Our staff

To Come

 

Working closely with members of the Strategic Management Team, Laura provides the all-important PA and administrative support required to keep the team running smoothly. Laura first joined the Strathclyde family at the age of 16 as a Modern Apprentice and since then has completed an SVQ level 4 in Business and Administration and ILM level 3 in Leadership and Management. As a new mum Laura spends her free time with her family and friends.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Mihaela came to work in Scotland via her homeland of Romania, and Vienna, and she brings a decade's experience working on policy and research projects with Save the Children and the Agency for Fundamental Rights. At CELCIS she will support the Neglect Programme by developing effective data and empirical evidence systems to measure progress. She's been blown away by the friendliness of Glaswegians, and cant wait to explore more of Scotland, but she won't be inviting new friends for dinner - she literally can't boil an egg.

 

Katie has a great head for numbers. She keeps CELCIS right on the money with important financial, HR and contractual stuff. One of her most critical roles is to keep the staff up to speed with the dreaded Financial Management System. After bringing up five children, Katie has finally found some time for herself and uses it mainly for yoga and running. She's already completed the Berlin Half Marathon and is hatching plans to add swimming to her impressive activity repertoire.

 

Emma uses the analytical skills she developed as a criminology student in the wide range of large exploratory research projects, and specific service and programme evaluations CELCIS is involved in. She enjoys working alongside all kinds of professionals to evidence and showcase good practice for looked after children and young people. She loves to travel and escapes to foreign lands as much as she can.

 

Halima has recently taken up the post of Contracts and Compliance Advisor. By way of background, Halima is a qualified solicitor, with a background in litigation. After qualifying from her traineeship, Halima went on to work in private practice before moving In House. Most recently Halima was working as a Lawyer at the Scottish Government before joining CELCIS. Halima is the ‘Go to’ for all things Data Protection/GDPR and Contracts. Outside of work Halima is a keen sewist, designing and sewing a range of clothes and accessories.

 

Miriana has studied political science, international relations and European affairs (in Italy, Germany and the UK). Based in Brussels for the past 16 years, and worked in policy, project and resource management for organisations at European and global level. Miriana has professional experience which includes 10 years of work on care and support for vulnerable groups, including developing and influencing the European policy framework and funding for child rights and reform of child protection systems.

 

Kenny works with corporate parents and other partners at local authority and national levels to provide bespoke consultancy, training and expert support to improve services and outcomes for care leavers, He's passionate about closing the implementation gap between policy and practice, and offers a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience gained over many years as a practitioner, manager and trainer. Away from work, he's equally passionate about hitting golf balls, watching rugby and strumming guitars.

 

Emma has worked as a speech and language therapist for many years, specialising in autism. She has worked as a Speechie in a range of contexts, from the big blue skies of remote and regional Australia to a vibrant inner city Manchester. More recently, she was involved in the implementation of the Scottish Strategy for Autism, sitting on the National Governance Group. She currently works as part of the Protecting Children Programme team and is enjoying applying Active Implementation methodology to support whole systems change, in order to address neglect and enhance wellbeing. Emma enjoys going for a good stomp and discovering new bands at local venues.

 

Moyra worked for many years as a social worker, residential practitioner and manager, and in therapeutic work with traumatised children and their families. Her research interests include using creative approaches to hear the voices of disabled and looked after children. Since 2005, Moyra has worked along with survivors of institutional abuse and other stakeholders to develop and implement An Action Plan on Justice for Victims of Historical Abuse of Children in Care. In 2018 she gained a PhD on exploring the narratives of survivors of historical institutional abuse. More recently she has worked as a music therapist, and is the CELCIS songbird. Moyra enjoys tap dancing, music, gardening and backpacking.

 

Kirsty is CELCIS' resident legal eagle. She comes from a local authority and government background where she specialised in looked after children and permanence, both in practice and in policy. She is helping to deliver the PACE Programme which supports Councils and their partners to make improvements to the processes they use to secure permanent homes for looked after children. A big am dram fan, Kirsty's appeared on stage in the Edinburgh Festival and in musicals. She can act and sing a wee bit, but says please don't ask her to dance.