Our staff

Joanne is a qualified children and families' social worker with 25 years' experience in a wide range of local authority, voluntary and policy roles. Joanne heads up the Improving Care Experiences team at CELCIS which has a particular focus on core practice, assessment, planning and review for our looked after children. Joanne believes if you care, support, and carefully challenge people you will get the absolute best from them. Her growth and nurture agenda extends to the care she bestows on her beloved garden.

 

Having spent over twenty years working for national newspapers, I now work in the CELCIS Comms department, looking after the website, social media and producing digital content.

 

Throughout Steven's career he has worked in organisations that support children and young people to improve their experiences and life opportunities. At CELCIS, he leads business development, financial planning and HR to ensure effective and efficient delivery of all of our services. As a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and former graphic designer, Steven combines practical and creative approaches to problem solving. Steven also delivers inputs as a guest speaker on Leading Change, including partnerships with HR, at other UK Universities.

 

Being passionate about the use of evidence in policy and practice, Fiona's focus is to explore and support how we as an organisation use evidence in its own practice and to evaluate the effectiveness of our work. She leads the research team to work closely with colleagues and partners to generate learning about how we can improve and to be accountable for the impact that we have. Away from work Fiona is a keen cyclist and is often to be found touring the length and breadth of the UK.

 

To Come

 

Caren is a qualified social worker and worked in children and families for many years as a practitioner and manager before moving to work in senior strategic roles across Child Protection, Public Protection and Children’s Services. As chair of the National Child Protection Lead Officers Group, Caren worked alongside colleagues in driving key changes and is author / contributor of several national publications including the National Guidance for Child Protection Committees Undertaking Learning Reviews in Scotland (2021). Caren has never lost sight of the importance of family support and her unstinted passion to keep infants, children, and young people at the centre of her work in ensuring they have a voice. The theatre, gardening and hillwalking bring peace and time for reflection.   

 

After completing a PhD in Statistics, Joanna spent several years working with children and young people in a community outreach setting. She is now marrying these two interests through her role as a Data Analyst at CELCIS, where she is primarily focused on researching outcomes for children and young people growing up in kinship care. Outside of work, Joanna is happiest when riding her bike, climbing a hill or splashing in puddles with her little ones.

 

In her role on the senior management team Kathleen takes a 360' view of CELCIS's work. Her focus is all about supporting strategic and successful delivery of CELCIS's work with its partners, by assessing how that work is communicated and implemented. Kathleen brings long experience in knowledge and information exchange and remains passionate about how evidence is best used in practice. She's a self-confessed yoga fanatic, its what she does to stay sane and balanced. A trained dancer, she occasionally finds time to trip the light fantastic.

 

Working closely with the Admin Team Manager, Claire is responsible for leading the successful delivery of CELCIS' administrative support activities, across the organisation. Managing administrators as part of a dynamic, responsive team, Claire drives forward the continuous improvement of CELCIS' environment and processes in line with the needs of the organisation. Claire is also responsible for the co-ordination of all CELCIS' recruitment activity. When not at CELCIS, Claire enjoys attending gigs, walking her dog and weekends away with friends - especially in the East Neuk.

 

 

Sarah is a former Academic Skills Lecturer and Academic Advisor who discovered a passion for online education. She oversees and promotes our online learning options on offer, options which include our unique distance learning 'MSc in Child and Youth Care Studies', our 'Caring for Vulnerable Children' MOOC, and our many learning opportunities for the sector. Sarah moved to Scotland from Australia in 2014 and loves the cool weather and beautiful scenery.

 

Carolann has a truly analytical mind. She uses her logical, numerical skills to produce easily accessible data and visuals as baseline to improve systems supporting vulnerable children. Every point on one of her graphs represents a real child, on his or her journey towards a permanent home. Carolann applies her analytical mind and sense of order to everything, including the kitchen sink. Every item on her desk and in her wardrobe is lined up in perfect order, and she simply doesn't do crossed lines on her data charts.

 

As a trained social worker who spent many years in children and families services, Marian brings an interdisciplinary approach to her health and wellbeing work for CELCIS. She is especially keen to encourage thinking which recognises the whole child and the interconnectedness of health with a child's other needs. In her partnership work with practitioners and managers, she works towards a collective understanding of how early trauma can affect children, and their ability to learn, grow and thrive through a process of repair and recovery.

 

Sharon joined the CELCIS redress team as a Research Associate to work on the consultation with victims and survivors of historic child abuse in Scotland. Previously, she worked on various university and NHS funded research projects, and on research connected with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry to help chart the development of care services in Scotland between 1900 and 2014. Sharon is also a graduate member of the British Psychological Society with an interest in the psychology of coaching. In her spare time, Sharon can often be found on the side-lines watching her son and husband playing rugby or supporting her national side at Murrayfield or on TV!

 

Social anthropologist Brandi Lee is a research associate in our Evidence and Innovation Hub. With a background in the youth work sector, she is passionate about working alongside public bodies to use research evidence to inform and improve policy and practice. Her work is driven by children and young people's rights, their experiences of services, and sense of identity and belonging. When not working you'll find her outdoors with her wife and child, either walking in the woods or growing food in their garden.

 

With a PhD in applied anthropology and a Masters in Social Work, along with a background in child protection social work and youth justice, Melissa brings her passion for the science and practice of implementation and systems improvement from the USA to Scotland in 2015. She continues to be inspired by Scotland's progressive vision for addressing the unmet needs of children and families and is excited to be building a team of implementation specialists at CELCIS to support local areas to address neglect and enhance wellbeing and to fully and effectively implement GIRFEC.

 

 

Michelle is one half of the CELCIS events team. Her main role is to coordinate and manage our events, seminar and conference programme. Michelle helps us deliver informative, relevant and creative events for anything from 40-400 delegates, covering a wide range of specialist themes for all of those people working in the looked after children's sector. Michelle has an extensive shoe collection, loves a good book, a good chat and good times with her family.

 

 

George provides admin support for the Improving Care Experiences hub at CELCIS and brings several years of experience in similar roles with the Scottish Government, Perth and Kinross Council and Community Safety Glasgow. He has previously worked in video production and is currently studying a Masters in Film Curation. In his spare time he enjoys reading books, going to the cinema and listening to music.