FED Ambassador: Dr Nicole Ponsford is an award-winning educator, researcher, EdTech founder, and creator of the Global Equality Collective (GEC). Recognised as BESA Person of the Year and listed on the Diversity Power List 2025, she is one of the UK’s leading voices in equitable education, assistive technology, and inclusive innovation.
With over 25 years’ experience as a teacher, senior leader, examiner, EdTech designer, and national policy adviser, Dr Ponsford champions Kaleidoscopic Data – a third-level, human-centred data framework developed through her doctoral research (Intentional Inclusion: Investigating Equitable Education and Intersectional EdTech, Bournemouth University, 2025). Her work has surfaced more than 26,000 hidden voices across 350+ schools, reshaping national conversations on inclusion, neurodiversity, belonging, and the ethical use of AI in education.
Dr Ponsford is Co-Head of Education at Microlink, the global leader in assistive technology and inclusive workplace solutions, where she works across sectors to embed accessibility, empower neurodivergent learners and staff, and drive digital inclusion at scale.
She serves on multiple advisory boards, including the TechUK AI in EdTech Board, is the South Co-Chair of the National Education Assembly, and advises BETT, the Schools & Academies Show, the Festival of Education, ASCL, the Department for Education (DfE), and Ofsted. She is also an IESE Fellow and a tutor on the EDI Data Metrics Fellowship.
Her lived experience – from school being her “safe place” as a child to being told she “couldn’t be on SLT” when she became a parent – drives her commitment to dismantling systemic barriers for staff, pupils, and families across the education system.
Internationally recognised for her contributions to intersectionality, inclusive leadership, social-capital-based data models, and ethical AI, Dr Ponsford created the Inclusion Index, the national 26,000 Voices study, and the Kaleidoscopic Data movement, now used by schools to humanise data, strengthen belonging, and build cultures where everyone can thrive.
