Workshop panellist: Judith Russell, Diversity Business Partner, The Environment Agency

Judith Russell has spent her career to date working on disability and diversity issues. She gained an MSc in Education Management in 1988 and has since been a lecturer and disability adviser in two large universities as well as external evaluator for four other institutions of higher education who were setting up services for disabled students and staff.

She was Head of the Equality Unit at the University of Leeds before joining the Environment Agency as National Disability Adviser in 2005. She has been responsible for ensuring the Environment Agency complies with the disability discrimination legislation and produced the Disability Equality Scheme for the Agency. Her brief has recently been expanded to include all six strands of diversity.

For many years Judith has worked on a paid and voluntary basis on disability sport and is currently Chairperson of the Federation of Disability Sports Organisations in Yorkshire and the Humber and is a board member of the English Federation of Disability Sport. In 2001 she was awarded the MBE for services to disability sport