Our team

Prior to joining the team to set up the College, Bethia worked at the Dartington Social Research Unit, the Young Foundation, the National Youth Agency and NIACE (now the Learning and Work Institute), in a variety of policy and research roles. She has also worked in further and higher education as a teacher and trainer.
 
Bethia leads the College’s strategy and relationships with its many partners and collaborators. She is also part of the project teams for the College’s main strands of work, including the Youth Investment Fund and the Youth Programme Quality Intervention (YPQI) Pilot. Bethia is particularly interested in the relationship between quality and impact in youth work and provision for young people, and in the theory and practice of measurement, especially within collaboratives. Bethia is a 2012 Clore Social Fellow and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Trent University.
 
Outside of work, Bethia likes being close to water, wandering round historical buildings and re-reading the novels of Michael Connolly. She loves music and reading about new ideas. She is a Trustee at Datakind UK and a Non-Exec Director of Isledon.

Helen brings a wealth of sector experience from her role as Director of Policy, Partnerships and Impact at OnSide and her previous position as Chief Executive at Mahdlo, the OnSide Youth Zone in Oldham which she led from inception through its first 3 years of growth. Helen is currently a trustee on the Wigan Youth Zone Board. Prior to this she was Operations Director at a Groundwork Trust leading the Community, Youth and Education teams. She is a qualified youth worker and has been a practitioner in youth work and community development in Manchester and Salford.

Kaz brings a depth of research experience from previous roles as the Director of the Centre for Research in Health and Society at the University of Cumbria and Head of Research at Brathay Trust. Kaz is well-grounded in work with young people, having been a practitioner and manager in primary, secondary and special education, as well as social care, youth work, and outdoor education. These experiences fuel her passion for high quality services enabling young people to flourish.

Kaz specialises in impact measurement methodologies that are equitable and meaningful to young people and the organisations that serve them.

Kaz will be leading on the development of the College’s organisational strategy, overseeing the growth of our quality and training work, and further extending our communities of practice.

Anna is a passionate, empathic individual with an ability to lead agile innovation programmes that result in positive social impact. Empowering young people has been at the heart of Anna's career, from her work at the GLA, London 2012, and CABE. Last summer, Anna was selected for the prestigious Clore Experienced Leadership course, and received 360 Feedback, where she received top marks as an Empowering Enabler, a Courageous Changemaker, and a Focused Strategist. Before joining the College, Anna was a Senior Associate with Collaborate CIC and a Senior Relationship Manager (Combined Arts and Dance). Prior to that Anna was the Head of Y Lab (Nesta's public service innovation lab for Wales), where she led the design and delivery of major programmes.

As our Head of Engagement, Anna will be supporting us to engage with partners and young people in order to ensure our work is meaningful, relevant and useful to youth provision and settings.

Prior to this role, Simon worked for YMCA George Williams College for 20 years developing, managing, and delivering professional training, and working with students and organisations across the youth and community sector. Simon’s background in the philosophy of education and youth work has been a strong influence in his writing and research, and continues to drive his commitment to values-centric practice. In his role as Head of Education, Simon will be developing training programmes, resources and support packages, designed to support quality practice, with a particular focus on socio-emotional development in young people.

Outside of work, Simon is a keen tennis player whose aspirations far outweigh his natural ability. He is also a gigging keyboard player working with several local bands and recording artists.

Liz is an experienced interim with senior leadership experience across the UK social sector. She has led programmes for organisations including Clore Social Leadership, Bond, and Youth Business International, where she led evaluation and research to understand the impact of quality mentoring, training and support for young people setting up businesses across 53 countries.

Liz will be leading on the College’s portfolio of research and evaluation projects and providing support to the team and organisation as a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Outside of the College she works as a leadership facilitator and coach, and in her spare time is often to be found on her allotment.

Passionate about positive change through youth work and non-formal/informal learning, Tim has over 20-years experience in senior management and leadership; including frontline detached work as well as Alternative, Post-16 and Primary education, crediting much of his success to the benefits that come from collaborative networks.

