Morag Alexander is the Commissioner in Scotland and sits on the board of Commissioners headed by Trevor Phillips.
Morag Alexander leads the Scotland Committee who is involved in working strategically with the Scottish Government, Local Authorities, UK Government and Parliament to ensure equality and human rights are at the heart of all work carried out.
Details of Committee members
Morag Alexander
On 29 March 2007, Morag Alexander was announced as a commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission. As Scotland Commissioner, she chairs the Commission’s statutory Scotland Committee.
Morag has a lifelong commitment to equality: from 1992-2001,she was the Equal Opportunities Commission’s first Director in Scotland; and Founding Director of Training 2000 (Scotland) Ltd., Scottish Alliance for Women’s Training (1990-92). Morag was also the Founder Editor of Women in Europe (1985-1989); and UK correspondent of Women of Europe (1987-1992).
From 2001-07, Morag was appointed the first Convener of the Scottish Social Services Council and a Board Member of the Care Commission for Scotland.
An active campaigner for Scottish devolution, Morag was a Board Member of Partnership for a Parliament (the campaign for a ‘yes, yes’ vote), in 1999, a member of the Expert Panel on Procedures and Standing Orders in the Scottish Parliament (1997-98), and a member of the Committee of Inquiry into Student Finance (1999-2000).
Morag was also a trustee of Turning Point Scotland (1998-2006) and chaired the Early Years Advisory Group of Children in Scotland (1995-2003).
For the last 6 years, she was a Member of the Court of Scotland’s Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh (1992-2008).
Morag was awarded an OBE for her contribution to equal opportunities in Scotland, 2001.
Bob Benson
Bob Benson was the Executive Director, Community Development at disability charity, SCOPE, leading SCOPE’s strategy to deliver disability equality throughout England and Wales, with the further goal of influencing how national organisations work in partnership with their members, other disability organisations and other stakeholders.
Prior to this he spent 5 years as the Scotland Director of the Disability Rights Commission, where he oversaw the setting up of the DRC in Scotland. Bob had campaigned for many years for the establishment of the DRC, amongst other issues, in his role as director of the charity Disability Scotland. Bob was also a member of the UK Government Disability Taskforce and the UK Disability Employment Advisory Group.
Alastair Pringle
Alastair Pringle is that Patient Focus Manager in the Health Planning & Quality Division within the Scottish Executive Health Department where he leads on equalities strategy and policy for both the Health & Wellbeing portfolio of the Scottish Executive and for NHS Scotland. This work includes the Fair for All equalities projects covering a range of different equality strands. He has been involved in equalities work in the health sector for nearly 20 years. His campaign work has included securing funding for the Men’s Health Forum Scotland, a charity considering all aspects of men’s health. Alastair has experience of working particularly with the existing equality commissions and the new strand NGO’s in Scotland.
Angela O’Hagan
Angela O’Hagan was Campaigns and Communications Manager at Oxfam in Scotland until September 2006 when she moved on to pursue a PhD in Gender Budget Analysis at Glasgow Caledonian University. In 2005, following a period as Acting Head of Oxfam in Scotland she was one of the leaders in Scotland of Make Poverty History, bringing together a range of organisations and individuals culminating in a march of 250,000 people in Edinburgh and multiple days of action across Scotland.
Angela was previously Senior Policy Manager at the Equal Opportunities Commission in Scotland, where amongst other initiatives she invested considerable energy in progressing a strategy supporting a network of black and minority ethnic (BME) women and BME women’s organisations in Scotland. This involved sensitive consultation and negotiation with women individually and from local organisations. Angela developed the employer network, The Equality Exchange, as a dynamic and authoritative information and practice exchange forum. Angela also developed a series of European funded projects and initiatives, including a Toolkit on Mainstreaming Equality in the European Structural Funds and developed the original funding proposals under EQUAL for the Close the Gap partnership, in conjunction with Fair Play Scotland.
On moving from the EOC, Angela was appointed Director of Carers Scotland, where she also served as Convenor of the Scottish Carers Alliance. Until recently Angela was Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
Angela is also Convenor of the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, and a member of the Scottish Government’s Equality Proofing Budget Policy and Advisory Group (EPBPAG). Angela also served on the original ministerial Scottish Social Inclusion Network from 1999-2002.
Christine Cnossen
Dr Christine Cnossen is Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Christine is also currently chair of Queen Margaret University’s Equal Opportunities Committee. She is also the Equality Forward’s East of Scotland Equality Forum chair.
