In celebration of Black History Month 2025, Norwich Research Park proudly hosted a thought-provoking panel discussion, ‘Black Leaders and Pioneers Impacting Change – Career Stories.’ Four senior leaders from across our campus shared their personal journeys, offering powerful insights into leadership, resilience, and the meaning of this year’s theme: “Standing Firm in Power and Pride.”
Our expert panellists, representing health, science, and research, reflected on their career paths, the challenges they have overcome, and the successes that have shaped their professional lives. They also explored what it means to stand firm in their power, offering inspiration and guidance for the next generation of leaders.
Our panellist were:
Christie Attah- Panel Chair
Dietitian, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH)
Christie is a dietician in the acute adult team at NNNH. She has been at the trust for almost four years. She specialises in neurology, stroke, and complex feeding patients. She is an equality, diversity, and inclusion champion for the dietetics department and the newly appointed Chair of the NNUH Together Network. Christie is passionate about celebrating and promoting diversity as well as actively raising awareness of equality, inclusivity and belonging in the Trust and in the dietetics profession. Her long-term goal, as a dietitian, is to improve health inequalities for individuals from black, and ethnic minority groups, with a focus on reducing food poverty and food insecurity.
Dr. Alvin Ochieng
Consultant Gastroenterologist, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH)
Dr Alvin is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with a focus on luminal gastroenterology, advanced endoscopy, wireless-capsule endoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in pregnancy, faecal microbiota transplantation, refractory Clostridium difficile, and service development. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate medical degrees and obtained his Gastroenterology CCT at the Carol Davila Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest, Romania. He relocated to the UK in 2010, where he worked in various district general and tertiary hospitals in Scotland and England. Prior to moving to NNUH, he gained extensive and varied advanced experience across some of the UK’s most respected specialist centres.
Dr Alvin is an active member of the British Society of Gastroenterology, where he is the East of England representative in the New Consultant Advisory Group . He is also a member of the Gut Microbiota Panel. Dr Alvin was recently recognised by the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG), in 2024, with a joint-third prize for his work in service development, and was awarded a place on the prestigious BSG Improvement Leadership Programme as part of ‘Project 90’ in 2025.
Dr Mikhaela Neequaye
Research Associate, John Innnes Centre
Mikhaela is a plant biologist, currently working as a Research Associate in the lab of Dr Kelsey Byers. Mikhaela’s research focuses primarily on the evolution of floral scents and pigments. Mikhaela has been the Chair of the John Innes Centre REED Group (Race and Ethnicity Equity and Diversity) for four years and is a committee member of the UK-wide Black in Plant Sciences initiative.
Dr Godwin Mamutse
Neurologist, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH)
Dr Mamutse graduated in medicine at the University of Zimbabwe in 1993 and undertook postgraduate training in internal medicine in Zimbabwe until 1999. He researched the genetic associations of multiple sclerosis at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire and Keele University, Stoke-on-Trent, before completing neurology training in the West Midlands. He has worked as a neurologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital since August 2010.
Dr Abby Muricho Onencan
Associate Professor, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (UEA)
Dr Abby Muricho Onencan is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, where she serves as Foundation Year Director, Placement Director and Widening Participation Academic Lead. Her research and teaching sits at the intersection of environmental governance, sustainable communities, and climate justice, exploring how intervention design can support inclusive responses to environmental challenges through citizen science and participatory methods.
Dr Muricho has published in leading journals including Springer Nature’s Sustainability Science, the Elgar Encyclopaedia of Environmental Crime and the Journal of Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management. Alongside her research, she is passionate about teaching and widening access to environmental science, leading faculty-wide efforts to create inclusive learning pathways for students from underrepresented backgrounds in Environmental Sciences.
Watch the full video podcast, using the link below to experience the engaging conversation, thoughtful perspectives, and the sense of community that made this event so special.
Watch the video podcast on the Norwich Research Park Vimeo channel.
Join us as we continue the conversation on leadership, empowerment, and positive change at Norwich Research Park.
