In a double triumph this week, Tara was also honoured to win the Women in Business NI Award for Advancing Diversity in the Workplace. This award recognises a business and / or an individual who has championed diversity within the workplace and can demonstrate the benefits of this.
Tara is a key driver for Athena Swan agenda at Ulster and addresses underrepresentation of women in STEM. She fully recognises science cannot reach full potential without first addressing the gender imbalances. Tara strives to provide access to all in her innovative educational developments. Tara also leads the University wide female mentoring, is an energetic and dynamic role model for The Aurora leadership programme for women.
Tara’s ultimate goal is to give access to everyone to education and CPD, regardless of location, full time employment or personal life commitments allowing individuals to continue to access education, enhance their careers and contribute to a diverse work force globally. STEM subjects are traditionally predominately male dominated; Tara has enhanced the female graduate level to over 50%. She has provided accessible education to students worldwide with successful graduates spanning Chile, Malaysia, India, China, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK.
In partnership with the Royal College of Physicians in London and Department of Health, London, Tara has been a key driver in developing e learning courses at Ulster to enable doctors and allied health professionals to recognise, treat and prevent rape, child abuse and domestic violence. Sensitivity surrounds sexual assault; distress caused to children and adult victims and anguish for those accused wrongly is immense. Recognising victims prefer female professionals Tara has strived to enhance flexible and accessible specialist training for female doctors in this field to allow them acquire the skills and expertise needed. To date many hundreds of students have accessed Tara’s courses online across many professions, from many countries and the successful completion rate is almost 100%.