Our staff

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.

 

Lynsey is admin for Professional Development Services and works to assist with international projects and provide support for the many learning and development opportunities available at CELCIS. She brings her experience from her various administration roles in the education sector which has developed an appreciation of lifelong learning. Away from work, Lynsey is happiest when spending time with her family and friends.

 

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.

 

 

Kirsty is CELCIS' resident legal eagle. She comes from a local authority and government background where she specialised in looked after children, child protection, and permanence, both in practice and in policy. She helped to deliver, and latterly led on, the PACE Programme which supported Councils and their partners to make improvements to the processes they use to secure permanent homes for looked after children. She was also part of the CELCIS team that produced the 'Staying Together and Connected' guidance to support the rights of brothers and sisters for the Scottish Government. 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.

 

 

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.

 

Leanne comes from a background in education and health services research and evaluation. She was awarded the PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2016, for her research on educational farm visits for primary school children. Leanne is part of the Evidence and Innovation Hub at CELCIS. Outside of work, she enjoys attending gigs and science fiction conventions, and often travels around the UK for these.

 

Cat is a Project Coordinator working across different areas of work in CELCIS. She supports programme governance as well as helps to coordinate projects such as the PACE Collaborative, and the CYC-Net 2021 Conference. In her free time Cat enjoys making all sorts at her pottery club.

 

With a background in applied social research, higher education strategic planning and performance monitoring, and social work information system implementation, Micky is our resident Data Analyst. Never shy of a mental or physical challenge, he enjoys grappling with data-related issues faced by CELCIS and partner organisations as we seek to evidence improvement. A committed all-weather cyclist, Micky also loves to island hop by sea kayak and endurance running.

 

Lesley is all things comms at CELCIS. She's our brand advisor, puts together our marketing campaigns, and writes content for our own Reach magazine and other publications. As well as broadcasting our great work to the outside world and to our own staff, Lesley also keeps CELCIS up to speed with developments in the sector.

 

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.

 

Based in the Improving Protection and Permanence Team, Lisa provides the all-important admin support required to keep CELCIS's Protecting Children Team ticking over smoothly. Lisa is also the Secretariat Support for Child Protection Committees Scotland. Despite her youth, Lisa's a Strathclyde University veteran, going all the way from apprenticeship to ILM leadership training and likes to say that she's a leader-in-waiting. As a plate-spinning working mum, free time is scarce, but Lisa likes to let her hair down whenever opportunity arises.

 

 

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.

 

Robert is a psychology turned legal researcher. He provides evaluation and research to the Permanence and Care Team, as well as working on other social research projects for CELCIS. Due to defend his PhD in law soon, Robert enjoys doing applied research in environments with a real-world impact. Outside of work, Robert runs the Bantuan Coffee Foundation.

 

As a social worker, family support manager and team leader, Linda is passionate about the practical application of child development and early year's research in supporting our understanding and decision making for children. Linda loves gardening, growing her own food and making preserves to share with family and friends.

 

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.