Baroness Valerie Amos
The Guardian
What holds, and what fails, under pressure, standards and accountability.
Baroness Valerie Amos is a Guyanese-born British peer and public servant whose career contains a sequence of institutional firsts of uncommon density. She was the first Black woman to sit in the House of Lords (1997); the first person of colour to serve in a UK Cabinet (Secretary of State for International Development, 2003); the first Black woman and first Black person to become Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council; the first Black woman to head a UK university (SOAS, 2015); the first woman and first Black head of any Oxford college (Master of University College, 2020); and the first Black Lady Companion or Knight of the Order of the Garter since its foundation in 1348. From 2010 to 2015 she was United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Prior appointments include British High Commissioner to Australia and Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission.
“I always say that somebody has to be first. The important thing is that you do not close the door behind you.”
“It is not just recognition for me personally. It is also recognition for the community that I am part of, and for the importance of the role that Black people have played, and continue to play, in British society.”
“Part of my job was to make sure the world did not forget.”
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