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. Alice 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. Adrian Beaumont Operations and Comms Manager [email protected] Adrian has operational control for the delivery of a range of services and programmes for members, the befriending and telefriending team, volunteer team and also ODL's comms and marketing team. Their background is in LGBTQ+ campaigning, as director of national and regional operational service delivery programmes within sexual health and HIV and wellbeing services and MSM research projects. They are a qualified counsellor, have run their own businesses and have worked extensively in the public and third sector. Dr Chryssy Hunter Volunteer Coordinator [email protected] Chryssy coordinates our extensive volunteering activities – everything from supporting the team identify new opportunities to recruiting and inducting new volunteers into the organisation. Chryssy 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. Ian has just started with ODL, an image will be posted soon! Ian McGeough Community Engagement Coordinator Ian leads the coordination and delivery of all our member engagement activities and events including our digital and health and wellbeing programmes and specialised services. an image will be here soon! Meghan Herring Befriending Coordinator Meg leads and coordinates our befriending and telefriending services. Meg is also ODL's safeguarding lead. Fabricio Catroppa Befriending Support Officer [email protected] Fabricio is our 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. Bernadette Latour ODL Administrator Bernadette ensures our members, volunteers and staff are kept informed and supported and is responsible for updates to members, data reporting, liaising with various stakeholders and supporting the operational delivery of services across member engagement and volunteer services. 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. Bella Normark Communications Officer [email protected] Bella has a background in independent publishing and advocacy, working with a wide range of both analogue and digital media. In their spare time they enjoy gardening and trying their hand at new creative practices. Sessional Workers We are delighted to have a team of sessional workers who work alongside the Member Services Team with varying specialisms including the many aspects of Dementia, LGBT+ BAME/PoC communities and 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 Julia Shelley Chair 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. Annie Southerst Co 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. Councillor Rishi Madlani Co Vice-Chair 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. Gemma Keenan Treasurer Gemma has had a long career in banking and currently holds a leadership role in Business Risk at Lloyd’s Banking Group. She is Chair of a Divisional LGBT+ staff network. Hitesh Tailor Trustee Hitesh is a Chartered Accountant and has served on the Boards of a number of not for profit organisations including Deputy Chair of the Audit Committee at Age UK. Paul Williamson Trustee Paul has worked in health and social care services for over 25 years in various roles as a consultant, in central government and non-governmental public bodies. He currently works in the intelligence directorate for the Care Quality Commission, the national regulator for health and social care. He has previously worked as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Department of Health and Social Care responding to the public inquiry into the events at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. 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 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.