Zuleikha Chikh

Zuleikha has held Non-Executive Director, trustee and advisory positions across the sport and higher education sector. She is a Lecturer in Sports Management at University Academy 92 and final year Doctoral Researcher in Sport Sociology at Loughborough University.

Over the past decade, Zuleikha’s work has focused on equity, diversity and inclusion across grassroots sport, leadership and governance. Her journey into sports governance began in 2018 as a member of the inaugural Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) Youth Panel. Alongside this, she contributed her expertise to shape EDI strategies and initiatives at both local and national levels through Lancashire FA’s Inclusion Advisory Group and The FA South Asian Female National Advisory Group. Across these roles, Zuleikha advised on positive action initiatives, approaches to tackle discrimination and consulted on research focused on South Asian girls and football in schools. More recently, she served as a Non-Executive Director at Active Lancashire, where she oversaw initiatives across the region to support communities to develop healthy and active lifestyles.

Alongside her PhD which examines the ‘race’-gendered experiences of racialised minority women attending sport leadership development programmes in the UK, she recently co-authored peer-reviewed research with Dr Anika Leslie-Walker examining the lived experiences of racialised minority women on sports boards in the UK. The research highlights how, despite efforts to diversify some sports boards, racialised and gendered exclusionary cultures and practices persist within boardrooms, often leaving racialised minority women on the periphery of boardroom spaces rather than central to decision-making processes.