Karl Angela Eligado

I am a purpose-driven individual, passionate about creating inclusive and supportive organisational cultures to open up more opportunities for people of minority groups. My drive and pragmatism enabled me to secure Department of Social policy and Intervention's (University of Oxford) Bronze Athena Swan Award (a gender equality Charter Mark for Higher Education Institutions) within a year of joining, and led to a cross-department management role where I have introduced inclusion and belonging initiatives and organisational and cultural change. I value empathetic listening and kind communication, informed by formal mental health training as my department’s appointed mental health champion. I continue to use the legal comprehension, persuasive reasoning and analytical skills cultivated during my law degree and have enhanced this with specialist knowledge in gender, race and sexuality. Collectively, my skills and knowledge enhanced my abilities to identify, understand and address systemic and institutional EDI issues in higher education, such as: gender-race disparity in student attainment levels, unequal allocation of workload, under-representation of women and BME in senior roles, microaggression, and educational pedigree.

I'm currently the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI/DEI) Officer for two of University of Oxford's department: Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) and Oxford Internet Institute (OII). I joined DSPI in November 2022 and worked on DSPI’s Athena SWAN application (a gender equality Charter Mark), which resulted in a Bronze Award in March 2024. Following this success, I was promoted to EDI Officer for both DSPI and OII, from my initial role as EDI Officer for DSPI only. As an EDI Officer, I am responsible for developing and driving EDI Strategy and initiatives to promote positive organisational and cultural change. I conduct equality impact analysis (EIA) and implement EIA action plan and ensure the departments adheres to their legal duties under Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty. 

In 2022, I completed my MSc in Gender (Sexuality) at London School of Economics and Political Science, and in 2017 I completed my LLB Law at University of Sussex. My Master’s degree taught me contemporary understanding of concepts and intersecting issues related to gender, sexuality and race. Whilst, during my LLB I acquired transferable legal skills such as: legal comprehension, analytical skills, problem-solving and negotiation skills. I can therefore read legal statutes and understand legal concepts, and apply them practically.