Black History Month

Irene Adeyinka

Irene Adeyinka has over ten years of experience leading local authority and NHS commission-based services. That supports individuals and communities to engage with mental health services and conduct research to understand health inequalities in the UK.

Irene is passionate about helping graduates succeed in their careers; this led to her setting up The Lost Graduate group, a career service that provides personalised career coaching and workshops for all graduates. Irene has a successful track record of coaching graduates into employment, career progression and career changes.

At present, Irene is a Board member at Goldsmith’s University London and consults on Graduate success, People and organisation development and Equity in addition to Audit and Risk. By day, Irene is a Senior Inclusion Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Specialist for DLA Piper, supporting strategic DEI plans to drive change in UK&I and EMEA. ■

Mellissa Akinya

Mellissa Akinya is a senior lawyer (solicitor advocate), a diversity, equity and inclusion specialist and a keynote speaker.

Mellissa is also the founder of Black Lawyers Circle, an organisation which seeks to unify, support and build black and ethnic lawyers from all arms of the legal profession (pre and post qualified).

Mellissa is a generalist lawyer which means that she picks up new areas of law at pace. Previously a litigator (covering immigration, public law, private client, employment law, housing law, insolvency law and debt law to name a few) she is now works within Government Legal Department advising the Department for Transport policy and government ministers; her areas of expertise are Aviation Law, Grants and Subsidies, Environmental Law, Roads, EU Law, Public Law, Human Rights and Freedom of Information. She is also drafts legislation.

Mellissa is a trailblazer and a catalyst for change. She has mentored and coached 100s into the profession, has been an advocate for alternative routes to qualification (introducing an apprenticeship scheme at Government Legal Department), created the Government Legal’s first five staff networks, and often assists with internal and external recruitment ensuring processes are fair. ■