Wellbeing at Work for Charities - Speakers

George joined DSC at the beginning of 2017 and, having previously led the sales and customer service teams, moved into training at the start of 2020.



He trains in Management & Leadership, Fundraising, Personal Development, Project Management and Wellbeing. He has extensive experience in helping organisations make positive changes to how they approach social change.



He is also qualified as a Mental Health First Aider, with additional time spent studying Psychosis. The favourite part of his role is knowing that the work DSC performs has a major impact on both the charities and individuals that we are able to serve.

Alison Dunn is a former solicitor, a social justice activist, Chair of Trustees for VONNE, the host of the podcast series This is the North and the Chief Executive of the Society Matters Group.

The Society Matters Group consists of advice and guidance direct to citizens through our charity Citizens Advice Gateshead and includes the work of our community interest company Society Matters, which campaigns and influences decision makers who operate the systems which impact the lives of our citizens.

In 2023/2024 we supported 20,000 people through our direct advice service, generating £27.3m of financial gains for our local economy. Further, we supported more than 40 employers across the North East to develop strategies and ways of working to ease the impact of the cost of living crisis, benefitting a combined workforce of 40,000 employees across our region.

Cathy has been at DSC for 20 years, in a variety of roles. With over 30 years of experience in learning and organisational development, Cathy continues to ensure our customers have the best resources to carry out their work and help their beneficiaries.

Cathy regularly works with Chairs, Trustees and Boards, supporting them with board development, effectiveness and trustee relationships. She is particularly helpful in facilitating Board Review using the Governance App and the Code of Governance.

The best thing for Cathy about working with DSC is knowing that the quality of products and services we provide to charities makes a difference on the front line.

I'm Sue Lewis, People Experience Specialist at British Red Cross, toddler mum and budding stand-up comedian!

In my 10th year at the British Red Cross, my work has been pivotal in driving a purposeful cultural transformation, leveraging strategic communications and championing user-centred design. In my current role, my focus is on fostering continuous improvement through data-driven insights to benefit the experience and wellbeing of our people.

In the wellbeing space, I lead on measuring wellbeing across the organisation, using the resulting qualitative and quantitative data to build awareness and drive action and progress. I am currently co-delivering the four day working week pilot and am leading on the evaluation of this bold and polarising trial.

My core mission aligns with the organisation's values of courage, dynamism, compassion and inclusion, aiming to empower our teams to deliver impactful humanitarian work. Through our collective efforts, we strive to create a resilient, engaged community that upholds the principles of the British Red Cross.

Debra has worked in the charitable and voluntary sector for nearly 40 years with brief forays into the private sector.

Amongst numerous other roles, she is Co-Chair of the Soldiering on Awards. She is a Trustee of In Kind Direct, one of the Prince's Foundation Charities, a governor of the Berkshire NHS Community Foundation Trust, a Commissioner on the Local News Commission of the Public Interest News Foundation, and just recently stood down as trustee of the Berkshire Community Foundation.

She is also an Africa Advocacy Foundation Ambassador for women and girls at risk of or affected by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Debra has served as a trustee of several charities including being the co-founder of the Small Charities Coalition and was its first Chair. She served on the Charity Commission's SORP committee for over 7 years and was the Vice-Chair of Governors of Whiteknights primary school for 6 years.

She is a renowned public speaker with many years' experience of training and coaching and is an internationally published author of several books on management and leadership including It's Tough at the Top; The Pleasure and the Pain; It's Murder in Management and It's a Battle on the Board. Debra has a regular monthly column in Third Sector magazine and has appeared on Radio 4's The Moral Maze.

Debra is an alumna of Windsor Leadership having participated on the Strategic Leaders Consultation.

Eileen joined DSC in January 2018, and having worked within the commercial teams in charities and social enterprises brought a wealth of experience of generating income and delivering high quality services into the DSC Sales team.

Eileen’s many years’ experience as a trainer in both the commercial and 3rd sectors was then employed as she became a member of the Training team, designing, updating, producing, retailing and delivering courses and workshops.

Eileen enjoys being part of a team that is genuine, professional and totally committed to building sustainable charities with well trained, confident trustees, employees and volunteers.

