Nadine Barrett | Slough Borough Council
I have over 10 years experience working with the families, young people and vulnerable adults.
I have coordinated, managed and delivered projects, including universal & targeted interventions, qualifications, peer mentoring programmes, awareness campaigns and research. Working in 4 London Boroughs and currently in the Borough of Slough, I have applied this experience and skill to recognise gaps in service and highlight the needs of all of our communities. Focussing to provide the appropriate response by running consultations with young people, professionals and community groups.
In 2018 alone I have trained over 300 front line workers, apprentices and managers from statutory and third sector organisations. This has been in addition to my main role to meet the needs of partner agencies and ensure they are equipped to recognise, refer and respond to signs of exploitation.
I have organised and supported the development work & research into;
- Understanding how gangs/county lines impacts us locally
- Organising a health check into our Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) responses
- Berkshire Violence & Exploitation Conference for an audience of 214 people
- International Girls Day events for the last 2 years, reaching over 100 students
- International women’s day conference for 220 regional attendee’s
- A 1 year school & parent engagement project using drama to educate
- CSE awareness day events
- Undertaken case audits for the LSCB to take away vital learning
- Spearheaded international men’s day campaign 2018
These have all enabled vital and up to date messages of the biggest risk and threats to our children and vulnerable adults to be heard and empowered men, women and young people to share their voice in a meaningful way. I hope to continue to build resilience in our community and support other professional’s in the workplace to develop to their potential.
Education: BSc Psychology (Goldsmith College, London), PTTLS teaching qualification, NVQ’s in customer service, youth work and diploma in Advice and Guidance.
Roles Have Included: Contact Supervisor, Targeted Youth Worker, CSE & Trafficking Partnership Co-ordinator, Youth Work Manager, Project Worker, Independent Living Advisor.
Charlene Chigumira | Bedford, Luton & Milton Keynes Sustainability & Transformation Partnership
Charlene Chigumira is passionate about health and social care.
Between June 2015-June 2016 she completed a placement year at GSK, designing an onboarding guide for the company’s consumer health division for all new employees globally.
She was selected as 1 of 9 Management trainees in the Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Management Trainee scheme where she was rotated as a project manager at Health Innovation Network, one of the UK’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks.
She has worked on a number of interesting projects which include successfully embedding PharmOutcomes software in Lewisham, saving the Lewisham Clinical Commisioning group £218,556 within the first 4 months. Other projects she worked on include a reassessment of the NHS 111* lines with London Ambulance Service, using Behavioural Insights to influence changes in catheter safety across South London and various Trust-wide HR projects as part of the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Trust CEO’s Diagonal Slice Team.
Charlene takes every opportunity to help others,offering free CV/cover letter reviews to her peers, speaking about her career at universities, and speaking to young people through organisations such as Founders4Schools.
When she is not working, she is delivering training to domiciliary carers, and using her skills to build websites and promotional material for home care companies within her Zimbabwean community.
She is a member of South East London Women’s leadership network, blogs regularly and is passionate about diversity and inclusion.
Charlene is now a Programme Manager at Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, supporting the planning and commissioning of cancer services within the region.
Megan Churcher | Kier Construction London
I achieved a First-Class Honours degree in Architectural Engineering and Design Management from Loughborough university, during this time I also achieved a Diploma in Industrial Studies for my placement year with Kier Construction London.
This placement year was invaluable for my final year at university and re-iterated that the profession I was progressing on was the right one. My degree set the benchmark for my career in the construction industry and allowed begin to develop both my technical knowledge and leadership skills that I will continue to use and improve upon throughout my career. Throughout my career with kier, I have been driven to succeed and progress through the design management role.
My tenacity has enabled me to be promoted from a Graduate Design manager, 18 months before the end of my graduate programme, to a grade 2 design manager. I have embraced all of the challenges that have come my way and utilised my skill set to gain the required outcome for the benefit of both the project and the company. I am a strong manager who is able to strategise and seek further opportunities and my ambition has enabled me to become the lead design manager on a £26 million specialist Imaging Centre for Royal Brompton Hospital. My passion for the role has resulted in me taking personal responsibility and pride in the work that I complete as well as the tasks that I am party to.
