Dr Jessica Gagnon has worked in higher education in the US and UK for 20 years. She is a sociologist of higher education whose research is primarily focused on inequalities, particularly in STEM. Her recent projects include the RSC-funded LGBTQual+ project; the EPSRC-funded IGNITE+; the NERC-funded E-DIAL project; the EPSRC-funded STEM Equals project, and the SLiC-funded See Yourself in STEM project. She grew up in a working-class, single-mother family and is the first in her family to attend university.