Meet our workshop hosts

Matt joined the LFC Foundation in March 2019 and serves as Chief Executive Officer, overseeing the charity and its Executive Team.

With over 20 years of experience in sport, education, and community development, Matt began his career as a PE teacher in South East London and progressed to senior leadership roles at Charlton Athletic Community Trust and Burnley FC in the Community. His previous roles included Chief Operating Officer at CACT and Director of Education & Inclusion at BFCitC, where he designed and delivered innovative, highimpact programmes for youth at risk of exclusion.

Last year, the LFC Foundation reached over 145,000 people, delivering £10.28 of social value for every £1 invested.

Summer joined the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) as Director in 2023. Since then she has worked with the Chair and Board to develop a refreshed focus for social mobility that moves beyond conventional, historic thinking. The SMC is the UK’s only statutory, independent body. It considers bespoke, geographic data and long term trends to better address the barriers to opportunity they highlight regionally and across the 4 countries in the UK.

She leads the SMC’s Secretariat, an expert, multidisciplinary team. Together they focus on the Board’s ambitions to improve place-based economic growth and innovation, creating a wider variety of opportunities that meet diverse local and national needs. Working closely with Parliament, the public, private and voluntary sectors, the SMC also strives to ensure that policymakers create the conditions needed to provide young people and adults with alternative pathways – not just higher education – to improve their life chances.

Chris is Director of Impact & Evidence at Youth Futures Foundation where he leads a team specialising in evaluation, research and programme management. Previously he worked in research roles at Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and hospitals in London and Bradford.

He served on the Social Security Advisory Committee for 10 years, advising the Department for Work and Pensions and has had board and advisory roles with the UK Commission for Employment & Skills and the Social Research Association.

Anna is the North West Regional Delivery Lead at the EEF, working closely with the Research Schools to mobilise evidence through communication, local partnerships, and bespoke projects. Anna is also a trustee for Watergrove Trust, supporting schools in the local area to provide more to the pupils they serve.

Steven is the Founder and CEO of The People’s Learning Trust, part of the Everton Football Club family. Driven by his belief in education’s power to transform lives, he has led four schools to achieve outstanding Ofsted judgements, is a former Ofsted Inspector, and was made a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching for his “significant and sustained” impact on education. His schools have been nationally recognised for their compassionate, trauma-informed approach and have been cited by the Department for Education as models in mental health support.

Co-author of A School Without Sanctions (Bloomsbury, 2020), Steven chairs the Schools Wellbeing Partnership, sits on advisory boards for several universities, including Oxford, and is a lead judge and member of the moderation panel for the Pearson National Teaching Awards. Beyond education, he has advised the Ministry of Justice on rehabilitation, supported the initial development and delivery of the flagship Cradle 2 Career programme, and is a former UN war crimes investigator. A recipient of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, he was awarded an OBE in 2020 for services to education and combating hatred.

Sally joined Schoolreaders as CEO in 2024 having worked in the charity sector for over 25 years. She was previously CEO at children’s charity Dreamflight and held senior roles at the Art Fund for more than a decade. Originally from Yorkshire, she enjoys reading, open water swimming and travel.

Jamie is the Chief Executive of OnSide, the national youth charity that is determined to make sure that all young people have the opportunity to shine. OnSide builds and supports a network of state-of-the-art, multimillion-pound youth centres, called Youth Zones, in the UK’s most disadvantaged areas, which collectively reach over 55,000 young people every year, through a network of 18 open Youth Zones including in Birkenhead, Warrington, Wolverhampton, with one soon to open in Crewe.

A lifelong Evertonian, Sue has worked within the charity sector supporting people for over 25 years. Sue joined Everton in the Community in 2012 and held the Director of Youth Engagement, Employability and Sports Development for over a decade until her appointment as CEO in April 2022.

Sue has been a key figure in the development of the partnership between Everton in the Community and the Steve Morgan Foundation since it launched in 2020, as well as the successful implementation of Everton in the Community’s award-winning SMF Impact Model, an early-intervention framework supporting young people across Merseyside.

As Business Development Director, Sarah works with a variety of different partner organisations including NHS teams in the major cancer centres where they have or are planning to build Maggie’s. She also leads Maggie’s global development – they are currently operational in four countries outside the UK.

Maggie’s is a values-led organisation that puts people with cancer at the heart of its decision making. Sarah wants to make sure that as many people as possible have access to Maggie’s support throughout the UK and beyond.

Hannah is the Deputy Director for Policy and Partnerships (England) at The National Lottery Community Fund. Central to the Fund’s “It starts with community” strategy, she oversees the England Portfolio with a focus on policy development, partnerships and community-led missions.

Driven by a passion for empowering people and places, Hannah previously held senior roles across the Civil Service, including Deputy Director of the Cabinet Office Disability Unit. Her career spans significant impact in disability inclusion, the volunteering response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the devolution of powers and funding to local communities.

As Head of Social Impact and Philanthropy for UK & EMEA, Sarah helps UBS’s clients to maximise the impact of their philanthropy through advice, insight experiences and their execution platform. Sarah also oversees the delivery of UBS’s own commitment to support the community in the UK through grant funding and employee volunteering.

Sarah spearheaded the team that established UBS’s UK Donor-Advised Foundation, which plays a key role in enabling UBS clients to simplify their giving in a cost effective and flexible way.