Mike Podmore has over two decades of experience in securing policy and funding impact on HIV, health and human rights through advocacy for individual organisations and across consortia at global, regional and national levels.

Since 2015 he has been CEO of STOPAIDS, the network of all UK NGOs working on the global HIV response. He led STOPAIDS to became the first charity in the UK to introduce the 4-day week in 2019 and grounded all STOPAIDS work in an Anti-oppression Framework in 2021.

He is on the Steering Committee of Action For Global Health UK (of which STOPAIDS is organisational host). He is also a co-founder and steering group member of the Digital Health Rights Project, a global consortium working for digital literacy, empowerment and human rights.

He co-leads (alongside GFAN, WACI health and GNP+) the Inclusive Global Health Institutions Project, a consortium working to make global health governance more inclusive. He is a Board Trustee of WACI Health and of Stamp Out Poverty.

Harry is the Executive Office Manager at DSC and he is responsible for personnel at DSC, which includes leading the internal wellbeing team.

He also manages the executive office and the board of trustees. He is also the Company Secretary and leads on HR policy and procedures at DSC.

Kalli joined DSC in May 2023 and is part of the Research Team.

She studied Languages and Politics at the University of Nottingham, before doing a Masters in Gender and International Development at the University of Warwick.

Her favourite part about being a member of the DSC team is engaging with charities' important work and helping support their independence by working on DSC’s fundraising guides like DGMT and Major Trusts.

She is also an active member of DSC’s internal wellbeing team, which regularly meets to discuss wellbeing concerns and new initiatives to promote better wellbeing. In 2024, she helped produce the organisation’s annual wellbeing report.

Outside of DSC, she gets involved with Women Beyond Walls, a platform that aims to influence policymaking and discourse surrounding the incarceration of women and girls. She also loves gardening and nature!

Jessica joined DSC in August 2019 and works on DSC’s funding website and guides.

Jessica’s favourite thing about working at DSC is being able to help highlight the amazing work done by charities across the UK.

Amber-Rose Knight is a Level 7 qualified People Operations Lead with a passion for all things wellbeing.

Currently working at Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), Amber-Rose has spent the past three years leading people initiatives in a standalone role, helping to shape a positive and supportive organisational culture. Soon, she will be stepping into a new role as Head of People & Culture at Hunter & Gather, continuing to drive impactful change in the workplace.

A Chartered Member of the CIPD, Amber-Rose is also the co-founder of Beyond Domestication, an organisation dedicated to helping individuals and organisations to rewild their wellbeing through the Seven Practices—food, water, air, sunlight, movement, mindfulness, and sleep. As a certified Oxygen Advantage functional breathwork coach, she integrates breathwork into her approach, supporting individuals in harnessing the power of breath to enhance wellbeing, resilience, and performance.

With a strong belief in the power of holistic wellbeing, Amber-Rose is committed to fostering healthier, happier workplaces where people can truly thrive.

In this keynote session, she will share insights into CALM’s wellbeing journey—what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons learned along the way. Join Amber-Rose to explore practical approaches to creating a wellbeing-focused culture that not only supports employees but also enhances organisational success.

Claire is the Roffey Institute and Management Centre-trained charity wellbeing, culture and leadership specialist.. After spending 19 years in Fundraising and Charity Senior Leadership roles, Claire had to take an unscheduled career break in 2016/17 to battle breast cancer.

On returning to work facing ongoing side effects from treatment, Claire 'pivoted' and pursued her passion project - the wellbeing of charity sector people.

Claire's wellbeing-focussed work is now 6 years old and in that time she’s had the privilege of working with some amazing organisations, teams and individuals, helping them to 'lift' culture, cohesion & effectiveness, management skill & confidence, and wellbeing. She's also just repeated the Charity Well research project into the wellbeing of those working in the charity sector. The findings will be available from June 2025.

In 2020 Claire won the Social CEOs 'Best Digital Leader' award, and in 2021, Claire was named one of Charity Times' "Pandemic Pioneers", both for her sector culture & wellbeing work
Claire lives on top of a hill in Lancashire with her husband, their 2 daughters, 2 horses and Rowan the dog.