Tamanda Walker

Dr Tamanda Walker (Independent Consultant and Researcher) is a practitioner-researcher, facilitator and sociologist by training, who centres community research, lived experience and storytelling in systems change initiatives. In her recent role as Qualitative Research Fellow at Black Thrive Global, Tamanda was responsible for leading on all aspects of qualitative research, walking alongside Black communities initiating their own research projects and re-interpreting systems data related to mental health, maternal health and stop and search.

Dr Tamanda Walker is an independent EDI consultant and researcher based at the University of Leeds. Her PhD thesis was an auto-ethnographic account of race, religion and worldviews and the ongoing dynamics of coloniality in British workplaces and institutions. It was based on data collected over a five-year period from 2018-2023, and delves extensively into the experiences of Muslim employees, and others from racially minoritised backgrounds.

Dr Tamanda Walker (Independent Consultant and Researcher/Facilitator and Co-Director & Head of Research at AiAi Studios) is a practitioner-researcher, facilitator and sociologist by training, who centres community research, lived experience and storytelling in systems change initiatives. In her recent role as Qualitative Research Fellow at Black Thrive Global, Tamanda was responsible for leading on all aspects of research, capacity building and learning across the Big Lottery-funded Thriving Futures network of Black-led organisations working towards systems change across the social determinants of health, including within education, employment, policing and mental and maternal healthcare services. As an independent consultant, her work within the field of social justice has spanned work in education, employment, youth justice, looked after children, healthcare and interfaith, and involved work with an international client base across UK, US, Sweden, Botswana, Jordan and Sudan. Recent projects and learning partnerships within the philanthropic sector, have included her work as learning partner alongside Reos Partners on the Impact on Urban Health and The Ubele Initiatives Black Safety Fund, which piloted a process of devolving decision-making to Black and minoritised community leaders in Lambeth and Southwark for local safety initiatives. Additionally, she has worked served as a learning partner to the Church of England's Living Ministry research team, the Clergy Support Trust and Archbishop's Racial Justice Taskforce, as part of a process which has redistributed funding and wellbeing support to Global Majority Heritage clergy and institutions around the globe; and with the research team, trustees and global majority staff network at the United Society Partners in Global Mission (USPG), which has already released £8M in funding from the USPG's reserves as part of an initiative to secure reparations traced to Christopher Codrington's estate under the Mission and Power project.