Sarah also established UBS’s extremely successful UK Giving Circle to bring together philanthropists who want to develop their philanthropy and build their understanding of the role philanthropy can play in driving systemic change, while working collaboratively to tackle issues surrounding educational inequality.

Nathan is the Managing Director of the CSJ Foundation, an organisation that supports grassroots charities around the UK. Set up four years ago, the CSJF has now directed over £25m to charities across the UK. The CSJF was founded out of the Centre for Social Justice, a Westminster-based think-tank that proposes practical policy solutions to help disadvantaged communities in the UK.

Nathan is also the Executive Director of the Atlantic Partnership, an organisation that promotes the need for a strong transatlantic relationship. Prior to these roles, he was the Chief Operating Officer for the Legatum Institute and Chief Operating Officer at the Centre for Social Justice. Nathan stood as a parliamentary candidate in the 2024 General Election.

Joe is Head of Place Partnerships at the Government’s Office for the Impact Economy. He has a background in education and third sector senior leadership, working as Principal of an Alternative Provision Academy and more recently at AllChild, a place-based early intervention charity, where he has variously led delivery and development functions over the past nine years.

Alex is a Young Leader for the Together Type 1 programme, based in Scotland. She has been volunteering for two years and has logged over 150 hours. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes eight years ago. Alex is interested in advocating for all young people living with type 1 and increasing awareness within the general public.

Alex is currently studying History at Glasgow University, but is looking ahead to a career in the third sector. Her recent focus within her volunteering role has been delivering lectures to Scottish university medical students in their endocrinology teaching to help future doctors include compassionate and patient centred care in their work.

Eilidh is a Young Leader based in Scotland who has volunteered with Together Type 1 for a year and a half. She has lived with type 1 diabetes for 19 years. Within TT1 she has been involved in buddying, type 1 hubs, webinars for both heathcare professionals and education staff, helping at meet-ups, she sits on the TT1 advisory group and runs lived experience talks for medical students across Scotland.

Eilidh is currently finishing her medical degree at Dundee university and hopes to pursue a career in paediatric medicine. She is particularly passionate about building communities for children and young people within the diabetes community and advocating for a person centred approach within healthcare.

Lena is an intensive care nurse born and raised in Middlesbrough but now residing in York with her husband. She has been living with type one diabetes for over 18 years. Her journey has shaped her into a strong, proactive advocate for others with the condition. By combining her professional experience with her lived reality, she is passionate about sharing knowledge, offering compassion and bringing hope, one conversation at a time.

Felicity has lived with type 1 diabetes for six years and has been part of Diabetes UK Together Type 1 Young Leaders for two years. In addition, she also volunteers with Breakthrough T1D, Royal College of Paediatrics and Children’s Health (RCPCH), where she advocates around matters concerned with Type 1 diabetes as well as the general health rights and needs of young people.

Rachel has spent her career working in the biomedical sciences across roles in publishing and the charity sector. She has worked at Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) since 2008 and appointed into her current role of Director of Research in April 2016. 

Her role focuses on developing strategic opportunities for collaboration in type 1 diabetes research and facilitating the smooth and effective running of Breakthrough T1D’s research in the UK. Rachel is the spokesperson for Breakthrough T1D on research issues and represents the charity and people with type 1 diabetes on a number of project groups, acting as a point of liaison for the UK type 1 diabetes research community and facilitating connections and collaborations through Breakthrough T1D’s international network.     

Rachel is a member of the Partnership Steering Group guiding the Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge and is the research delivery lead for the Novel Insulins and Root Causes parts of the Challenge.

Elizabeth is Director of Research and Clinical at Diabetes UK. Previously she was the first Director of Research for Breast Cancer Now (formed from the merger of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Campaign). Prior roles include Director at Cancer Research UK and Dean at Teesside University.

Elizabeth earned her PhD from Queen Mary University of London and a Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy from London Business School. She is a Trustee of the Association of Medical Research Charities and Quadram Institute Bioscience, and formerly of King’s College Hospital Charity and TimeBank.

Graeme is CEO of Right to Succeed, a charity that supports communities to collectively define and deliver the change they need and want for their children, young people and families. Graeme set up the charity in 2015 after 12 years working in education, fundraising and policy. In 2003, Graeme was the first graduate hired by Teach First and taught for two years in a secondary school serving a highly disadvantaged community.

John is an experienced researcher, facilitator and strategist who has worked for years on the role of place in social change. He is part of the Place and Evidence project, helping funders, government and civil society rethink how they work in place-based ways. He was previously Chief Executive of Renaisi and is a non-executive director of Resolve Poverty and an advisor to the Decelerator.

Dame Julia became Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund in November 2024. She has previously chaired Teach First, the National Literacy Trust and Place Matters – all charities working to tackle inequality in those communities who experience the greatest poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. She chaired the National Statistician’s Committee on Inclusive Data and sat on the EMCCA Inclusive Growth Commission. She is Co-founder of the #iwill movement supporting young people into social action through volunteering, campaigning and advocacy.

Dame Julia has served as Board Trustee for the Fair Education Alliance, The Careers and Enterprise Company, the Youth Futures Foundation, Teach for All and as Patron of Right to Succeed. She began her career with The Industrial Society and served as Chief Executive of Business in the Community for seventeen years before working for the then Prince of Wales as his Special Adviser to The Prince’s Charities.