About us Meet the team Meet the Team Alice Wallace Director Alice has had a leading role with LGBT* organisations, community development, grants administration, mental health and public health. She has worked for voluntary and statutory organisations and freelance, as volunteer through to senior manager. Her role is to develop Opening Doors London to ensure that it is a vibrant organisation meeting the needs of the LGBT* community. Dr Chryssy Hunter Volunteer Coordinator [email protected] Chryssy coordinates our extensive volunteering activity – everything from supporting the team identify new opportunities to recruiting and inducting new volunteers into the organisation. She is a published author in the LGBTQ+ field and holds a PhD on the Equality Act. She has managed teacher trainings projects in North Korea and Libya, and is a board member of TAGS [a swimming group for trans and gender nonconforming people] and Gendered Intelligence, and is a member of the Bent Bars Collective. Fabricio Catroppa Befriending Support Officer [email protected] Fabricio works part time as a Befriending Support Officer supporting the LGBT* community. He has more than 10 years' experience working on a variety of community projects recruiting, supervising, training and managing volunteers working on befriending, mentoring and advice & guidance projects. He loves gardening and walking his dog in the countryside. Juliet Chard Member services Coordinator [email protected] Juliet is our Member Services Coordinator, working to coordinate our extensive member activities and events and signpost services. She has worked in LGBTQ+ campaigning for the last 3 years. She is also a passionate cyclist and volunteers at London Bike Kitchen’s women and gender variant night, supporting people to learn how to fix their own bike. Adrian Beaumont Member Services Manager and LGBT+ Connect Coordinator [email protected] Adrian is our Member Services Manager and LGBTQ+ Connect Coordinator ensuring delivery of a range of programmes for members as well as focussing on comms and marketing and website services. He has a background in LGBTQ+ campaigning, facilitating, training, sexual health and wellbeing services for older people and has worked extensively in the public and charity sectors as well as freelance. He loves gardening, cooking and travelling. Jim Glennon Training and Policy Coordinator [email protected] Jim joins ODL following twenty years’ experience in the development of health and social care training and consultancy at a local, regional and national level, including work with several leading LGBT* organisations. He has also worked as policy advisor to Volunteer Centre Kensington and Chelsea and chaired Policy Group meetings of the Government funded Community Development Foundation. His role will be to develop the training and consultancy area of ODL, and to support our Ambassadors in representing ODL at external meetings. Louise Carolin Training & Consultancy Team Administrator [email protected] Louise supports Jim to deliver ODL's training and consultancy programme. She has a background in LGBT* journalism and has worked on well-known titles including Diva and The Pink Paper. Louise also volunteers for ODL as a group facilitator. Sessional Workers We are delighted to have a growing team of sessional workers who work alongside the Member Services Team with varying specialisms including the many aspects of Dementia, older LGBT+ BAME communities and older trans and non-binary communities. Trustees and Patrons We are delighted to have the support of a team of Trustees and Patron who use their skills and experience to help steer Opening Doors London towards continuing success. Board of Trustees Professor Jeffrey Weeks Chair Jeffrey is Emeritus Professor of sociology at London South Bank University and a published author on LGBT* history, politics and sexuality. Annie Southerst Vice-Chair Annie is an Opening Doors London Ambassador and had a career in mental health and physiotherapy. She has also been a trustee and worked for other LGBT* organisations. Julia Shelley Treasurer Julia has had a long career in voluntary sector leadership and was CEO of Age UK Lambeth. She has also been a trustee of other LGBT* organisations. Councillor Rishi Madlani Trustee Rishi is a banker with Royal Bank of Scotland and Chair of its LGBT* staff network. He is also a Camden Councillor and Chair of the Pensions Committee. Janet Guthrie Trustee Janet is a retired social work and sociology lecturer and former Camden councillor. She is Chair of Age UK Camden and a trustee of other charities. Marika Freris Trustee Marika has had a long career as a scientist, researcher and has recently retired from the Healthcare communications business, following 28 years running healthcare comms agencies and latterly setting up her own agency. She is a volunteer in and trustee of Age UK Camden. Tony Jackson Trustee Tony is an executive coach & organisational consultant who runs his own company Chelsham Consulting. He formerly held HR leadership positions in a variety of blue-chip corporates and at Macmillan Cancer Support. Liz Barker Patron Liz is a working peer (Lib Dem), and used to work for Age Concern England where she pioneered national work around LGBT* older people. Lord Chris Smith has generously agreed to be one of our new ODL patrons. Lord Smith began his political career as a Labour Councillor for Islington Borough, becoming MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 1983. The following year he came out as the first ever openly gay MP and when Labour came to power in 1997 he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Chairman of the Millennium Commission, the first openly gay Cabinet Minister anywhere.