Our staff

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.

 

 

 

Elaine is CHIP Learning and Development Lead at CELCIS.

 

Using principles of co-production to engage people in service design has been a focus of Paul's work across a number of roles, including at the Life Changes Trust, the Prince's Trust, and RBS. At CELCIS, Paul promotes the use of child-centred co-production, participation and engagement work across the sector and internally, and helps to maintain valuable stakeholder relationships. Outside of work Paul enjoys helping people get into music and creativity, despite having no musical talent of his own to speak of!

 

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.

 

Emma is one of the Communications Managers here at CELCIS. She supports colleagues across different areas of work to share what we do through marketing campaigns and a variety of publications, as well as keeping up-to-date with the sector more generally. Outside of work, Emma enjoys keeping active, particularly through martial arts, practicing her German, and spending time with her friends, family, and rescue dog, Winston.

 

Penny supports Permanence and Care Excellence and Health work in CELCIS. She joined the University in 2007 and CELCIS in 2019. Outside work, she is trying to learn French and also likes baking.

 

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.

 

Clare is our master of multi-tasking - she juggles incredible diary-management skills, seamless communications with stakeholders and loads more besides with professionalism and 'eagle-eyed' accuracy. All that and a natural warmth and approachability. If you're looking to chat with Jennifer, you'll likely chat to Clare first. And when Clare isn't multi-tasking in the office, she's looking after her two beautiful children and also designs and creates stunning crystal and silver jewellery.

 

As the Improving Care Experiences team's policy person, Lizzie plays a proactive role supporting CELCIS to influence, shape and set policy to ensure that the needs of looked after and vulnerable children are included where appropriate. Her special area of expertise is Corporate Parenting legislation, an area which complements her background in children and families social work, and work with homeless women. Lizzie lives in a menagerie of dog, cat and husband, and her favourite part of the day is coming home to her hubby's fantastic food.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

Lorraine's been a registered social worker for 25 years, and still is. She's always worked with children and families, either in social work or learning and development settings. She remains a huge fan of the potential power of group work to bring out individual and collective strengths, and for solving problems. A dedicated gig-goer and music lover, Lorraine prefers small, sweaty and sticky-floored venues over gigantic arenas, but she'll go to see her all-time favourite band Admiral Fallow any time, any place.

 

 

Linda has worked in children's services for many years, having worked in both social work and education. The focus of her work has always been about supporting young people and their families to enjoy and benefit from the best educational experiences possible. She's particularly interested in building understanding within schools about how to work well with parents. Away from work, Linda sings and skis, occasionally at the same time, and just loves blustery days at the beach with her niece.

 

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.