Previously a specialist in youth accreditation and with a view towards supporting those disadvantaged and facing social exclusion, Tim will oversee and grow our Regional Impact Network through partnership working, helping the sector to demonstrate and embed impact improvement through an accessible package of resources and training with sustainability at its core.

It doesn’t take long to find out that Tim loves bouldering/climbing, music and a strong black coffee!

Vin joined our Senior Leadership Team as Head of Operations in August 2022, a new post created to aid the operational running of the organisation. 

Vin brings expertise in operational management and strategy, having spent many years aiding the growth of several start-up businesses and consulting in business and digital transformation. He will be leading on operational strategy and performance, as well as championing continuous improvement of the charity’s operational practices.

Vin currently sits on both the Nominations Committee and Members and Appeals Committee for Amnesty International UK, and has spent many years volunteering in roles supporting homelessness prevention, human rights activism, refugees, grant funding, and as a business mentor for the Princes Trust. 

Prior to this role, Catherine has worked in youth social action at Student Hubs, most recently leading on the organisation’s people and culture, programmes, and impact work.

In her work as Programme Manager, she oversees delivery of our 12 month improvement programme for youth organisations, ensuring all organisations are well supported through their journey and working closely with the College to bring together learning on best practice. Catherine is particularly interested in how we learn and share across networks, and how the sector can support both individuals and teams to thrive and create impact through meaningful activities.

Outside of work, Catherine enjoys running and boxing, borrowing other people’s dogs, and helping to organise live, intimate gigs in the local community.

Hannah is responsible for our day to day comms activity and leads on strategic comms planning for external projects.

With a background in PR, media relations and digital comms spanning over six years across the charity, arts and tech sectors, Hannah specialises in audience and engagement, helping nascent and mid-sized organisations create and deliver impactful campaigns, and strengthen their online and public profiles. She has also led and executed comms and media strategies for high profile events and figures, including influencers, government officials and Royal households. Outside of work, Hannah is a keen playwright and writer, previously holding a three-year residency at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

Previously, Josef worked in the further education sector and was responsible for support provision for learners with disabilities, mental health difficulties, and learning differences as well as students with welfare and safeguarding concerns. Understanding the critical role that high quality data plays in planning, delivery and evaluation led Josef to roles in data analysis, web application development, and data modelling in the UK and Europe.
 
Josef’s role at the College is to assist the team to efficiently collect, analyse and model its data in order to draw meaningful insights that can inform research and practice development. Josef is also working on web applications that will share insights with the College’s partners in a collaborative manner.
 
Josef is a keen walker and will happily climb mountains if placed before him. Passionate about the role of science in the environment, computation and politics, Josef will read and watch anything that provides new information and insights in this landscape.

Sarah leads on the College's research projects involving qualitative research design and analysis. She brings experience of research and evaluation through previous experience in non-profits and a recently completed MSc. She strongly believes in the power of participatory and co-produced research approaches and is passionate about pursuing equity.

In her spare time, you can find Sarah out on her bike, with family and friends, knitting, reading a good novel, or planning her next holiday.

Soizic is an entrepreneur expert and project manager with extensive experience and a passion for making a difference through transformative learning experiences, diversity and inclusion endeavours, and impactful entrepreneurship.

She has led an array of programmes, roles, and events from the capital of the United States to the jungle of Panama, and has taught enterprise development to American MBA students in South Korea, to Brazilian students in the USA, and to many more throughout Central and South America. She has also done research in Ecuador, Tunisia and the EMEA region, and helped cross-sector and corporate partnerships grow in the UK.

Prior to this, Jo’s love of research led her to completing a Ph.D in youth experiences of outdoor education (the option to conduct research whilst canoeing and camping was an attraction too). Jo has developed her knowledge of the youth sector through working for the Outward Bound Trust, and also currently teaches human geography at Loughborough University.
 