Christine is an experienced lecturer and researcher in equality and diversity issues, including undertaking a NATO fellowship, and having taught in a range of universities across GB, including Hull, Aberdeen, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Her particular interests is in equality and employment and she has undertaken a range of partnership projects across universities and other organisations such as establishing the first Scottish School of Audiology in conjunction with Robert Gordon University and the University of Highlands and Islands and the British Academy of Audiology.
Rowena Arshad
Rowena Arshad is the current EOC Commissioner for Scotland, is a Senior Lecturer in Equity and Rights and the Director of the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES). She is also a member of the Scottish Funding Council and chair of the advisory group for Equality Forward, the Scottish Funding Council’s equality unit. She also sits on the Advisory Group of the Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland, the Board of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE), the Advisory Board for the British Council in Scotland and the Board of the Equality Challenge Unit.
Rowena has worked in the area of equality (particularly race equality) since 1983 in England and Scotland, and has given lectures in the Czech Republic, Canada, and Germany. She returned to Germany in April 2006 for a lecture tour focusing on lessons from Scotland in the area of equality and diversity. She has also headed a consortium with Nil by Mouth and the Scottish Human Rights Centre to develop an education resource to challenge sectarianism and religious intolerance for the Scottish Executive.
Her most recent work has looked ethnic identity, classifications and the census in Scotland as well as experiences of migrant workers in the Grampian area and the experiences of minority ethnic pupils in Scottish schools.
Rowena was awarded the OBE in 2001 for services to race equality.
Di Airey
Di Airey is an equality and diversity consultant, and the Director of Diversity Dynamics.
Prior to setting up Diversity Dynamics Ltd in early 2004 Di spent 15 years in Human Resources roles within the holiday industry, financial services and motor industries.
For the last 5 years of employment she specialised in diversity, development and change management, and held Diversity Manager Roles in the Prudential and in Daimler Chrysler UK Ltd.
Di is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an accredited consultant for their In-Company Solutions division. She works as an associate to other diversity consultancies and voluntarily for a social enterprise business - quit&save - supporting the design and delivery of smoking cessation workshops for communities and organisations. She has many clients in the private sector and understands the business world in Scotland.
She is currently in the final dissertation stage of her Masters degree in Change Agent Skills and Strategies (University of Surrey); her research focuses on examining the opportunities to change beliefs and prejudices at an individual and organisational level.
Rajiv Joshi
Rajiv Joshi is the current chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, where he also sits on the Equal Opportunities Committee. The Scottish Youth Parliament represents over 500, 000 young people across Scotland and works across the voluntary and public sectors, as well as with the Scottish Executive, Parliament and local government. As Chair of the SYP, Rajiv is also Co-Convenor of the Scottish Parliament Cross-Party Group on Children and Young People, Vice-Chair of Young Scot and on the boards of Youthlink Scotland and Civicus serving alongside leading global human rights advocates, including the head of the Commonwealth Human Rights initiative. Rajiv is also involved in supporting the Civicus programme work, including Civil Society Watch which monitors global human rights issues.
Rajiv has worked with a wide range of organisations in Scotland including LGBT Youth, Glasgow Anti-Racist Alliance, Edinburgh and Lothians Racial Equality Council, Positive Action in Housing, the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People (SCCYP) and UK-wide as an advisor to the British Council on Education and Governance, and promoting financial inclusion through involvement with the Financial Services Authority, as well as supporting the UKYP and the CRE.
Ronnie McDonald
Ronnie McDonald CBE was Deputy General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) since 1998 until her retirement last year. She had previously been Assistant Secretary at the STUC for a number of years, acting as the Women's Officer and covering other equality and organisational issues. Played a pivotal role in developing the equality agenda in the trade union movement in Scotland, particularly in relation to equality for women and the family friendly agenda.
She is a founding member and convenor of the Scottish Women's Co-ordination Group, an umbrella organisation representing women's participation in political and public life. She was instrumental in developing the campaign for equal representation of women and men in the Scottish Parliament, a Parliament which has 37.5% women MSPs, one of the highest number of elected members of any legislature in the world.
Ronnie is a member of the Scottish Executive's Scottish European Structural Funds Forum, the Scottish Low Pay Unit Advisory Committee, the Scottish Affairs Editorial Advisory Group, Children in Scotland Pre-5 Advisory Committee. She was appointed to the Acas Council in 2000. She is a Director of the Scottish One Fund For All (the Scottish body providing a link between the employed and those without work). From 1997 to 1999, Ronnie was an adviser to the Women's Minister in
Scotland.