The EDIB Podcast: My Journey - Dr Maxine Room CBE, with Trevor Gordon
With Trevor Gordon
FEthink's EDIB podcast focuses on the lived experiences of a range of FE & HE senior managers and practitioners and their journey to career success, despite having to navigate difficult, and at times, discriminatory attitudes and reactions. The podcasts will share their many victories, achievements, high points and low points. We aim to give a voice to these courageous individuals to open up and honestly share ’their Journey' in the post-16 education system, in which they are refreshingly candid about how they felt, responded and overcame these challenges, often under debilitating circumstances. We hope their stories inspire, enlighten and empower those wishing to make a meaningful difference to learners in the FE and HE systems, helping others to develop the personal strategies needed to manage workplace discrimination and conflict. We also issue a bold call to action for educational leaders and policymakers to find new ways of building and strengthening career opportunities available to women, minorities, the disabled and LGBTQ staff.
This episode features Dr Maxine Room CBE, a distinguished former CEO/Principal of several major colleges and an expert in strategic leadership and inclusion. She plays a leading role in the Black Further Education Leadership Group, and through her company Medacrii, supports, mentors, develops and inspires Black and ethnic minority leaders to flourish. Here Maxine talks about her career - the aspirations, victories, struggles, setbacks, coping strategies and personal success drivers that have defined her journey in further education.
Trevor Gordon is a nationally recognised equality expert with over 40 years of senior leadership, consulting and board‑level experience across education, public and private sectors. He has driven award‑winning equality and inclusion strategies in high‑profile colleges, advised government bodies worldwide and led major programmes to advance Black staff progression, making him a trusted authority on lived‑experience‑informed equality practice.
