Celebrating Black Excellence in the Designed and Built Environment

Launched as part of Black History Month 365, the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment’s Celebrating Black Excellence series aims to explore the systemic and societal issues behind racial inequality and the attainment gap.

Led by the School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee, we hope these build a network beyond NTU and actively engage alumni, the wider industry and professional bodies.

Are you looking to become involved in our Black History Month 365 work in the School?

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Apr

Celebrating Diversity & Inclusion; A Conversation on Achieving Excellence.

Newton, Lecture Theatre 5, Newton, Nottingham Trent University, Newton Building, City Campus, Nottingham,

School celebrates Black excellence in the designed and built environment with inaugural event

Thu 12 Nov 2020

School's second Celebrating Black Excellence event explores challenges in the construction industry

Wed 10 Feb 2021

Nelly Twumasi-Mensah joins ADBE as a Visiting Fellow

Mon 24 Oct 2022

Celebrating Black Excellence - October 2020

We were delighted to welcome an inspiring panel of speakers including industry experts, alumni, current students and staff for the School's inaugural event.

Timeline

Intro	0.00 - 5.15
Nicole Crentsil	5.15 - 21.28
Dian Small	22.18 - 42.17
Tomi Jaiyeola	42.25 - 1.04.27
Afua Acheampong	1.04.44 - 1.25.44

Celebrating Black Excellence - January 2021

High-profile speakers Bola Abisogun OBE FRICS and Dr Teri Okoro MBA ChPP FRIBA FAPM joined us to explore issues faced in construction and architecture.

Timeline

Intro	0.00 - 3.33
Bola Abisogun OBE FRICS	3.33 - 30.20
Dr Teri Okoro MBA ChPP FRIBA FAPM	30.30 - 1.03.40

Celebrating Black Excellence - March 2021

We were delighted to welcome another inspiring panel of speakers including industry experts, alumni and staff to hear about lived experiences in the UK construction industry.

Timeline

Intro	0.00 - 4.14
Mac Muzvimwe FRICS	4.14 - 19.30
Nelly Twumasi-Mensah	19.58 - 32.00
Daminabo Pokubo	32.38 - 43.40
Tomi Jaiyeola	44.22 - 53.34

Nicole Crenstil

Nicole is a Ghanaian-British cultural curator, entrepreneur and investor based in London. Nicole is the CEO of Black Girl Fest - a platform dedicated to Black women, girls and non-binary people. An NTU alumna, Nicole's also the Founder of BIG SIS, a new network supporting the personal development of creative working women.
Mac Muzvimwe FRICS

Mac is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Commercial Director at ARCADIS and a South West Buildings Business Leadership Team member. He is also a member of the Arcadis UK Strand Engagement group focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion. Mac is also an RICS Certified BIM practitioner and works with various industry bodies to champion adoption of BIM.
Bola Abisogun OBE FRICS

Bola is an Independent Management Consultant, Chartered Surveyor (and Fellow of RICS) and a Chartered Construction Manager. In 2006 Bola established the first RICS network for BAME surveyors called Diverse City Surveyors (DCS). He currently Chairs a unique, pan-London project called Moving on Up (MoU), a multi-million pound initiative supported by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan focussing on ‘Employer Engagement’ across Construction, Digital / Technology and Finance.
Dr Teri Okoro MBA ChPP FRIBA FAPM

Dr Teri Okoro is Director of TOCA, dual qualified as a chartered architect and chartered project professional, and is also a fellow of both RIBA and APM. A passionate Inclusion champion, Dr Teri is an expert adviser to Historic England, sits on the Construction Industry Council Diversity and Inclusion Panel and is presenting RIBA’s inaugural series of Equality Diversity and Inclusion seminars during 2020.
Tomi Jaiyeola

Akintomide (Tomi) holds a BSc and MSc in Civil Engineering from NTU. Since completing his BSc degree, he has been working in the construction industry for Jackson Civil Engineering on various Environmental Agency Schemes as a site engineer.
Afua Acheampong

Afua is Diversity Governance Coordinator at NTU, an NTU graduate, and past Vice-President Education at Nottingham Trent Students' Union. It was in this role Afua produced an influential report on the BME attainment gap. Afua works with the University's senior leadership team on race equality and is the driving force behind the NTU Black Leadership Programme.