The Allyship Academy (TAA) was founded by Mark Fenton and Patricia Byron, driven by their shared passion for advancing inclusion and supporting women and other marginalised groups. Both bring decades of experience as DEI specialists, leadership experts, and executive coaches, having witnessed first-hand the gap between organisational policies and the genuine behaviours needed to foster allyship. What began as a simple conversation between two colleagues soon evolved into a mission to make allyship practical and accessible—showing that it’s not about grand gestures, but about everyday actions, awareness, and genuinely showing up for others. Their commitment is rooted in the belief that everyone has a role to play in creating spaces where all feel respected, valued, and able to thrive.
- What is your background before you created The Allyship Academy?
The Allyship Academy (TAA) was born from a shared passion between two colleagues (Mark Fenton & Patricia Byron) who deeply care about making a real difference, especially when it comes to supporting women and other marginalised voices.
What started as a simple conversation quickly grew into a bigger mission, we wanted to build a platform that not only champions inclusion and support, but also sparks a movement. TAA is here to show that allyship isn’t some abstract concept, it is not a lofty idea, it is something tangible, visible, and absolutely doable.
On our social media and in our everyday transactions, we break it down so it that feels accessible, practical, and genuinely powerful.
Being an ally isn’t about grand gestures, it’s about everyday actions, awareness, and showing up. Now, more than ever, it needs to be something we all keep front and centre.
- What inspired you to establish The Allyship Academy, and what are its primary objectives?
Through our decades of experience, we have worked with individuals and organisations as DEI specialists, leadership experts, executive coaches . we have consistently seen both the need for and the benefit of Allyship.
What we have discovered is that having a strategy, a policy or a process regarding how people can best interact (whether in a workplace or outside) does not automatically lead to the effective behaviours. Policies don’t create allies, people do.
The Allyship Academy was established to offer guidance on what Allyship is, why it is important and how best we can all demonstrate allyship in action.
We define Allyship as:
- the quality or practice of supporting other people who are part of a group that is treated badly or unfairly, although you are not yourself a member;
- about using your power, position or privilege to uplift others; and
- understanding that we all have an important part to play in making sure our workplace (and the wider society) is a place in which everyone feels welcome, included and can thrive no matter what makes each of us unique.
Our vision is to champion situations where people support each other as respectful allies, where everyone feels like they matter, their voice counts, and they’re treated with fairness and understanding. It’s about making everyday actions count so that inclusion isn’t just a value, it’s something we experience together, day by day
Our Mission is to cultivate allyship inside and outside the workplace by providing transformative education, actionable strategies, and ongoing support to organisations and individuals.
- How does The Allyship Academy aim to address the “Allyship Gap” as described in your recent posts?
The need for allyship exists for loads of reasons, many of which are rooted in long-standing societal norms and systems that have gone unchallenged for generations.
We can’t change the past, but we can choose how we show up now. A gap exists when people think they’re being allies, but they’re not showing up in meaningful ways. Allyship is about making a conscious choice to address the gaps.
Many people simply haven’t been taught the language or mindset of allyship. If you’ve grown up in a system that normalises inequality, you might not even see it.
Without opportunities for reflection or learning, people don’t always recognise how their silence or inaction contributes to the problem.
Research has shown that 77% of men believe they are doing everything they can in this space. Only 41% of women, however, agree that that is the case.
5. How are you aiming to grow the platform in the coming months?
Over the Summer period, we have set Allyship challenges to encourage people to start thinking differently. We want people to be allies to their work colleagues, their daughters, their family and friends.
We have just completed Week 4 of the Allyship Challenge !
We’ve recently established our own unique WhatsApp group, with engaged individuals to create a community of practice where we share, debate, co-create and engage on the topic of Allyship.
We’ve already invested in a number of projects and individuals to demonstrate how allyship can operate. For example, sponsoring a girls’ hockey team with branded hoodies and also supporting a teenage boy’s dream to represent Ireland at para-standing tennis (a newly recognised international sport for tennis players with certain disabilities such as amputees, cerebral palsy athletes etc.) around the world.
The Allyship Academy is here to support people of all identities to work together towards genuine gender equality. When everyone feels seen, respected, and valued, we all thrive.
