Donna-Marie Holder is a doctoral researcher in Education at Brunel University London, in the final stages of writing up her thesis. She has a first-class honours degree in Education from Brunel University London, and a MSc from University College London in Psychological Sciences. Her research has focused on intersections of ‘race’ in academia and special needs education, due to the structural inequity that persists in education and in wider society. Her studies include the perceived influences of the underrepresentation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) academic staff in higher education, and the experiences and challenges of British BAME postgraduate students. Her thesis explores how ‘race’ is taught in English special schools. Her work will in part be auto/biographical in nature, as she is the mother of a young Black son with autism and her work as a special needs educator. Donna-Marie is also the founder of The Black Doctoral Researchers Collective for Black PhD students and Ed Docs.