Meet Our Blueprint Trainers

Elizabeth Bananuka

Founder & CEO of BME PR Pros / Blueprinted

Elizabeth Bananuka is a senior comms pro and DEI consultant and the founder of The Pros Collective (formerly BME PR Pros/Blueprinted) which she describes as “one person’s little attempt to promote diversity in the UK PR and comms sector”.

A popular trainer she has delivered diversity workshops for agencies including Weber Shandwick, Blurred, Cirkle, CCGroup, a Hoffman Agency and Headland; lobbied industry publications to diversify their judging panels, speakers and commentators, and in 2019 she organised the first BME PR Pros conference with nearly 30 speakers from Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Ethnic Minority (BME) backgrounds.

* In 2020 Elizabeth launched The Blueprint diversity mark (currently held by ten UK agencies) and The Pros Winter Series (an online event series with more than 70 speakers from BME backgrounds)

* In 2021 she developed and launched The Xec. leadership scheme for Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Ethnic Minority PR and comms pros supported by Google, PRovoke Media and the CIPR

* In 2023 she created and launched The Pros Awards, the first UK industry awards: judged by Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Ethnic Minority (BME) PR and comms pros; celebrating talented UK-based BME PR and comms pros; celebrating work targeting BME consumers and business owners; celebrating successful comms and PR agencies owned by BME pros and celebrating great BME comms/PR agency founders

Elizabeth is listed in the PRWeek PowerBook 2019-2026, was PRovoke Media ‘15 People to Watch’ 2020, PRovoke Media Innovator 25 2021 and listed in PRWeek’s “24 Most Influential Women in UK PR” 2024.

She has partnered with a range of organisations including Google, The Guardian, Twitter (she refuses to acknowledge ‘X’), Diageo, the CIPR, Opinium Research, Blurred and John Lewis Partnership.”

Photo credit: Rob Greig

Marcia Hazzard

Independent Consultant

Marcia Hazzard is a highly skilled, dynamic, human resources, EDI, workforce and organisational development professional with 35 years+ experience gained in the public and private sectors. Marcia has a depth of consultancy expertise in working with organisations to develop high performance and inclusive cultures.

Marcia has worked with FTSE100s, large government agencies and SMEs in managing organisational change, formulating and embedding EDI strategies, and maximising workforce capacity and performance. Previous clients include Coop, Macmillan Cancer Care, The Pensions Regulator, University of Oxford, London Fire Brigade, Cinven (financial services), Rathbones (investment management), Tesco, GSK, Joseph Rowntree Trust, The Open University, Davita Healthcare, Office of National Statistics, Cloudflare (tech), London Air Ambulance, London Borough of Havering, Shearman & Sterling (law).

Marcia has written several articles about workforce transformation, and recently about new working practices during and post pandemic. As an academic, she has undertaken quantitative and qualitative, data led, EDI research projects to inform strategic performance.

As well as a seasoned facilitator and coach using neurolinguistic programming (NLP), Marcia has expertise in tackling workplace discrimination, having over 20 years’ experience sitting as a panel member on UK Employment Tribunals. She has been a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD for over 22 years. In July 2022, she received an honorary doctorate in business administration (DBA) from the Claude Littner Business School, University of West London, for her services to EDI and business transformation.

Louisa Joseph

Founder, BAME to Boardroom

Louisa’s work prioritises those from Black and Asian heritage and individuals who experience barriers to recruitment & progression in the workplace compared with their white counterparts. Louisa’s approach to coaching and mentoring relationships focuses on meeting life and workplace challenges using a range of techniques that enable participants to identify and address barriers to progress and success.

Louisa works with organisations to develop inclusive leadership, helping to level the playing field to ensure sustainability of inclusive organisational cultures. She has specifically developed a “Race at Work Dialogue Workshop” based on David Bohm’s work on dialogue. This uses the process of dialogue to enable a free-flowing exchange of thoughts, ideas and points of view. Increased consciousness and deeper understanding, create breakthroughs followed by sustainable action and results.

Louisa is also a Trustee of Magic Me, a charity focused on intergenerational arts activities in communities.

Louisa has IAPC&M accreditation; is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) and a CIPD Mentor; a member of the British Psychological Society; an accredited assessor of Personality and Ability; a certified NLP Practitioner.

Sara Thornhurst

Consultant and Trainer, Inclusive PR UK

Sara Thornhurst Chart.PR is a disabled PR practitioner and trainer who ran her own agency for several years. She has been a visiting lecturer in digital marketing at Leeds Trinity University and was cited as one of the Shaw Trust’s top 100 influential people with a disability in 2018. She has spoken on disability inclusion, accessibility and diversity issues at multiple industry events and runs regular training sessions and workshops for agencies and PR events to help them overcome issues around ableism employing and retaining disabled talent. She is also the Chair of the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire CIPR Committee.

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