Professor Marcia Wilson

Pro Vice-Chancellor Education

Professor Marcia Wilson is a multiple award-winning academic leader and researcher who has pioneered programmes to address inequalities to improve the staff and student experience in the education sector.

As Pro Vice-Chancellor Education, Marcia leads on the teaching and learning strategy and is responsible for the Directorates of: Education Development Service, Library and Learning Resources, and Careers and Employability.

Before joining Birmingham City University, Marcia was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience and Institutional Equity at London Metropolitan University where she worked with key stakeholders to enhance the student experience.

Before that, Marcia had the privilege of being the inaugural Dean of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at The Open University (OU) where she led on a number of cross-institutional projects including the creation of an Institutional Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Plan.

Marcia also spent more than a decade at the University of East London (UEL) where she was the founding Dean of their Office for Institutional Equity (OIE), the first department of its kind in the UK and has been used by institutions across the country as the blueprint when planning their own EDI interventions. Her work has been used by Universities UK (UUK) in their initiatives aimed at tackling racism and she was a member of the Advisory group focusing on producing guidance for Tackling Racial Harassment in HE. Marcia has been recognised as a national EDI lead in the ‘d&i Leaders Global Benchmarking Survey’ in 2021 and 2023. Before establishing the OIE at the UEL, Marcia held various roles including Head of the University’s School of Health, Sport and Bioscience, and Head of the Sport Science department.

Marcia spent 10 years studying and working in the USA, and also worked for eight years in sport psychology at the Football Association and with the Rugby Football Union with elite women’s teams and coaches.

Marcia is a regular speaker on Advance HE’s ‘Aurora’ programme, the Top Management Programme for University Executives and she delivers leadership presentations to the Premier League. She is regularly invited to speak on building anti-racist institutions and women in leadership.