Gemma Bailey-Smith

Bailey is a Sustainability Manager in construction, and a renowned advocate for employment equity, diversity, and inclusion, specialising in disability and neurodivergence. As a disabled, neurodivergent, wheelchair user, Bailey combines personal and professional experiences to promote workplace inclusion and accessibility. Their mission involves educating employers on best practices and empowering disabled and neurodivergent employees. Through partnerships with organisations like Green Jobs for Nature, EqualEngineering, and Evenbreak, Bailey champions disability inclusion in corporate and environmental careers.

With over five years of experience, Bailey has chaired award-winning employee network groups (ERGs), earning recognition at the Engineering Talent Awards and Ground Engineering Awards, now they advise ERGs in corporate settings. Individually, she has been featured in the Shaw’s Trust Disability Power 100 in 2023, making this the second year running. Bailey is dedicated to using these achievements to enhance workplace inclusion and accessibility, emphasising that “Accessibility benefits all, and it’s about time it’s not an afterthought.”

Their drive to diversify environmental careers and the construction industry comes from the lack of representation.

“I can vividly recall going to the careers officer at university as my disability progressed and asked ‘How will a career in the environmental sector work now I use a wheelchair?’. We searched and reached out for examples, looking for the representation I desperately needed to see at that time, but we couldn’t find it.

So I set a goal to become the representation I needed to see in the industry.”