Rowaa Ahmar
Rowaa is passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion and has made a huge contribution to D&I in HMT, all of it voluntary and done on top of her demanding day job.
Probably her biggest achievement was establishing a parents network in HMT at the start of lockdown, which has become a powerful voice and fully integrated into the flexible working network championed by the Perm Sec.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg for Rowaa. She initiated and organised an event with the minister on mental health awareness, has helped to set up and run the race workstream for HMT's 300 analysts, and supports HMT’s Race Steering Group as well as the recruitment review for the Ethnic Minority Network. On top of this she mentors a colleague with disability and leads by example in constructively helping people to develop more inclusive behaviour. For example she ran a session in our Group to help us consider the diversity of our stakeholders, which was thought-provoking and run in a very sensitive way, which helped people engage with the subject and think about what they could do about it.