I work as a facilitator, trainer and consultant. I help groups, teams, organisations and networks work more effectively together to bring about lasting change.
What drives me is my passion and commitment to make a positive difference in the world, and to support and enable others to do so as well. I believe that facilitation and facilitative leadership will be key to achieving a just and sustainable world for all. The great reward of my work today is to see people awaken to their own power to make a difference, and to their capacity to join and align with others to achieve common goals for the greater good – to awaken to the power of their participation and their leadership.
I am a IAF Certified Professional Facilitator | Master (CPF | M), an ICA Certified ToP Facilitator (CTF) and an experienced lead trainer and licensed provider of ‘ICA’s ‘ToP’ facilitation training.
I have been a facilitator and trainer since 1986. I began my career in grassroots community development work in India, Africa and the Middle East, after awakening to my own passion and commitment as an international volunteer. I have been providing facilitation, training and consulting professionally to clients since 1997, and online since 2012. In that time I have worked with a wide range of clients in the UK and worldwide – see how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies.
For all my career I have worked in various roles with ICA, the Institute of Cultural Affairs, a global community of non-profit organisations ‘advancing human development worldwide’. Before going freelance in October 2012 I was employed as Chief Executive of ICA:UK – since 1997 I developed ICA:UK’s social enterprise programme of facilitation and facilitation training, I designed and delivered scores of tailored facilitated processes for clients and over 100 public and in-house facilitation courses, and I grew and managed a small core staff team and a national network of over 30 active Associates. In 2016 I completed a four-year term as volunteer President of ICA International. From 2018-2022 I was a member of the ICAI Global ToP Advisory Group.
Since 1997 I have also been involved with the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). In 2012 I completed a term as Chair, after four years on the IAF Board. In 2014 I was inducted into the IAF Hall of Fame. From 2016-20 I served as Chapter lead and Chair of IAF England & Wales. Since 2019 I have served a volunteer mentor with the IAF mentoring programme. I am a contributing author to The Power of Facilitation.
I am a Fellow of the RSA and a member of IABC, IPSE, the ToP Network and the Berrett-Koehler expert community. I have served as a Trustee of Focus charity, as a Director of Work for Change and on the committee of the Quaker Congo Partnership. Since 2020 I have volunteered with the Gay Outdoor Club on marketing and social media, since 2021 also as Online Group Co-ordinator and since 2022 also as Trustee/ Director and Website Manager.
I hold a BA in Business Studies from Portsmouth University and an MA in Development Administration and Management from Manchester University’s Global Development Institute (then IDPM). My MA research was in civil society, development and democratisation – see Building Civil Society for a Humane and Sustainable Future: toward a Global Role for the Institute of Cultural Affairs in the UK and Civil society, the promise and peril of democratisation and prospects for the Arab world.
My values reflect my upbringing as a (7th-generation) Quaker, and my early and long-standing involvement with the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA). The Quakers are a radical non-conformist faith community with a commitment to working for equality and peace, and a 350-year tradition of consensus decision making, grounded in a foundational belief that ‘there is that of God in everyone‘. The ICA traces its roots to the Faith & Life Community and the Ecumenical Institute of the United States in the 1950s & 1960s, and aims to act as a catalyst for people in a variety of contexts and circumstances to take active responsibility for their own personal, community and societal development.
I work from home in London & Barcelona, where I live with my husband. As well as my work, I enjoy the outdoors, travel, music and culture, and reading.
See also how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.