Team

Paulette Williams, Founder and Managing Director

Paulette has over 15 years experiences leading widening participation and student success projects in higher education.

She is active in addressing racial inequities in higher education contributing to advisory groups led by organisations such as Universities UK (UUK) and London Higher as well as Co-Chairing the Race Equality Steering Group at UCL where she works as Co-Lead for the BAME Awarding Gap project.

Paulette has delivered training, given keynotes and contributed to panels on topics linked to race equity in higher education and the BAME Awarding Gap; and remains passionate about creating a network in higher education for the Black community that support students throughout the academic lifecycle.

Chantelle Lewis, Deputy Director

Chantelle is a public sociologist, broadcaster and event director. Her sociological research is situated at the intersections of socio-historical analysis; politics, Black feminism, family studies and racism studies. She is  co-host and co-founder of the Surviving Society podcast. 

Chantelle currently holds a Junior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. Her postdoctoral research is titled – Black in the suburbs: beyond the hegemonic whiteness of English suburban imaginings and builds on her PhD research which she completed at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Chantelle brings to Leading Routes her sociological expertise on race and class and her extensive experience in event management.

Professor Jason Arday, Social Sciences Lead

Jason is Professor of Sociology of Education at University of Glasgow and has the position of Associate Professor in Sociology at Durham University in the Department of Sociology and the Deputy Executive Dean for People and Culture in the Faculty of Social Science and Health. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at The Ohio State University in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Jason also holds Visiting Professorships at Coventry University, London Metropolitan University and Nelson Mandela University.

Jason is a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading Race Equality Thinktank and the British Sociological Association (BSA). He sits on the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) National Advisory Panel and the NHS Race and Health Observatory Academic Reference Group. Jason is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

Comfort Moye, Project Manager

Comfort manages the Future Scholars programme.

Comfort has recently finished studying Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. During her time there, she has served as both a student officer and worked in the widening participation department bringing forward particularly the interests of Black students.

Comfort’s interests in education inequality have led her to organise events to address institutional problems with racism and access that inhibits disadvantaged students from thriving.

Outside of her interests in education, she enjoys travelling, writing and would like to develop interdisciplinary studies of gender, sexuality and race pertaining to Black women’s experiences in Britain.

Jessica Oshodin, Project Manager

Jessica manages the African Diaspora Postgraduate Seminar Series and the Future Scholars programme.

Jessica has worked in range of roles including HR, healthcare and Higher Education as a sabbatical Officer for King’s College London Student Union. The latter highlighted the stark effect of the marketisation of higher education on the welfare of students. Her interests are mental wellbeing, neuroscience and Black postgraduate representation in STEM. 

Jessica currently works as a therapist for an NHS Trust and volunteers for a local charity. She is an avid book reader and loves to travel.