It means:
- Calling out inappropriate comments and behaviour.
- Ensuring women’s voices are heard and credited by both genders.
- Advocating for fair policies, including equal pay, parental leave.
- Supporting women in leadership and career progression.
It’s not easy, but it’s necessary.
Our aim is to grow a movement by building awareness of what “Good” looks like and fostering momentum to increase awareness and education. We aim through articles, free workshops, group discussions and social media to start building momentum towards the Allyship Movement.
We hope to lean into those who understand what Allyship truly is and collaborate with them in turning up the dial so everyone’s voice is heard.
Through building awareness of what simple actions anyone can take to be the ally, we hope that people become the Ally they always wanted.
- How does the initiative differentiate between authentic and performative allyship?
We hear all the time that Allyship is a verb and not a noun. What it means is Allyship requires genuine action. Not just performative, like a one-off event, without meaning and action, which is inconsistent with behaviours. Posting a hashtag or attending a workshop without changing behaviour, systems, or decisions is a major part of the gap.
As human beings, to be authentic and demonstrate that we truly care, people have to believe we are genuine and not just show up when it suits. Trust is something we build, not something we say. It means we show up every day, not just on International Women’s Day, Gay Pride or any event taken from an inclusion calendar.
- What role does The Allyship Academy envision for male allies in fostering gender equality and inclusion?
Allyship doesn’t come naturally in systems that have taught people to prioritise one gender over another. Men have a vital role to play. At The Allyship Academy we realise that the majority of men want to play a role, they want to show up, the understand the need to show up, but they are also struggling to find a way to show up that is authentic and consistent and without fear of being ridiculed or making a mistake and getting it wrong.
We see men taking simple, everyday actions to show up for others and HEAR what’s going on for those around them.
- Hear: Actively listen to the marginalised voices without judgement or interruption.
- Empower: Use their influence and privilege to elevate others, not just include them.
- Advocate: Speak up even when the marginalised voice is not in the room to hear them, being the ally.
- Repeat: Keep showing up,
- What metrics or tools does The Allyship Academy use to measure the impact of its allyship training on participants and organisations?
Our initial metric is simple. We want to increase engagement, discussion and raise awareness of why Allyship both within and outside of the workplace is vital.
We track followers, engagements, impressions on content.
We engage with our own unique WhatsApp group to act as a community of practice and can track connections, ideas, content creation, debate etc.
And, of course, it’s much more than training
- How does the academy encourage allies to use their privilege as a platform for positive change while avoiding overshadowing marginalised voices?
Use privilege does not necessarily mean taking over the conversation, being the spokesperson. Listen more, talk less. Privilege comes with a platform that can be offered to others to leverage
- What partnerships or collaborations are you hoping to form to amplify its reach and effectiveness in promoting diversity and inclusion?
We are already doing that! As noted above:
We’ve recently established our own unique WhatsApp group, with engaged individuals to create a community of practice where we share, debate, co-create and engage on the topic of Allyship.
We’ve already invested in a number of projects and individuals to demonstrate how allyship can operate. For example, sponsoring a girls’ hockey team with branded hoodies and also supporting a teenage boy’s dream to represent Ireland at para-standing tennis (a newly recognised international sport for tennis players with certain disabilities such as amputees, cerebral palsy athletes etc.) around the world.
And there is much more to come.
Allyship is not a subset of D&I – it is more of a wrapper on how we act, interact, listen, learn and behave.
We want to increase the awareness and understanding of allyship and how it can benefit others, ourselves, our teams, our organisations and our society.
- What other programmes in Ireland or abroad are you big fans of in the area of Allyship or embracing DEI programmes in the workplace?
We work alongside and leverage organisations that we are personally involved in such as MASF Consulting Ltd, PB Executive Coaching, The Inclusion Foundation and others.
We really value what you do on focusondiversity.ie to shine a light on individuals and organisations who are working to make a difference – one person at a time, one organisation at a time.
We recognise great work on Allyship in other parts of the world. For example, Julie Kratz in the US and Lee Chambers & Mark Freed in the UK.
We are all in this together.