Professor Agnes Binagwaho

“The woman who has inspired me the most is Professor Agnes Binagwaho PhD, former Rwandan Minister of Health. She took on the monumental task of transforming Rwanda’s health sector at a time when most of the world had written the country off after the tragic genocide. She didn’t let the international community and acclaimed advisors deter her from setting ambitious goals for Rwanda which is currently used a successful case study for many other low-income countries. Professor Binagwaho has shown me how much can be achieved when you trust your gut instinct.”

^{Nomination by:}

^{Tamara Mulenga Willows BMBS MSC (her/she)
Research Assistant (POETIC), Health Systems Collaborative
Oxford Centre for Global Health Research
Nuffield Department of Medicine}

Professor Susanna Dunachie

“For the women’s day highlight, I would love to highlight my supervisor, Prof Susanna Dunachie. She is simply brilliant-in her science but also in her leadership. She makes everyone around her feel welcome and has created such an amazing safe space for me throughout my DPhil. She continues to celebrate the diversity in our group and definitely makes us all enjoy our research experience and our time at Oxford.”

^{Nomination by:}

^{Sandra Adele  
DPhil Candidate in Clinical Medicine}

My Mother

“My role model and inspiration is my mother. As an immigrant from post-colonial recovering India, she made huge sacrifices for the next generation of her family. She was a home maker by choice and did an excellent job raising four London born children who went on to have very different successful careers. She paid attention to little details around the home and in her incredible cooking. We were raised to follow our hearts, living in a community where most Indian children were told to become medical doctors. She always encouraged us to do our very best in whatever choices we made and embedded that there were no limits to our achievements. We were taught to embraced both our British culture and our Indian heritage, knowing that we were fortunate to have both, rather than seeing our ethnicity as a disadvantage. Both my mother and father empowered their three daughters to live as strong women in a male dominated society. 

#breakthebias is about celebrating women from diverse backgrounds and recognises different types of success. My stay at home mother was hugely successful in achieving her goals which were far from easy.”

^{Nomination by:}

^{Dr Tina Mohindra PhD.
Project Manager
Outbreak Pathogens Vaccines  
Jenner Institute
Nuffield Department of Medicine}

Calli Dendrou

“Calli Dendrou is an amazing scientist who can do both bioinformatics and wet lab work. She has comprehensive knowledge of genomics and is extremely supportive to everyone in the lab. She is an inspiring supervisor to work with as she is always available and willing to listen. In addition to that, she is able to juggle work with family in a very impressive way.”

^{Nomination by:
Esther Ng}

Nicky Whiffin

“We would like to nominate Nicky Whiffin. She is changing the world, one act of kindness at a time. The drive she has to make an inclusive environment that is welcoming to everyone is truly inspiring. She is constantly striving to take positive action to improve the lives of everyone her life touches, and is passionate about helping us become our best selves. She does all this and more, whilst all the while being an absolutely kick-ass scientist, mentor, and friend.”

^{Nomination by:
Alex Geary
Esther Ng
Elston D’Souza
Maria Fernandes
Nechama Tatz-Wieder
Computational Rare Disease Genomics group & collaborators}

“I just wanted to nominate Nicky Whiffin. Nicky is amazing because she brings such a fresh perspective on science and how it should be done. She is places so much importance on mentorship and supporting her group with all that she can. And that’s why you can see why people rally around Nicky. And she does it whilst tackling the truly hard problems in science and both producing and leading cutting edge research which makes her all the more brilliant. Nicky is thoughtful, inclusive and kind and is a great scientist and truly makes a positive difference in each of our lives.”

^{Anonymous nomination}

“Nicky Whiffin is inspiring because of her clever and innovative bioinformatics ideas. She encourages lab members to formulate their own hypotheses and guides them in turning them into projects. She translates ideas into clinical practice by being involved with genetics committees and guidelines. She engages actively in community projects eg. mentoring disadvantaged school students.”

^{Nomination by:
Esther Ng}

Sue Wilson, Hitomi Kuwabara and Jill Hopkins

 “I would like to nominate Sue Wilson, Hitomi Kuwabara and Jill Hopkins for help, diligence, expertise, professionalism - fantastic colleagues.

^{Nomination by:}

^{Professor John Todd
Director of the WHG}