Meet the Experts Powering Our Mission

Lisa Young

Research Consultant

Lisa has 15 years’ experience across research and practice with an MSc in Criminology and Social Research Methods (dist) from LSBU. Much of Lisa’s research and evaluation work has focussed on improving support for disadvantaged communities by promoting good practice service delivery and improving access to services. Lisa has expertise in the violence against women and girls (VAWG), homelessness and criminal justice sectors and designs and delivers training on women’s experiences of violence and multiple disadvantage for practitioners across the voluntary and statutory sector.
Prior to becoming a researcher, Lisa managed and delivered front-line services for people who experienced substance misuse, homelessness, violence, involvement in prostitution and the criminal justice system.

Beth Thomas

Research Consultant

Beth is a monitoring and evaluation specialist with several years’ experience working with charities in the UK and abroad. With a background in education, she is passionate about learning and seeking out actionable answers. Beth specialises in helping clients blend quantitative and qualitative data in a pragmatic and insightful way. She has worked at all scales from international FCDO-funded projects to local community-based programmes, and large national charities such as the NSPCC. She has particular experience in child-focused education and safeguarding programmes, but brings the same enthusiasm and curiosity to all areas.

Rose Fawcett

Research Consultant

Rose has over 10 years’ experience across research and monitoring and evaluation. She holds a BSc in Economics and International Development and an MSc in Economics and Econometrics. Rose is experienced in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, but her expertise lies in analysing and communicating data to a variety of audiences.

Rose’s background is in the International Development sector, spending almost four years in Tanzania. This included two years as an ODI Fellow in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, followed by quantitative research positions at the IMF and World Bank.

More recently, Rose worked for Sported, a Sport for Development charity in the UK, enabling them and the organisations within their network to better demonstrate their impact. She then worked for Sport England, within the team analysing the Active Lives national dataset. Rose is passionate about supporting organisations to robustly demonstrate their impact, and is currently working with multiple clients in this space; from identifying appropriate outcomes and measurements tools, to conducting large scale data analysis projects.

Dragos Dragomir

Research Consultant

Dragos is a psychologist with over 15 years’ experience in strategic development, management and evaluation of recovery treatment programmes. He has worked across all three sectors of industry and is particularly interested in how they can combine in creating recovery-oriented systems of care and sustainable frameworks of intervention within the mental health and addiction landscape. This entails a critical analysis of current paradigms, envisioning future trends, and leading initiatives that set new benchmarks. His vision is grounded in uncovering what works best in health and social care interventions, focusing on innovative and impactful evidence-based approaches. He is committed to exploring new frontiers in healthcare through his research and is constantly seeking out projects that allows him to apply creative solutions for complex challenges.

Joanne McGillan

Research Consultant

Joanne is an experienced researcher and evaluator specialising in qualitative
research methods. Her main area of focus is education and skills
development; where she has an extensive knowledge of the landscape and of the
current issues being faced. She has designed, carried out and reported the
findings of a range of research and evaluation projects including the design
and development of standards, qualifications and competency frameworks.

Dr. Gaby Wolferink

Research Consultant

Gaby has over 15 years of experience in the social housing sector. She holds a PhD in social policy and business studies from Loughborough University, focusing on the lived experiences of digital exclusion among those accessing the UK welfare support system.

Gaby's work and research are always people-centred, driven by the belief that true impact requires looking beyond surface-level statistics to uncover the realities of individuals and communities. She is particularly interested in the relationship between people and technology in the workplace, in accessing services, and in finding connections in a distributed world, both professionally and personally. For Gaby, conducting and presenting actionable research is about telling the important stories, not creating isolated, endless slides or pages filled with long sentences and a collection of out-of-date statistics.

Beyond her research, Gaby is an experienced, strategic, and hands-on change manager for digital transformation projects. She has been involved in developing and implementing new systems across social and for-profit organisations, working with up to 30,000 employees worldwide with varying digital skill levels and capabilities.

Saul Stevenson-Dodd

Research Assistant

Saul works for Trust Impact on qualitative research interviews and other research tasks. He is a second-year student at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he is studying sociology. Saul's degree and his work for Trust Impact naturally complement each other, adding value to both elements.

Linda Jackson

Research Consultant

Linda is a highly experienced research and evaluation consultant, having delivered projects for a range of clients across the charity sector including the British Red Cross, Macmillan Cancer Care and the Ramblers. With specific experience of conducting qualitative research with people from vulnerable groups or who have experienced crisis, Linda’s work has explored themes including: personalisation in health and social care; food insecurity; and social isolation and loneliness.

Using theory of change as a framework to measure impact and generate learning, Linda is passionate about putting people with lived experience at the heart of her work. This ensures that her projects measure what matters, for both the client and for the people who access their services.

Lucy Blackley

Research Consultant

Lucy has over 20 years experience of research and evaluation. Lucy has worked in a range of sectors – from the private sector for a top-3 UK publishing house, to the public-sector at the Arts Council, for a university and most recently social enterprise. Lucy is skilled at identifying the important information, presenting it clearly and powerfully, with a strong understanding of what people need to know.

Her impact work has been praised by the Work Foundation and was highly commended at Social Enterprise UK’s annual Social Impact Awards.

Lucy’s work always has a user-focus – she has delivered projects which improve products or services; highlight best practice or demonstrate impact. Lucy ensures that people’s needs (whether those people are customers, beneficiaries or citizens) are placed at the centre of an organisation’s decision-making.

Lucy is a volunteer director at Artmoor Haven - a creativity and wellbeing social enterprise, volunteers at The Art Playground and is a trustee of MoorVision – a charity for children with visual impairments.

Iman Kabani

Data Consultant

Iman specialises in data analytics and governance, helping organisations optimise data collection, visualisation, and reporting. With extensive experience in the ESG and social investment sectors, she has led numerous initiatives to drive data-driven decision-making and impact measurement.

Prior to this, Iman worked as a consultant at EY, where she managed large-scale data projects for FTSE 100 clients. During this time, she developed custom solutions for financial data analysis, social impact reporting, and portfolio management. Her expertise also includes creating sustainable data processes and training teams to implement best practices.

Scott Mitchell

Data & Analytics Consultant

Scott has specialised in data and analytics for the last four years working on a range of projects across corporate clients with a particular focus on delivery of innovative data visualisation.

Scott is now using his experience of understanding complex data infrastructures in large corporations to lead clients through data discovery and realise the potential of their data assets through effective visualisation.

Scott’s experience prior to working in data covered engineering work in the aviation sector, technical operations in TV broadcasting and project management on IT programmes. He is also involved in directly supporting several charities and can often be found riding bicycles across the country to raise money and awareness for great causes.

Harry Odell

Data Scientist

Harry is passionate about data science and the value of evidence-based practices. He has provided bespoke data science solutions to organisations in the public and private sectors, specialising in extracting insights from data that are understandable and meaningful to non-technical stakeholders.

Harry completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Saint Francis College, New York, his masters degree in Modelling for Science and Engineering at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is now completing his PhD in Data Analytics and Society at The University of Manchester.

His time is divided between PhD research, co-chairing a Manchester based student think tank and involvement in a local homeless charity.

James Ross

Data and Programming Consultant

James has over 12 years’ web development experience including a role as the senior developer for a large UK digital agency, and 3 years working in-house for a national charity.

He particularly enjoys the challenges of working with data from a variety of sources to produce actionable statistics.

Previous project highlights in the third sector include the development of several referral systems and web apps, to help facilitate improved outcomes for vulnerable people.

Prior to his switch to a code based career, James worked in graphic design and IT support roles, giving him a good overview of all things digital.