The TCDS Team
I’m an Ashoka Fellow, and hold a doctorate degree from the University of Plymouth and two honorary doctorates from the University of the West of England and the University of Namur. In 2020 I was a member of the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Sustainable Behaviour Change. I’m a keen gardener, a founder of New Lion Brewery in Totnes, and have been a director of Totnes Community Development Society since its creation. Atmos Totnes is the most impactful and transformative project I’ve ever been part of, and I am committed to making sure it happens. In my spare time I make lino prints and I just was part of my first exhibition.



I am a trained Adviser for the Citizens Advice South Hams, this has enabled me to better understand the real challenges that people in our community have to cope with, ranging from housing conditions and need, managing on low incomes, employment
issues and health matters especially living with disabilities.
I have also engaged with groups in our community addressing issues of the street and homeless persons and working towards better support and provision for our youth community. I have supported at our
Totnes Connection Hub providing advice and support through the food bank, in support clients who are homeless or ‘outside’ of the system. Also, in the past year I have been working with others to re-establish support for those affected by domestic abuse and violence in our community, we are now providing a range of help including one to one and group support.
I joined Totnes Community Development Society as a Member in 2016 as the Atmos referendum was taking shape. This event opened my mind to the concept of the community taking control of development for the benefit of the community. Seeking to facilitate provision of what a community really wants and the generation of income from such projects being kept in the community. I believe in ‘putting in’ and enjoyed joining other TCDS Members in the Golden Iris project (Elmhirst site) where we brought that building back into temporary use for the benefit of the town. I have a real connection to the Mansion
in Fore Street and want to see the planned project to bring it back into life for our community delivered. When recently invited to join the Directors of TCDS my acceptance was without hesitation as I feel we as a community need a society that is more than just business, society for me is about its people. Totnes is a rich cultural community and needs to bring into being spaces for our cultures to breathe.

I moved to Totnes with Ian and our three children in 2019 having regularly camped and ‘campervan’ed throughout Devon. I admired the work of TCDS from afar before I moved here and feel hugely privileged to be part of a community so active and engaged in social change.