Please use the tabs to see each day’s sessions.

Here is a list of all our speakers. These are linked directly from the programme too. Once you click a speaker and have read their bio, if you just click ‘back’ on your browser, it will jump back to where you were in the programme.

Helen Kemp – Chief Executive, Leeds Mind

Helen has been Chief Executive of Leeds Mind since 2014 and is also a trustee of other local charities, a governor at LYPFT and she is sits on the Retail Board and Network Committee at National Mind. Prior to this Helen was Finance Director at St Gemma’s Hospice for a number of years and before this held a number a of senior finance positions in the private sector.

Helen is committed to improving mental health in the work place and reducing the stigma attached to having conversations around your own mental health. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, following Leeds United and walking in the Yorkshire Dales to look after her own wellbeing.

Karen Fenton – Operations Manager, Volition, Forum Central

Karen Fenton is Operations Manager For Volition-Leeds, Forum Central, a network of health and social care third sector organisations in Leeds delivered in partnership with Leeds Older People’s Forum. Volition-Leeds has almost 300 member organisations, and its mission is to be the collective voice of the sector in Leeds. It promotes and supports partnerships working across the city and provides information for and about the sector.  https://forumcentral.org.uk/about-us/

Along with MHabitat it jointly host Mindwell Leeds, the mental health website for people in Leeds. MindWell provides quick and easy access to up-to-date information for all adults in Leeds, including individuals, carers, GPs, employers and other professionals. https://www.mindwell-leeds.org.uk/

Laura McCullagh – Mindful Employer Leeds Coordinator

Laura brings over 15 years’ experience managing and delivering voluntary sector services, with skills as a facilitator, trainer and researcher. Her approach is informed by knowledge of social and cultural psychology. Laura is dedicated to helping create the positive cultures, progressive policies and sustainable practices needed to create genuinely healthy workplaces and has particular interests in diversity and inclusion, gender equality, flexible working and stigma and discrimination. Laura believes in collaboration as a default and she loves bringing people together to enable shared learning and peer support.

Laura is the coordinator for the Leeds Mindful Employer network, a forum for sharing good practice, accessing expertise and developing networks that support positive approaches to mental health at work.

Carole Sayer – Acas

Acas is an independent public body that receives funding from the government. We provide free and impartial advice to employers, employees and their representatives on: employment rights, best practice and policies and resolving workplace conflict.

When things go wrong, we help to resolve workplace disputes between employers and employees.

Carole Sayer, is a senior adviser/conciliator for the Yorkshire and Humber region. Carole is an Associate member of CIPD and a member of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning. Carole is the lead adviser in the region on mental health liaising with businesses to promote wellbeing and support for mental health in organisations.

Emily Turner – Women’s Lives Leeds

Emily Turner is the Voices Co-ordinator for Women’s Lives Leeds, co-ordinating a movement for Leeds to become the 1^st UK Women Friendly City. The movement aims to hear the voices of women and girls in the city, through the hubs, surveys, and focus groups, to support women friendly activities, campaigns and events, and to engage with key decision makers, Ambassadors, Allies and Pledge Makers. This forms the basis to implement lasting change, and make Leeds safer, healthier, more fulfilling and equal for women.

Emma Mamo – Mind

Emma is currently Head of Workplace Wellbeing at Mind. Emma joined Mind in 2007 and, since 2010, has led Mind’s campaigning for mentally healthy workplaces – playing a pivotal role in thought leadership to position mental health in the workplace as a key priority for employers and Government.

Emma has led culture change through engagement with employers, health and safety professionals, HR audiences and Government on mental health in the workplace and back-to-work support for people with mental health problems. She also supports networks of employers and stakeholders to share best practice and develop business-to-business peer support.

Emma’s prior role at Mind was as Policy and Campaigns Manager of the Social Inclusion and Rights team, leading on promoting social inclusion and upholding the human rights of people with mental health problems across the following areas: employment; benefits and welfare reform; debt and poverty; access to the criminal justice system; and equality and discrimination law. During this time, Emma led Mind’s successful national campaigns ‘Taking care of business: mental health at work’ and ‘In the red: debt and mental health’, both achieving awards and recognition for impact and innovation.

Emma has worked in the disability sector since 2005 and previously worked for Mencap, the learning disability charity.

Mark Poole – Lead, Mindful Employer

Joining MINDFUL EMPLOYER as the initiative’s first dedicated lead, Mark has over eight years of experience working in mental health services; ranging from treating patients within clinical settings, to managing voluntary sector services and mental health consultancy.

