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Hi, I’m Niki, and my pronouns are she, her. 

It’s a simple introduction, but a meaningful one – and, I believe, should be a standard part of how we meet others for the first time.  
I think it’s a privilege to feel aligned with the body I was born into and, by stating my own pronouns, want to help everyone feel equally seen and respected for who they are. 

 

For me, that respect is the foundation of inclusion: being open to different perspectives, listening with intent, and making informed changes to our thinking. I’m passionate about driving those conversations forward and literally on my very first day at Ingeus emailed in to join the LGBTQIA+ network group.  

 

Respect for ourselves of course is sometimes harder to come by, especially if you’re breaking age-old family or cultural moulds. Growing up in a traditional Greek household, I was firmly taught that straight was ‘normal’ and (in hushed voices) ‘only men could be gay.’ As I began to understand that my own sexuality was fluid, I wondered “maybe I’m what normal is”. I had a stark choice: my family or authentic me. In 2014, aged 23 and a registered nurse, I moved alone to the UK for a better life – an immigrant with English as my second language. 

 

That life now is with my girlfriend in London where I put my nursing background to good use as a disability analyst for the Ingeus health assessment team. I love boxing and Latin bachata dancing and try to appreciate the little wins each day that help combat the childhood autism, dyslexia, and anxiety that still impact me. 

 

I also throw myself wholeheartedly into my equality and diversity volunteering. As a Diversity & inclusion (D&I) Champion at Ingeus, I enjoy creating content for colleagues explaining different standpoints and promoting wellbeing. Away from work, I oversee HR policy at the charity Bi Pride and support a trans family member who has joined me here in the UK. I’ve attended Pride events across the country for many years – they’re great fun, and yes, I enjoy the glitter! Far from that though, they’re a safe space to commemorate the response to the Stonewall uprising started by trans women of colour in New York back in 1969.  

 

For me, Pride is a bitter-sweet experience as it’s born from deep pain and resistance but also reminds me that while the world may be totally unfair, everyone has a passion and can make things better. 

 

My contribution to making things better is in building more inclusive workplaces. I bring learning from my D&I consultancy and charity work in addition to lived experience at several employers. I genuinely enjoy colleagues coming to me with a question or seeking advice and have recently developed new gender awareness training set to rollout across Ingeus. 

 

Having seen good policy in action, I am passionate about five areas of inclusion: 

Leadership: Inclusion learning can’t solely come from training courses; it has to be lived at the highest level. Building diverse senior teams is crucial to fully appreciate the daily challenges, uniqueness, and brilliance of the LGBTQIA+ community. The intersectionality of sexuality with other parts of our identity is also often missed here: inclusion is about so much more than having a gay woman or black man on the Board of Directors. 

Pronouns: At work and home, stating your pronoun sets an empowering tone for anyone you might be speaking to – a colleague, a customer, a neighbour – who may be living a non-binary life. It’s easy to do and of course, doesn’t cost anything.  

Recruitment: In today’s working world, it’s so easy to confuse confidence with competence. Workplace inclusion starts at the job advert, and everything from there must account for people’s mental health, hidden and visible disabilities.  

Equity: One of my favourite images is three people of differing heights standing on a box to look over a fence. While this demonstrates equality, the shortest person still can’t see over. Give that person a bigger box and they get the same view as the others. Equality is about sameness; equity is about fairness.   

Allyship: Being LGBTQIA+ isn’t a game. It’s often a tough life to lead. An ally actively and vocally fights for the rights of people less privileged than themselves. Don’t don your glitter and join a Pride march if your innermost beliefs don’t genuinely support equal rights for us to be who we are. Educate yourself, ask how you can help, volunteer, and support trans people to make the world more inclusive.