This is the website of Dawn Bonfield MBE CEng, HonFIStructE, FICE, FIMMM, FWES
I am a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineering at Aston University, and Founder & Director of Towards Vision, a Company which aims to work towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. I am Immediate Past President and former Chief Executive of the Women's Engineering Society. I am also a member of the Engineering 'Design, Development and Control' T level Panel. I am a materials engineer by background and spent many years working in the aerospace industry on composite materials. In my various roles today:
- I work as a consultant advising companies on diversity and inclusion in engineering: how to change corporate culture; how to recruit more diverse teams; and how to retain talent.
- I am developing University undergraduate content on Inclusive Engineering to equip our next generation of engineers with the skills and competencies they need to be inclusive
- I am working with engineering processes to embed inclusivity into mainstream engineering practice through the tools that we use
- I am currently delivering a Year of Engineering Roadshow entitled 'Meet the Parents' taking place throughout the UK in 2018
- I manage a project and website called Magnificent Women, celebrating historical women in engineering
- I am a member of the steering group for the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM
- I am co-founder of IncEng, a UK network of under-represented groups in engineering, launched in September 2017
- I am working with the Royal Academy of Engineering on the Measurement of Diversity and Inclusion in engineering businesses
- Through my work with the GEDC (Global Engineering Deans Council) I am working on a global platform for sharing work, evidence and best practice in engineering inclusivity
Outreach Work
My other passion is the promotion of gender and other diversity in engineering, and in this capacity I am involved in the following projects:
- I am developing an exciting project with Concrete History called Make More Noise to celebrate the centenary of the Act of Representation of the People at the Thames Festival in 2018, and creating a resource for schools based on the four empty plinths of Waterloo Bridge, to inspire students to design and 3D print artwork to fill these plinths
- I am leading a Women's Business Council project to reach students and parents and encourage girls to continue in STEM careers
- I founded and now manage the Magnificent Women activity to promote our magnificent women in engineering history
- I am a STEM Ambassador and give talks and deliver outreach promoting engineering to girls and young people in general
If you are interested in working with me to bring Inclusive Engineering to your business, please get in touch.
Biography Dawn Bonfield MBE CEng FIMMM FICE FIStructE FWES
Dawn Bonfield is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineering at Aston University, and Founder & Director of Towards Vision, a Company which aims to work towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. She is Past President and former Chief Executive of the Women's Engineering Society (WES), and in 2018 is an Ambassador for the Year of Engineering, promoting engineering careers through a roadshow aimed at meeting parents. She is co-founder of IncEng, a platform to bring together under-represented groups in engineering.
Whilst at WES in 2014 Dawn was the founder of National Women in Engineering Day (now International Women in Engineering Day) and in 2015 established the inaugural 50 Women in Engineering List with the Daily Telegraph. She established and still runs the Magnificent Women outreach project and website, celebrating our historical women in engineering. Dawn is a STEM Ambassador and regularly promotes engineering and materials in schools.
A materials engineer by profession - having studied Materials Science at Bath University - Dawn has worked at AERE Harwell, Citroen Research Centre (Paris), British Aerospace (Bristol), MBDA (Stevenage), and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (London).
Dawn received an MBE in 2016 for 'Services to the promotion of diversity in engineering'.
In 2015 Dawn won a WISE Award and an Association Congress Award for the INWED campaign, and in 2016 she won the SEMTA award for Diversity in Engineering. In 2016 she was a finalist in the GEDC Airbus Global Diversity Award, and in 2017 she won the Women's Business Council STEM 'Starting Out' award.
She is a member of other groups including:
- T level panel member: Design, Development and Control
- Member of Women in Materials Committee of Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining
- Member of the DfE Technical Education Inclusivity Working Group
- Member of the Visiting Professors' Management Group
- Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group on Measurement
- Member of the Women’s Business Council STEM Starting Out Subgroup
- Member of Bath University Court
- Patron at Alton Convent School, Hampshire
- External Athena Swan Advisory Group Member, City University
Please read my blogs and twitter feed (@dawnbonfield) for an idea of my work and thoughts, and please contact me if you have any comments or suggestions.
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