Dawn Bonfield

Dawn Bonfield is a materials engineer and founder and director of Towards Vision,^[1] a company which aims to work towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. She is past president and former chief executive of the Women's Engineering Society (WES),^[2][3] and in 2018 was an ambassador for the Year of Engineering,^[4][5] promoting engineering careers through a roadshow aimed at meeting parents.

Dawn Bonfield MBE FREng FICE FIStructE FIMMM FWES
Occupation	Materials engineer

Career

A materials engineer by profession, training and experience - having studied materials science at Bath University - Bonfield has worked at AERE Harwell, Citroen Research Centre (Paris), British Aerospace (Bristol), MBDA (Stevenage), and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (London).^[2]

In 2017, Bonfield was appointed a Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineers at Aston University,^[6] developing undergraduate content on inclusive engineering to equip the next generation of engineers with the skills and competencies they need to be inclusive. She also co-founded IncEng in 2017,^[7] a platform to bring together under-represented groups in engineering.

Activism

Bonfield joined the council of the Women's Engineering Society in 2011 and was elected president in 2014.^[8] She then became CEO in 2015.^[2] Bonfield was the founder of National Women in Engineering Day in 2014 and in 2015 established the inaugural 50 Women in Engineering List with the Daily Telegraph.^[2][9] She established and still runs the "Magnificent Women" schools outreach project and website,^[10] and the Sparxx project to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students.^[11] She is a STEM ambassador who regularly promotes engineering and materials in schools.

Awards

In 2015 Bonfield won a WISE Award^[12] and an Association Congress Award for the INWED campaign,^[5] and in 2016 she won the SEMTA Skills Diversity Award.^[13] In 2016 she was a Finalist in the Airbus GEDC Diversity Award,^[14] and in 2017 she won the Women's Business Council STEM 'Starting Out' award.^[15]

She was made MBE in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours list^[16][17] for 'Services to the promotion of diversity in engineering'.

Membership of groups

Bonfield has been a member of the following groups:

• T Level panel member: Design, Development and Control^[18]
• Member of the Department of Education Technical Education Inclusivity Working Group^{[citation needed]}
• Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group on Measurement^[19][20][21]
• Member of Bath University Court^[22]
• Patron at Alton Convent School, Hampshire^[23]
• External Athena Swan Advisory Group Member, City University^[24]
• Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professors' Management Group^[25]
• Member of the Women’s Business Council STEM Starting Out Subgroup^[26]
• Member of Women in Materials Committee of Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining^[27]