Advisory Council members

Advisory Council members

Introduction

Our grant-making is guided by a council of leading specialists in their fields.

They provide subject and sector expertise to monitor emerging issues, develop our range of Fellowship programmes, select new Fellows and promote their ideas and activities.

Members of our Advisory Council

Photograph of Lucy Parker

Advisory Council Chair

Lucy Parker CF

Lucy Parker is a Churchill Fellow and has more than 20 years’ experience as a strategic advisor with global companies across a range of sectors including pharmaceuticals, engineering, retail and telecoms. She heads up the Business & Society practice for the Brunswick Group, which advises companies on critical issues for critical stakeholders. She led the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Talent and Enterprise in 2008-2010, where the flagship initiative was The Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship taking young people to experience the global economy first-hand.

Advisory Council member

Phil Avery CF

Phil Avery is a Churchill Fellow and Director of Education for Bohunt Education Trust, a multi-academy trust serving over 11,000 students in the south of England. Phil is a Sinnott Fellow, previous STEM Leader of the Year, Trustee of the Royal Geographical Society and member of Rethinking Assessment, where he leads on Interdisciplinary Learning.

ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER

Joanne Bosanquet MBE

Joanne is a Registered Nurse and qualified Public Health Nurse. Joanne’s career has provided a number of opportunities to develop a solid system-wide and dynamic approach to her leadership. She has held various positions at community and population level and most recently moved into the charity sector to lead the Foundation of Nursing Studies, a UK based charity that positions itself between research and practice, underpinned by theoretical frameworks in person-centred practice.

Photograph of Marina Brounger

Advisory Council member

Marina Brounger

Marina Brounger is a trustee of the John Lyon Foundation, a governor of Harrow School and an adviser to Churchill Heritage. Previously she was a barrister specialising in criminal law.

Photograph of Nick Danziger

Advisory Council member

Nicholas Danziger CF

Nick Danziger is a Churchill Fellow and renowned photojournalist specialising in global issues. He has won numerous documentary and photography awards, including the Prix Italia for a BBC film and a World Press 1st prize. He has published and exhibited photography worldwide and leads trainings in visual media, human rights and advocacy across the world. Nick’s work is held by many museums and has won the Royal Geographical Society's Ness Award.

Carlene Firmin

Advisory Council member

Professor Carlene Firmin MBE CF

Dr Carlene Firmin is a Churchill Fellow and a Professor of Social Work at Durham University. In 2016 she published the Contextual Safeguarding framework, a term coined by Carlene in 2014. This framework has been used to advance policy and research concerned with safeguarding adolescents in the UK and internationally, and has led to changes in social care responses to extra-familial abuse. In 2011 Carlene became the youngest Black woman to receive an MBE, for her seminal work on gang-affected young women in the UK.

Photograph of Peter Liss

Advisory Council member

Professor Peter Liss CBE FRS

Emeritus Professor Peter Liss, CBE is an environmental scientist at the University of East Anglia. A pioneer in the field of global biogeochemical cycles, he chairs several scientific committees, was a member of DEFRA’s Science Advisory Council and a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. He has been Executive Director of the International Science Council. Peter was awarded the Challenger Society Medal and the John Jeyes Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Photograph of Juliet Lyon

Advisory Council member

Juliet Lyon CBE

Juliet Lyon chairs the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody and is a visiting professor in the School of Law at Birkbeck, University of London. She was formerly director of the Prison Reform Trust, director general of Penal Reform International and a Women’s National Commissioner. Working across mental health and education, she has headed a school psychiatric unit, directed community education in a comprehensive school and managed therapeutic communities. Juliet was a founding advisor to ChildLine.

Advisory Council member

Liam McAleese

Liam is a Churchill Fellow and currently a Director at the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Before joining Esmée, Liam held senior roles at the Lake District National Park Authority and was a Non-Executive Director of National Park Partnerships LLP. Liam started his career in a range of roles in DEFRA and BEIS before establishing a successful marine planning and environmental consultancy business and taking on a non-executive director role in the Gardline Marine Science Group of companies. He is a trustee of Global Greengrants Fund UK.