Jo supports the College’s research and insight activity, working across our portfolio of projects to analyse and communicate the data we collect. Jo is particularly interested in understanding how young people experience and access youth services and how we can use research to centralise youth voices in the development and implementation of youth provision.
 
When not at work, Jo can usually be found running… everywhere. She doesn’t like to spend too much time sitting down

Maneesha provides operational support to the College's growing team and is EA to the Centre's CEO, Bethia McNeil. Maneesha's background is in project and programme delivery across the charity sector. In her spare time, she can be found creating tapestries, oil painting and spending quality time with family and friends

Ryan is responsible for providing administrative and operational support across the College.

Ryan’s interest in history led to him completing a master’s in the subject. Since then, he has worked in an operational and administrative capacity for a number of museums and non-profits across the UK and Canada.

Outside of work, Ryan enjoys visiting historical buildings and places (preferably ones he can bring his dog to) and attending sporting events and concerts.

Annie is a highly experienced project manager with over five years experience in developing and delivering innovative educational and outreach programmes for young people in multiple sectors. Aside from her project management work, Annie is a researcher, peer-reviewed writer and public speaker. She is currently undertaking a fully funded PhD in Psychosocial Studies, investigating the impact of migration and economic policy on political consciousness around race.

As Project Manager, Annie supports the delivery of the Data Ecosystem Partnership between the College, UK Youth, the National Youth Agency and the Network of Regional Youth Work Units to build the capacity of the sector to gather and collate impact and evaluation data which improves the quality of provision to young people across the country.

Outside of work, Annie can be found with her head buried in dispatches from the 20th Century movements for liberation or playing the bubble game with her very active toddler. She loves exploring concepts of freedom and hosting lively dinner parties.

Zunaira joined the College in September 2021, with a background in social sciences research and a particular interest in social mobility through education.

Zunaira supports our Organisational Research Lead and assists on College-wide research projects. Prior to joining us, Zunaira was involved with grassroots charity 'IntoUniversity' as part of their mentor programme and worked alongside her university as a widening participation ambassador. 

Erin assists our Communications and Partnerships teams, supporting our day to day comms and marketing function at the College, as well as providing support to grow and nurture our partnerships across our networks and the sector.

Erin joined the College following the completion of her master’s degree in International Development at the University of Birmingham where she took a particular interest in inclusive development and post-conflict reconstruction. Prior to joining Erin also volunteered for her university’s ‘Action Against Homelessness’ society where she helped fundraise and campaign against homelessness in Birmingham. 

Outside of work, Erin is a big movie fanatic and also enjoys swimming, experimenting in the kitchen, and watching football. 

Louisa was previously Head of Consultancy at Renaisi. She oversaw the Consultancy team’s portfolio of projects working with a diverse range of clients including Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn, the National Lottery Community Fund, Impact on Urban Health, Barnardo’s and Defra.

Louisa’s expertise is in qualitative methods, working with diverse groups of participants from service users to senior managers in organisations. She has supported organisations of all shapes and sizes to develop their evaluation capacity and embed learning in their day-to-day operations.

Earlier in her career, Louisa worked for the Office of Public Management, the Local Government Association and The Young Foundation. She has a PhD in social policy that examined contested youth work policy agendas and was part funded by the National Youth Agency.  

Outside of work, Louisa can mostly be found on her bicycle, by the coast or up a mountain.

As a teenager, Tom was actively involved in child rights and youth work organisations and he has a long history of engagement in the youth sector domestically and globally. He is an experienced freelance consultant working with organisations leading research and evaluation projects; wider capacity development and training; and providing interim leadership. He focuses his work on child rights, youth participation; equity, diversity and inclusion; and safeguarding.He has previously Interim Executive Director at the Centre for Youth Impact and an associate of YMCA George Williams College. He has worked for the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and was previously Deputy CEO at Y Care International, the international development agency of the YMCA in the UK & Ireland. He holds a PgDip Educational and Social Research Methods from the Institute of Education.Outside of work, Tom spends most of his time with friends eating and drinking with a pretence of theatre, film, clubbing and the occasional country walk.