Sally Tomlinson is an Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths London University and an Honorary Fellow in the Education Department, University of Oxford. She began her teaching career in primary school in Wolverhampton, and has spent her academic career researching, writing and teaching about race and ethnicity, and the politics of education, especially „special” education. She was a trustee of the African Education Trust for twenty years working in in Somalia and Somaliland and Kenya.