Our people

Natasha has extensive leadership, policy and communications experience in the charity sector, having originally trained and worked as a journalist. She spent 11 years as Chief Executive of Become, the national charity for children in care and care leavers. She has served as an advisor to two Children's Commissioners and has sat on the advisory boards of two national inquiries into the criminalisation of young people in care and on several government taskforces. She was awarded an OBE for services to children and families in 2019 and has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts since 2007.

Helen has 17 years’ teaching, training and programme management experience in the education and charity sectors. Before joining Working Chance she managed wellbeing programmes for care leavers and other vulnerable groups and has worked in youth offending and prison settings.

Richard has 23 years’ experience working in criminal justice for voluntary, public and private sector organisations, including prisons and probation. As well as his extensive knowledge of the criminal justice system, he's known for having an extensive and well-established network of UK and international professional contacts. His career has always been driven by a desire to support people to become the very best they can be. Richard is a Trustee of POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group).

Katy has extensive experience as a recruitment consultant and in the charity sector, including specific expertise around supporting women with convictions into sustainable employment.

Lizzy has led on communications and marketing for a range of not-for-profits and social justice causes. She was formerly Head of Strategic Communications at STOP THE TRAFFIK, a charity disrupting global human trafficking.

Ruth is a qualified accountant who has worked in a range of senior finance roles in charities including The Prince's Trust and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. She completed her accountancy training at KPMG in the not for profit sector.

Mandy ensures that we are measuring our impact and communicating it effectively, and that we are making consistent progress on achieving our strategic goals. Her personal experience of the criminal justice system convinced her of the need for women with convictions to have greater support and opportunities. She is a trustee of Unlock, Prisoners’ Advice Service and Prisoners’ Education Trust.

Steph has a background in research, specialising in the evaluation of employment and community projects. Most recently she spent three years at Women's Aid. At Working Chance she collects and analyses data about our work in order to assess and demonstrate our impact. Her role also helps us to collect insights from women with convictions into our service so that we can continuously improve what we do and how we do it.

Vanisha has a degree in criminology and has worked on national projects for care leavers. She acts as an initial point of contact for the women who come to us, making sure that we understand their aspirations, skills and any challenges they face, so that we can give them the right support.

Before joining Working Chance, Aoibhinn worked at a hostel for homeless people in Ireland, and in a role delivering workshops to youth groups. She is a trained Samaritans volunteer and recently completed a certificate in counselling and psychotherapy.

Before joining us, Gemma specialised in theatrical interventions for people in prison. Now she designs and delivers our employability workshops and works with our clients to make sure they have all the skills they need to prepare for successful employment.

Shaunagh studied Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Leeds and has experience of working within the prison service. Most recently, Shaunagh worked with young adults with learning disabilities, supporting them into employment and ensuring that reasonable adjustments were made to give them a fair chance to excel in their chosen role.

Before joining Working Chance, Julia worked for the Royal Bank of Canada specialising in project and client management.

Alex worked as an employability and careers adviser for young adults, many of whom had additional needs, before coming to Working Chance.

Helen has a background in sales and business development and has worked across a wide range of sectors.

Jo focuses on finding opportunities for women to undertake volunteering, work experience, internships and apprenticeships. She links with organisations to find out what they have on offer and then matches women with these opportunities. She is also developing support and resources for women who want to start their own business.

Olivia advocates for changes to policy and practice that will improve rehabilitation and employment outcomes for women with convictions. Before joining Working Chance she worked in human rights in Cambodia, where she scrutinised prison conditions and women's rights.

Leila looks after our relationships with a range of stakeholders, in particular grant-making trusts. She also works on our external communications.

Mita is a storyteller and activist passionate about transformative justice. She previously worked as a journalist for international publications including Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, and The Cambodia Daily, and as a public affairs and communications consultant for governments, IGOs, and non-profit organisations.

Our Finance Assistant, Ann, has many years of experience working in various finance roles in both private and public sectors. Before joining Working Chance, she worked in the finance team of a national mental health charity, and at a small non-profit business excellence organisation.

Vicky has been a Patron of Working Chance since 2014. She is an economist and former Joint Head of the UK's Government Economic Service. She is passionate about how the criminal justice system impacts women's lives and the economy, and has written books including 'Prisonomics: Behind Bars in Britain's Failing Prisons' and 'Women vs. Capitalism'.

After spending her early career working as a teacher and social worker, Lin trained as an educational psychologist and was principal educational psychologist at Coventry City Council. Since then, she has held many senior roles in government and public bodies including at the Ministry of Justice and as Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board.  Lin is also Chair of Make-A-Wish UK.

Ciara trained as a chartered accountant with PwC and has 30 years’ experience working and volunteering in finance roles in the UK, Europe, Africa and Australia. After PwC, Ciara worked at Lloyd’s Banking Group, latterly leading the Group Tax Reporting function and had a two-year secondment as Chief Financial and Operating Officer at The Lloyd’s Bank Foundation for England & Wales.

Erica is an executive coach and a non-executive on the board of the Government Legal Department. Her other criminal justice governance roles are as Chair of Trustees at Spark Inside and trustee of St. Giles. Previously Erica was Managing Director and General Counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the investment management company BlackRock.

Emma founded and took public an online financial information service covering all the quoted companies in Europe that was acquired by Bloomberg in 1991. She followed this with 15 years' running a London restaurant and working with young offenders. During this time she completed several high altitude treks and in 1993 she was one of the organisers behind the 40th Anniversary British Expedition to Everest.

Caroline is a social worker and lecturer at the University of Essex where she researches critical approaches to framing social work education in public policy. An experienced criminal justice social worker, she is passionate about addressing social exclusion of women with lived experience of the criminal justice system.