Advisory Council member

Anna Morrison CBE

Anna Morrison is the founder and Director of Amazing Apprenticeships, an organisation that works with government, schools and colleges, and many of the country’s biggest and best employers to champion apprenticeships and technical education and inspire the next generation of apprentices.

ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER

Andrew Rowland CF

Andrew is a Churchill Fellow and Consultant Paediatrician and subspecialist in Children’s Emergency Medicine. Andrew is also Honorary Professor (Children’s Rights, Law, and Advocacy) at the University of Salford and Officer for Child Protection at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Andrew now works in the community in Manchester undertaking assessments of children who are suspected of having been abused; working with children with experience of care; and undertaking initial health assessments of unaccompanied children seeking refuge, asylum, and protection in the UK. Andrew has previously sat on Fellowship interview panels and helped us think about our health themes, as well as connecting us with the medical royal colleges to support the application campaign.

Photograph of Flora Soames

Advisory Council member

Flora Soames

Flora Soames is a design consultant, named as one of the UK’s top House & Garden 100 interior designers. She was the Creative Director of Talisman, and in running her various UK enterprises, a champion for British and traditional craftsmanship.

Steve Tyler

Advisory Council member

Steve Tyler

Steve Tyler is Director of Assistive Technology and Transformation at the charity Leonard Cheshire. He has a history of developing sustainable and life-changing products around accessibility for disabled people, including leading the team that developed synthetic speech, which led to the voice of Amazon’s Alexa. Steve now collaborates with key players in the technology market as part of the Google Accessibility Strategy Board, the Microsoft accessibility steering group and as a programme lead for the annual M-Enabling Summit held in Washington, DC.

Caroline Waters

Advisory Council member

Caroline Waters OBE

Caroline Waters has a background in HR and transformation with 30 years’ experience as a senior executive in large and complex organisations. She has extensive experience in influencing governments and creating legislative change and routinely works with and advises policy makers. She was deputy chair of the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission from January 2013 to January 2023 and is currently Vice President of Carers UK. Prior to that she was Director of People and Policy at BT.

“The Churchill Fellowship is unique: it backs the individual and their potential whatever their passion and expertise." – Lucy Parker, Chair of the Advisory Council

Members of our Advisory Council

Photograph of Lucy Parker

Advisory Council Chair

Lucy Parker CF

Lucy Parker is a Churchill Fellow and has more than 20 years’ experience as a strategic advisor with global companies across a range of sectors including pharmaceuticals, engineering, retail and telecoms. She heads up the Business & Society practice for the Brunswick Group, which advises companies on critical issues for critical stakeholders. She led the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Talent and Enterprise in 2008-2010, where the flagship initiative was The Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship taking young people to experience the global economy first-hand.

Advisory Council member

Phil Avery CF

Phil Avery is a Churchill Fellow and Director of Education for Bohunt Education Trust, a multi-academy trust serving over 11,000 students in the south of England. Phil is a Sinnott Fellow, previous STEM Leader of the Year, Trustee of the Royal Geographical Society and member of Rethinking Assessment, where he leads on Interdisciplinary Learning.

ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER

Joanne Bosanquet MBE

Joanne is a Registered Nurse and qualified Public Health Nurse. Joanne’s career has provided a number of opportunities to develop a solid system-wide and dynamic approach to her leadership. She has held various positions at community and population level and most recently moved into the charity sector to lead the Foundation of Nursing Studies, a UK based charity that positions itself between research and practice, underpinned by theoretical frameworks in person-centred practice.

Photograph of Marina Brounger

Advisory Council member

Marina Brounger

Marina Brounger is a trustee of the John Lyon Foundation, a governor of Harrow School and an adviser to Churchill Heritage. Previously she was a barrister specialising in criminal law.

Photograph of Nick Danziger

Advisory Council member

Nicholas Danziger CF

Nick Danziger is a Churchill Fellow and renowned photojournalist specialising in global issues. He has won numerous documentary and photography awards, including the Prix Italia for a BBC film and a World Press 1st prize. He has published and exhibited photography worldwide and leads trainings in visual media, human rights and advocacy across the world. Nick’s work is held by many museums and has won the Royal Geographical Society's Ness Award.