Lauren Holland | Murphy Surveys
I am a 25 year old proud and committed member of the surveying profession helping to inspire the next generation, and support the growth of females joining the industry.
I grew up in North London and went as far away from the city as I could to Aberystywth University where I studied and graduated in Geography. Drawing 3D models and being outdoors are things I loved to do and my careers adviser recommended to try out surveying as you get to do both.
I did some work experience and fell in love with the industry and my passion has grown throughout the years. As a surveyor I provide geospatial certainty and everything I do has an impact on the future of London and public safety.
My Murphy Surveys journey started in 2015, Murphy's is a multidisciplinary company which allowed me to explore all types of specialities. This involved gaining experience in; laser scanning, utility surveys, topographical surveys, site services, area plans and drawing 3D models.
After taking a year out to travel the world, when I came back to Murphy Surveys I decided to specialise in monitoring services which involves being on construction sites most days. In the 3 years I have been working I have progressed from assistant to junior and now am a surveyor, with the responsibility of measuring and processing my own jobs.
Ever seen the instruments on the street that look like cameras with lasers? That is called a total station and is the piece of equipment I use on a daily basis. I have started to attend networking events to spread the awareness of the surveying industry and express how important it is to every day life. Also, I recently found a passion for helping and educating the next generation about the surveying industry and have already attended a few school visits and became a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ambassador and joined the ''Get Kids Into Survey'' campaign. I am excited for what the future of women in this industry will be and can't wait to be a part of it!
Stephanie Bishop | CBRE
Having graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2013 with a degree in Real Estate, a course which included a placement year with AXA REIM, I joined the commercial real estate firm CBRE on the graduate scheme.
Following rotation through a number of disciplines, I qualified as a charted surveyor in April 2015 and joined the Industrial Occupier team as one of three UK founder team members.
We have now grown to a team of nine people and I have been at the forefront of its evolution in to a market leading offer, responsible for representing occupiers for in excess of 28% of total floor area Industrial take-up in 2018. This includes advising the occupier responsible for the largest proportion of UK take-up by floor area in two of the last three years.
Ninarita Williams | Transport for London
After having graduated with a 1st Class Honours in Politics and International Relations, in 2013 Rita triumphed out of thousands of applicants to attain a place on the TfL Project Management Graduate Scheme.
The scheme enabled Rita to develop her competency through a series of six-month placements in different areas of the business, allowing her to gain experience in all stages of the construction project lifecycle. She excelled in taking on real responsibility from early on in the scheme, and managed a variety of high-profile and politically-sensitive projects. Projects included: Ruislip Depot area refurbishment and Lillie Bridge asset relocation to facilitate the £1bn Earl’s Court Development; commercial retail developments; critical repair of Stamford Brook Bridge to extend the lifespan of the bridge and track by 20+years; Prudential Ride London; enabling the British leg of the Tour de France; train testing & commissioning facilities; and other award-winning projects to bring better cooling and ventilation to hotspot stations on the Jubilee, Bakerloo and Victoria line. During her time on the graduate scheme she was awarded a prestigious secondment to Hong Kong MTR to engage in “best practice” knowledge exchange concerning persistent construction issues in rail.
Rita is currently a Project Manager leading multi-million pound construction projects on the £5.4bn Four Lines Modernisation Programme. With a heavy focus on civils, mechanical and electrical works, Rita is project managing the construction of complex signalling equipment buildings in logistically challenged spaces in Hammersmith and Uxbridge. The Four Lines Modernisation programme is set to increase the capacity of the subsurface network by approx 33%, provide faster and more frequent journeys, increase service reliability, as well as improve the customer experience on the network. It is the largest signalling project in the world, bringing much needed improvements to London’s public transport infrastructure.
For her efforts, last year Rita was shortlisted as a finalist for Young Rail Professional of the Year 2018, and recently won a coveted position as a judge for the National Rail Awards 2019. She is an avid mentor and member of the TfL BAME and Women’s Staff Network groups, as well as the TfL & Siemens Girls Careers Network. She coaches and engages other young women into construction and STEM related roles.
Rita recently graduated with a Distinction in MSc Project Management. In an effort to gain more insight into common construction industry issues, she undertook a study that focused on the role of hidden barriers women face in attaining leadership positions in construction. Her work has recently been published.
