Awards winner trophies at the ceremony. Photo credit: Greg Macvean.

Congratulations to Toni Scullion, Computing Science teacher and co-lead of Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS). Toni was recognised as an Edinburgh Napier University Alumni Excellence Award winner at a ceremony at the University’s Craiglockhart campus last Thursday 6th November.

As the person who nominated Toni for her award, I was delighted to attend the ceremony, present Toni with her trophy, and meet Toni’s guests for the evening: her mother Sandra and niece Freya.

A celebratory selfie at the ceremony with Sandra, Toni, and Freya. Photo credit: Greg Macvean.

Prior to last Thursday, I don’t think that Toni and I had seen one another in person for over 16 years. However, after supervising her honours project student in 2008/9, I have tracked Toni’s career, marvelling at her impressive achievements following her graduation in 2009. It really doesn’t feel that long since I was her project supervisor.

Toni’s main professional achievement is to have founded dressCode, a hugely successful and multi-award winning charity that aims to advance Computing Science as a subject, and to inspire school children to follow careers in Computing. Toni’s efforts focus in particular on engaging girls in Computing Science to help close the gender gap and improve diversity in the tech sector.

Since establishing dressCode (first as a club at school in 2011, then formally as a charity in 2018), Toni has secured sponsorship and support to run numerous events (e.g. hackathons), competitions, an award scheme for secondary school girls studying computing, and campaigns. She has engaged many companies and public sector organisations with dressCode. These include Adobe, Amazon, the British Computer Society, CISCO, Data Lab Scotland, Morgan Stanley, Robert Gordon University, the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Power, Skyscanner, Stirling University, and Tesco Bank.

Toni Scullion with her trophy. Photo credit: Greg Macvean.

dressCode‘s reach is significant, not least because its activities are open to all school children at primary and secondary level across the UK and Ireland. For example: over 30,000 individuals attempt dressCode puzzles each year; around 150 girls have attended in-person events, and hundreds of others have participated in online cyber challenges, organised by the Turing Testers, a pupil-led initiative set up by Toni as part of dressCode.

Toni is also a co-founder of the Ada Scotland Festival, established to bring together partners to address the issue of gender balance in Computing Science education in Scotland. Launched in 2020, the Festival takes place annually around the date of Ada Lovelace Day each October with a mix of live events and dozens of other activities.

As well as her voluntary work with dressCode and the Ada Scotland Festival, Toni is a member of the Scottish Tech Army Limited. This is a not-for-profit organisation that recruits volunteers with IT skills to work on projects to support third sector organisations, and help them increase their reach, impact, and effectiveness through the use of digital technology.

Given the high profile and recognition that Toni has earned through the work outlined above, she is also a sought-after conference speaker on gender issues and IT, and has been invited to contribute to the work of various bodies, including the UN. She has also been nominated and won several national awards (some are listed in her Wikipedia entry), been commended for her work by the Scottish Government, and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Education (DEd) from Robert Gordon University.

In a talk that Toni gave at West Lothian College 5 years ago about her non-traditional route into higher education, Toni stated that her interview for a place at Napier was ‘the best thing that ever happened to me’. In recognising Toni through this Excellence award, the University is now acknowledging Toni as one of the best alumni to graduate from Napier.

Toni is one of seven award winners this year. The others who have won Excellence awards are Jack Lennie, Dr Ogochukwu Okoye, Angela Scott, and Bilaal Shabbir. Dr Ian Hounsome picked up the 2025 Impact award, and André Agius received the 2025 Rising star award. All but André were also able to attend the ceremony on Thursday. Find out more about all the award winners as they speak about their work in a short video accessible as a Facebook reel.

Awards winners at the ceremony: Dr Ian Hounsome, Bilaal Shabbir, Dr Ogochukwu Okoye, Jack Lennie, Toni Scullion, and Angela Scott. Photo credit: Greg Macvean.

As well as offering congratulations to the winners, thanks are also due to the Marketing and External Relations staff at the University for hosting such an enjoyable evening for us all.