Carlene Firmin

Advisory Council member

Professor Carlene Firmin MBE CF

Dr Carlene Firmin is a Churchill Fellow and a Professor of Social Work at Durham University. In 2016 she published the Contextual Safeguarding framework, a term coined by Carlene in 2014. This framework has been used to advance policy and research concerned with safeguarding adolescents in the UK and internationally, and has led to changes in social care responses to extra-familial abuse. In 2011 Carlene became the youngest Black woman to receive an MBE, for her seminal work on gang-affected young women in the UK.

Photograph of Peter Liss

Advisory Council member

Professor Peter Liss CBE FRS

Emeritus Professor Peter Liss, CBE is an environmental scientist at the University of East Anglia. A pioneer in the field of global biogeochemical cycles, he chairs several scientific committees, was a member of DEFRA’s Science Advisory Council and a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. He has been Executive Director of the International Science Council. Peter was awarded the Challenger Society Medal and the John Jeyes Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Photograph of Juliet Lyon

Advisory Council member

Juliet Lyon CBE

Juliet Lyon chairs the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody and is a visiting professor in the School of Law at Birkbeck, University of London. She was formerly director of the Prison Reform Trust, director general of Penal Reform International and a Women’s National Commissioner. Working across mental health and education, she has headed a school psychiatric unit, directed community education in a comprehensive school and managed therapeutic communities. Juliet was a founding advisor to ChildLine.

Advisory Council member

Liam McAleese

Liam is a Churchill Fellow and currently a Director at the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Before joining Esmée, Liam held senior roles at the Lake District National Park Authority and was a Non-Executive Director of National Park Partnerships LLP. Liam started his career in a range of roles in DEFRA and BEIS before establishing a successful marine planning and environmental consultancy business and taking on a non-executive director role in the Gardline Marine Science Group of companies. He is a trustee of Global Greengrants Fund UK.

Advisory Council member

Anna Morrison CBE

Anna Morrison is the founder and Director of Amazing Apprenticeships, an organisation that works with government, schools and colleges, and many of the country’s biggest and best employers to champion apprenticeships and technical education and inspire the next generation of apprentices.

ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER

Andrew Rowland CF

Andrew is a Churchill Fellow and Consultant Paediatrician and subspecialist in Children’s Emergency Medicine. Andrew is also Honorary Professor (Children’s Rights, Law, and Advocacy) at the University of Salford and Officer for Child Protection at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Andrew now works in the community in Manchester undertaking assessments of children who are suspected of having been abused; working with children with experience of care; and undertaking initial health assessments of unaccompanied children seeking refuge, asylum, and protection in the UK. Andrew has previously sat on Fellowship interview panels and helped us think about our health themes, as well as connecting us with the medical royal colleges to support the application campaign.

Photograph of Flora Soames

Advisory Council member

Flora Soames

Flora Soames is a design consultant, named as one of the UK’s top House & Garden 100 interior designers. She was the Creative Director of Talisman, and in running her various UK enterprises, a champion for British and traditional craftsmanship.

Steve Tyler

Advisory Council member

Steve Tyler

Steve Tyler is Director of Assistive Technology and Transformation at the charity Leonard Cheshire. He has a history of developing sustainable and life-changing products around accessibility for disabled people, including leading the team that developed synthetic speech, which led to the voice of Amazon’s Alexa. Steve now collaborates with key players in the technology market as part of the Google Accessibility Strategy Board, the Microsoft accessibility steering group and as a programme lead for the annual M-Enabling Summit held in Washington, DC.

Caroline Waters

Advisory Council member

Caroline Waters OBE

Caroline Waters has a background in HR and transformation with 30 years’ experience as a senior executive in large and complex organisations. She has extensive experience in influencing governments and creating legislative change and routinely works with and advises policy makers. She was deputy chair of the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission from January 2013 to January 2023 and is currently Vice President of Carers UK. Prior to that she was Director of People and Policy at BT.

“The Churchill Fellowship is unique: it backs the individual and their potential whatever their passion and expertise." – Lucy Parker, Chair of the Advisory Council
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