Ann-Marie Fallon | Architype
Ann-Marie is an Associate Architect and Certified Passivhaus Designer at Architype.
She is part of the first batch of Certified EU Passivhaus Designers in the UK in 2009. She moved to the UK in 2012. Having gained significant Passivhaus experience in Ireland, Ann-Marie is lead delivery architect for the next phase in the UK’s largest Passivhaus development Agar Grove, currently under construction.
She also has also extensive experience in the delivery of the Passivhaus EnerPHit standard in the residential context, and is Associate Architect on the first Passivhaus through-school in Machynlleth Wales. She actively participates in practice led research and development within Architype across other projects and has been a speaker at several national and international conferences and construction industry events
Ann-Marie is a part-time teaching fellow at the University of Bath since 2014. She is also visiting external examiner for Architectural Technology and for the Part 3 Architecture Examination in the Dublin School of Architecture and has a Masters in Environmental Design of Buildings from Cardiff University.
Frankie Isherwood | CBRE
I graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a masters in Real Estate in 2015 and went on to join the CBRE graduate scheme where I spent my first year in the Capital Markets team.
I then spent six months in Development Consultancy and six months in Lease Consultancy before sitting my APC.
I returned to the Capital Markets team on gaining RICS status in October 2017 and since then my role has involved providing advice on commercial property acquisitions & sales, development funding transactions and JV structuring mandates. In 2018 I was involved in a number of high-profile transactions including the Bruntwood SciTech Portfolio JV (£360m) and Aviva's funding of Enterprise City in Manchester (£300m) both of which were advised over a period of in excess of 12 months and provided excellent learning experiences.
In addition to my day-to-day role, I have acted as 'Charity Champion' for CBRE Manchester organising and taking part in numerous events including the Three Peaks challenge and the Great North Swim. I have attended careers fairs, acted as a mentor at Manchester Enterprise Academy and provided seminars at University of Manchester to promote the property industry as well as CBRE.
Michelle Hicks | Merlin Entertainments
I studied for my MEng in Civil Engineering at the University of Surrey where I was awarded a Surrey/ICE scholarship and sponsored by WSP for the duration of my degree.
During my year in industry I had the opportunity to work on the £1bn redevelopment of London Bridge Station which inspired my dissertation on the assessment of the quadripartite vaults in the undercroft of the station. I graduated in 2014 with the highest results on record and was invited to join the Civil Engineering Industrial Advisory Board at the university. Since graduating I have continued my research into the assessment of historic quadripartite vaults and my work has been published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Structural Engineers' magazine The Structural Engineer.
I joined WSP when I graduated and was awarded the NCE Graduate of the Year and ACE Consultant of the Future awards in 2015. My interest in coordinating all aspects of a project led me into Project Management and in 2016 I followed my passion for the themed entertainment industry and joined Merlin Entertainments as the Project Manager for Chessington World of Adventures Resort. In this role I am responsible for leading the design and construction teams to deliver multi-million pound theme park attractions. The projects I have successfully delivered to date include The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure, Land of the Tiger and Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey.
Helen Heward | Planning House
After studying Geography at University I quickly realised that it was human activity that interested me most so I embarked on finding a career where I could look to minimise the impact of human activity on the natural environment.
After a lecture someone came to give a presentation about opportunities in town planning and I could see that the profession was exactly what I was looking for so I continued to study for my masters in Town Planning.
After 13 years in Local Authority planning departments in the north-east across planning policy, enforcement and predominantly development management I left in December 2018 to work for a small independent planning consultancy and I absolutely love it! The role allows me to work closely with clients and take a creative approach to maximise development potential whilst working well with Local Authority planners, as I am aware of the systems and constraints which they work within. The job comes with pressures however I enjoy the daily challenges and have thrived in an environment where building relationships with people is genuinely important and valued. I feel incredibly lucky that Planning House have taken a very flexible approach to the working week to allow me to continue with a career I love while being at home with my young family.
Planning House has also provided me with an opportunity to work on another of my passions, which is gender equality within the planning industry. Following my move from Local Authority I was given the time and support to launch a branch of the Women in Planning network for the north east and the interest has been phenomenal which to me clearly demonstrates a need.