the fact that it has a modern outlook, and it’s not lip service, it is a real genuine drive for equality and diversity, and that gives a sparkle; that gives a magic to a college because when you bring together people from different parts of the world, different backgrounds, different places, that’s when the magic happens.”
Baroness Black, a life peer and winner of many prestigious awards, began her career in forensic anthropology as a lecturer at St Thomas’s Hospital in 1987, before working for the United Nations and the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
She was part of the UK’s victim identification team following the tsunami in Thailand, and a portrait of her hangs in the National Galleries of Scotland, in Edinburgh.
New Bye Fellow, Dr Dawit Tibebu Tiruneh, is a Research Associate at the Faculty of Education in Cambridge University. He works with an international team of researchers to examine the impacts of education reforms in low-income countries, and how to improve educational outcomes for students from poor backgrounds.
Dr Tiruneh was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, China; and lectured at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia. He is a member of the Leaders in Teaching project in Rwanda, which aims to improve teaching to help children most at risk of not learning.
He said: “It means a lot to me. Every time I come here I felt belonged; I felt this is my home. And the fact that I’m now being promoted to Bye Fellow I am even more engaged.
“It means to me that Homerton is inclusive; Homerton is trying to invite everyone to become part of the family. It doesn’t matter where you are from, who you are, as long as you have interest in contributing to the college everyone welcomes you.”
Dr Philip Graham was made a Bye Fellow in the ceremony. He is an architect and postdoctoral scholar in design innovation at the University of Cambridge, and a visiting lecturer in sustainable housing design at Tampere University, in Finland.
An expert on UK urban regeneration projects, Dr Graham is currently writing a book on ‘Adjustable Housing’, and has also worked as an in-country lead in eastern Libya helping create a new city.
He said: “The thing that excites me most about being here is the educational mission of the college, and, through Simon [Lord Woolley] I think particularly, focusing on that outreach and finding the best talent everywhere we can, in every school.
“And it really struck me when I was doing the admissions process - I’m Director of Studies for Architecture - how we can take that mission into the conversation we were having with prospective students and just take the time to find where that ability lay. And I think that’s what’s special about here.
“I like the relaxed vibe, and the fact that were a group of people who are fascinated by what they do, and motivated by the mission, and there isn’t the Latin and the formalities.”
Pooya Kamvari became an Associate Fellow. He is CEO and founder of HomeRun, a tech start-up aiming to reduce traffic from the school run for the benefit of local communities and the environment.
An Angel investor, Kamvari is a mentor and board advisor to four start-ups focused on positive social and environmental impact. He wants to save 100 million tonnes of C02 in the next ten years, across the OECD.
He said: “It’s a really great honour. As someone who studied at Homerton myself, around ten years ago now, and to be back here, working a lot with the ChangeMakers programme, it means a lot to have that recognition.
“From when I left the college to what it is now, it is quite different. And a lot of that has to do with Lord Woolley and the direction in which he’s taking the college, which is something I believe in deeply.
“That is something that I strive for in my career, and I think this college is a real flag-bearer for that, probably within Oxbridge and not just Cambridge.”
