Our people

Natasha has extensive leadership, policy influencing and communications experience in the charity sector. 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 RSA since 2007.

Richard has 24 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, Richard has 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).

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.

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.

Nicola is a Chartered MCIPD human resources professional with over 13 years' experience in all aspects of HR including equity, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, and people strategy. Nicola is a mentor within the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, as well as a trustee for Peer Power Youth. As a values-led human resources professional, she strongly believes in equal access to life’s opportunities for all.

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.

Ann has many years of experience in finance roles across a range of sectors. Prior to joining Working Chance, she worked in the finance team of a national mental health charity.

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.

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.

Before joining Working Chance, Katherine was a teacher of English and has a Master’s degree in education. She has worked across the criminal justice sector in research, education and employability.

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 and Home-Start 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.

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.

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.

With nearly 20 years' experience working in recruitment, Ami has in-depth experience of delivering talent solutions for a wide range purpose-led commercial businesses, social enterprises and charities across the UK and globally. As Director of People Beyond Profit, Ami finds the right people for the right roles, alongside a social mission to support leadership development of underrepresented groups.

Clare is currently Director of Communications and Influencing at Pause, a charity which works with women who have had children removed from their care. Before Pause she led policy and campaigning at Young Lives Vs Cancer. Clare has managed campaigning at Women’s Aid where she worked on campaigns such as making coercive control a criminal offence. Prior to this she worked in policy and public affairs at sexual health charities Family Planning Association and Brook and was also a trustee of the National Children’s Bureau for six years. Outside work Clare enjoys walking her dog Alan, running, cooking and listening to podcasts. She can be found chatting charities, dog walking, what’s in the news, running and tea on Twitter at @ladylaxton.

Kate spent her early career as a lawyer. She has worked for more than 15 years within HR in professional services, initially as an HR business partner. Since 2013 she has specialised in diversity, equity and inclusion and is currently Head of Diversity & Inclusion for the UK, Ireland and Israel at McKinsey & Company. Kate is passionate about creating environments that support people to thrive and reach their potential.

Andrea has extensive experience of leading HR and change within mission-driven charities. She is currently Director of People and Organisational Development at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, a charity that focuses on improving the standards of care delivered to women. She is also a school governor and deputy chair of the HR Committee at Kings Cross Academy.