My love of working with people and organisations to enable them to reach their potential has driven twenty years of work in the UK voluntary sector and international development organisations. I am a specialist in qualitative research and evaluation approaches – with skills honed working at all levels from grassroots community groups to international research networks.

My work with Just Ideas has focused on research and evaluation in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) sector particularly developing outcomes frameworks for community organisations to demonstrate the difference they make, assessing and assisting organisational development and capacity building, project evaluations and tailoring participatory approaches to evaluation and learning.

Increasingly my work has focused on working with organisations or projects over an extended period as an evaluation and learning partner. Work with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation on systems change for improved marine health taking a values based approach to communication, and with Local Trust alongside their Community Leadership Academy exemplifies this. Positive change is often iterative and based on learning, but can be facilitated by clearly capturing and planning for it in complex programmes and projects.

Through previous and ongoing professional experience I have particular expertise around community engagement; recruitment and management of volunteers; partnership working across sectors towards improved health outcomes and wellbeing, and evaluation frameworks including theory of change. My professional experience is underpinned by an MA in Anthropology of Development, an international perspective that informs my work. I also cherish my experience of having been a school governor at my boys’ schools, a Director of Nature Nurture CIC, and outside of work donning trainers or jumping on a bike to head for the hills!