The tragic case of Professor Jason Arday and the importance of workplace diversity.
You will no doubt be aware of the tragic recent case of Professor Jason Arday, who was found dead ten days after resigning from his job as Professor of Sociology of Education at Cambridge University.
Although Professor Arday worked in education, his case has relevance to the ambitions of our programme to diversify the public health workforce.
There is no need for us to pick over the details of the Arday case. They have been examined ad-infinitum. I am much more concerned with the wider repercussions for the multi-racial workforce in Britain. I view his death as a watershed moment, like the murders of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and George Floyd in 2020.
The murder of Lawrence by teenage thugs led to the MacPherson report and the condemnation of the Metropolitan Police as ‘institutionally racist’. The murder of Floyd by on-duty policeman Derek Chauvin power-charged the Black Lives Matter movement.
So what will be the legacy of Jason Arday?
The allegations of plagiarism and lies were brought to public attention by academic Nathan Cofnas, who describes himself as a ‘race realist’. He has argued that in a true meritocracy there would be “close to zero” Black professors at Harvard, and that Black people would largely disappear from high-profile positions outside sports and entertainment. (Cambridge’s own Emmanuel College severed ties with him over those views.)
In this world view, people of African descent are all brawn and no brain. They may be able to dominate physically, or even artistically (with their natural talent) but not intellectually. According to this philosophy, in a true meritocracy all senior positions would naturally be filled by white men. If people of different ethnicities are to appear, that can only be the result of quotas and positive discrimination - not their ability.
Althea Loderick, the Chief Executive at the London Borough of Southwark wrote of her own experience that is strikingly similar to that of Arday’s.
”For many Black leaders, there is a familiar and uncomfortable pattern. Success can bring visibility, but visibility can also attract a level of hostility and suspicion that others do not experience in quite the same way. Our authority is ignored or challenged; achievements are questioned; credentials are challenged and mistakes, real or alleged, can be treated not simply as individual failings but as evidence that we never belonged in the room in the first place. That reality is rarely acknowledged, yet it shapes the lived experience of many Black professionals.”
It appears that Donald Trump also subscribes to Nathan Cofnas’ perspective. In the US, President Trump had made his disdain for EDI (or DEI as it is called over there) well known, and once back in office for his second term, he wasted no time reviving his agenda.
Many companies in the private sector followed his lead, with the likes of Walmart, McDonald's, Meta and Amazon ditching or scaling back their diversity policies.
In February 2025 consulting giant Accenture cited the "evolving landscape" as it said it was ending employee representation goals and career development programmes for "people of specific demographic groups". It also noted that it had "largely achieved" its diversity goals.
So, does the demand of this programme to diversify the workforce mean an inevitable dropping of standards? Well not if we refer to actual research rather than prejudice.
For almost a decade through their Diversity Matters series of reports, McKinsey & Company has delivered a comprehensive global perspective on the relationship between leadership diversity and company performance. In 2023 they wrote “a striking new finding is that leadership diversity is also convincingly associated with holistic growth ambitions, greater social impact, and more satisfied workforces.”
For their fourth edition of Diversity Matters in 2023 they drew on a large dataset spanning 1,265 companies, 23 countries, and six global regions, and multiple company interviews. They also extended their research and interview focus beyond the relationship between diversity and financial performance, exploring the holistic impact of diversity on communities, workforces, and the environment.
They concluded that, “there is a strong business case for ethnic diversity ……..with a 39 percent increased likelihood of outperformance for those in the top quartile of ethnic representation versus the bottom quartile.”
They continued ……”companies in our top quartile for ethnic diversity show an average 27 percent financial advantage over others.”
These findings support the hypothesis that diversity benefits extend across top corporate leadership to boards, where DEI policy decisions for the whole organization are often made.”
The accusations against Professor Arday grabbed the headlines because they were part of a larger narrative - the push back against EDI, and the argument that diversity quotas inevitably lead to a drop in standards. By contrast, the PHTRI programme argues that increasing diversity of the workforce, particularly in senior leadership roles, leads to an improvement in the quality of delivery, not a decline.
To this end the programme has begun a number of initiatives to promote greater diversity in the public health workforce and the overall improvement of best practice:
Academic research: The Trust and Cohesion workstream engaged two anthropologists, Dr Caroline Parker and Professor Melissa Parker, from UCL to examine how institutional racism impacts Public Health
The resulting paper was published in the Journal of Public Health at the start of 2026. Racism and Racial Health Inequity: Four Theories for Public Health identifies four social theories to combat racism and advance racial health equity.
Inclusive coaching: This current offer of inclusive coaching provides a dedicated and reflective space for public health professionals to develop personal and professional strategies to support behavioural change and deepen understanding of Racial Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (RJEDI&B). Moving beyond theory, this coaching aims to apply learning to complex professional challenges, dissect the power dynamics and biases that perpetuate systemic inequality and support staff to build skills that actively challenge non-equitable practices.
Networking and creating new opportunities for collaboration: Through the PHTRI network and "Discover, Learn, Create Together" (DLCT) resource currently in development, the programme is providing dedicated spaces for public health professionals to collaborate, and use evidence-informed approaches, practical tools and case studies to embed anti-racist practices in areas such as recruitment, leadership, training, and anti-racism commissioning.
Belonging in Public Health: The PHTRI programme has joined together with The Faculty of Public Health (FPH), the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), and the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) to create a new initiative to promote themes of ‘belonging’ and ‘identity’ within the public health workforce.
This project, entitled “Belonging in Public Health”, will explore the experiences and views of a diverse range of public health professionals working across the UK from a wide range of professional and personal backgrounds.
This will feature a podcast series, in which public health colleagues of varying disciplinary backgrounds, seniority, characteristics, and experiences discuss how their identity has shaped their public health career.
This podcast series will be supported by a ‘Human Library’ through which listeners will have the opportunity to connect with interviewees. The aim of this initiative is to enable colleagues to develop their professional networks as they navigate their pathway through public health.
In particular, the project aims to support colleagues from minoritised groups – and particularly early to mid-career professionals – in building confidence, expressing their authentic identities and connecting with others working across the public health system.
In summary, the programme remains steadfast in its commitment to diversify the Public Health workforce, and acknowledge the contribution of Professor Arday in the struggle for racial equity.
Lee Pinkerton