To have an accessible and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive can only be achieved if we collectively address the barriers that stand in the way.

In academia there are many challenges that often hold back neurodivergent individuals from reaching their full potential, and this has to change.

In this webinar, the expert panel will be discussing the current state of play, their experiences of working in academia or industry as a neurodivergent person, and what the needs of neurodiverse individuals are.

We’ll then focus in on academic publishing and what more publishers need to do and change in their processes. Are practices clear and easy to understand? What additional support should be provided and where? How do publishers ensure neurodivergent individuals have access to opportunities that will allow them to pursue their research careers without jeopardising their wellbeing?

Sharon Zivkovic is the founder and CEO of the social enterprise Community Capacity Builders, Adjunct Research Fellow at Torrens University Australia and member of Emerald Publishing’s Impact Advisory Board. As an autistic social entrepreneur and systems thinker, Sharon has used her innate bottom-up and associative thinking skills, and systemizing capabilities, to develop and commercialize a number of social innovations. Community Capacity Builders has recently established a Centre for Autistic Social Entrepreneurship, which aims to build the capacity of disability service providers, social enterprise support organizations, and business advisors to support autistic social entrepreneurs in a neurodiversity-affirming manner.

Angela Carradus is an academic and business owner specializing in relational and systems approaches to leading and managing business. In 2022 she reached burn out in her academic career following a diagnosis of ADHD and Long COVID. This continuing battle has enabled her to consider her rich and varied path professionally, which has included training as an actor and achieving a PhD at Lancaster University. Following her diagnosis of ADHD she has had the opportunity to consider how the current academic environment can often make it very difficult for the neurodivergent community and is now a passionate advocate to explore a new approach that can better support neurodivergent students and staff in academia.

Vicky Mountford-Brown is an assistant professor in entrepreneurship at Northumbria University and vice-president-elect for Enterprise Educators UK. Vicky’s research interests centre largely around identities, social inequalities and pedagogies, with current projects exploring imposterism and neurodiversity in academia, neurodiversity and (entrepreneurial) learning, and neurodiversity and entrepreneurship.

Kellie Forbes-Simpson is an assistant professor in entrepreneurship at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, and is an experienced and award-winning entrepreneurship educator. Kellie’s interest in neurodiversity comes from her programme leader role, where in some years more than 50% of the nascent entrepreneurs on her programme have identified as neurodivergent. Kellie is now researching how and why her programme seems to provide support to neurodivergent entrepreneurs. Kellie also has personal experience of neurodiversity, after a late diagnosis on dyslexia during her PhD studies.

Vicky Williams is chief executive of Emerald Publishing, a UK business founded in 1967. She has worked in academic publishing for more than 20 years, with C-suite responsibility for a range of business areas in that time – business development, M&A, marketing, digital, and HR. She has been chief executive of Emerald since 2018, and is proud to be part of a business that innovates, takes risks, responds to its communities, and really values its people. Both in and out of work, Vicky is a keen advocate for gender diversity, having launched Emerald’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion programme in 2016, and speaks widely on this topic at global forums and events. She holds advisory board and non-executive roles in academia and publishing, and is the trustee responsible for social mobility at the Keith Howard Foundation, which supports charities across Yorkshire.

Sujeet Jaydeokar is a consultant psychiatrist and director of research at the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. He, along with Mahesh Odiyoor, was instrumental in setting up the Centre for Autism, Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Intellectual Disabilities (CANDDID), for which he is also the clinical director and chair. Sujeet is a parent carer of a boy with multiple neurodevelopmental issues. His lived experience and clinical work drives his interests in research and education. He is a programme lead for the post-graduate qualifications in neurodevelopmental conditions at the University of Chester. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. His particular areas of interest are in health inequalities, service development and the phenomenology of neurodevelopmental conditions.

This webinar is being made in partnership with Emerald Publishing and NEA (Neurodiversity & Entrepreneurship Association)