Connection profile

anitashervington

About: Anita Shervington (FRSA) is Founding Director of BLAST Fest; a community-led initiative exploring science and technology through Black arts and culture. Her work creates space, opportunities, and inspiration to reimagine and shape the agenda for equity and inclusion within, and through, STEM. Helping to create the conditions that empower grassroots communities to utilise science for personal liberation, environmental and social change. Anita’s background includes community organising, maternal nutrition, and health, Women’s civic leadership, and heritage and culture - all influencing her approach to STEM programming and engagement style. A Winston Churchill Travelling Fellow, and now selection panelist, Anita visited the USA, Canada, and Guyana to explore community-led approaches to building ‘Science Capital’ through arts, culture, and philanthropy. Her Wellcome Public Engagement Fellowship built on this, exploring how science can be driven by social justice and powered by inclusive, equitable and culturally relevant research. She’s now looking beyond traditional ideas of inclusion and engagement - to belonging, community leadership and philanthropy within the context of systems change and sustainable development.