It is our mission at MINDFUL EMPLOYER to provide UK employers with easy access to the information and support necessary for them to take a lead in matters of workplace mental health and wellbeing. Blending the best in clinical and workplace practice, we provide a specialist approach to suit the needs of employers, offering services including the Charter for Employers Positive about Mental Health, alongside mental health and resilience training.

Michelle Scally Clarke – poet and writer

Michelle Scally Clarke is a poet and writer from Leeds and is a leading voice within the contemporary U.K poetry space. Her work ranges from drama, creative writing, and poetry to music and performance, and much of her work focuses on the outlet of art as a source of empowerment for the individual, in turn creating a connection for people to the wider society and focusing on our shared emotions and experiences. She has worked with renowned poets including Benjamin Zephaniah, Brian Patten and Simon Armitage.

She has worked alongside Space2 on a range of projects. These have included our 2016 performance and workshop focusing on mental health ‘Suitcase’, our 2018 cross-cultural play ‘Jeans, Whose Genes?’ and delivery of Clear Out Your Closet poetry sessions.  Michelle now supports the peer-led Clear Out Your Closet poetry group and Care Collective, initiated by former participants, focusing on writing for wellbeing.  Michelle Pamphlet ‘unsung words’ is a guide to writing for wellbeing. Through Covid it has distributed throughout the city and showcased within Space2’s virtual gallery space, ‘Unlocked: Inspiration from Isolation’.

Parminder Grewal – Leeds Public Health

I have been working as a Health Improvement Specialist for around 17 years and spent most of my time in Public Health managing peer to peer health promotion initiatives aimed at improving the health and wellbeing status of those living in the most deprived areas of Leeds who have the poorest health outcomes. I have more recently taken up a role to focus on the equality and diversity agenda, to help support the development of work that meets the needs of vulnerable, diverse and disadvantaged groups and encourage a culture of inclusion, wellbeing and diversity. We must all strive to embed this approach in all that we do and the way that we do it to create a fairer society, where everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential.

Emma Jaye – Leeds City Council

Emma Jaye, HR Service Manager at Leeds City Council leads on the internal staff wellbeing offer. With a passion for all things wellbeing and personal development, she loves to help people overcome personal and professional challenges.  

Pia Bruhn – Leeds Public Health

I have worked in Public Health for over 20 years, with much of that time spent focusing on health inequalities and vulnerable groups. My current role is the lead for public health workforce development, including the Health and Wellbeing Training Programme, Making Every Contact Count (MECC), the Public Health ‘Want to Know More About’ sessions and the Public Health Resource Centre. I am passionate about addressing health inequalities and believe that as employers and employees we have a critical role to play.

Adam Ogilvie – CEO, Meanwood Valley Urban Farm

Adam Ogilvie has been CEO at Meanwood Valley Urban Farm in Leeds since May 2019. Prior to that he was an elected Councillor on Leeds City Council for 19 years and was Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and before that Cabinet Member for Leisure and Skills. He has also managed regeneration programmes in West Yorkshire and London. Pastimes include hiking up mountains and gin (though generally not at the same time!)

Astrid Copeland – Job Retention Specialist at WorkPlace Leeds

Astrid has been a Job Retention Specialist since 2014 and has worked in the field of mental health for 20 years.  She is a qualified, Experienced trainer and has also worked as an Advocate for looked after young people and a Coordinator of employment and learning opportunities for people affected by homelessness.

Leigh Staunton – Job Retention Specialist at WorkPlace Leeds

A qualified Workplace Mediator, Leigh has worked as Job Retention Specialist for Leeds Mind since March 2019.  Prior to that, Leigh worked in Welfare to Work for 10 years, supporting long term unemployed sickness benefit claimants into work and delivering training to staff.  A qualified ESOL teacher, Leigh also designed and delivered employability based English language training to jobseekers with English as a second language in London.

Chris Ingham – Leeds Public Health

I have worked as the Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing for Leeds City Council for over 15 years and prior to that in a similar role for Bolton Council. The first 10 years of my career was spent working as an Environmental Health Officer which started my interest in health inequalities – working on diverse topics such as Food Poverty, Iron Deficiency Anaemia, poor housing conditions and infectious disease control.

At Leeds I founded the Healthy Minds peer support network (which was subsequently taken forward and built on by incredible colleagues) and led the council’s drive to become a Mindful Employer.

Tom Riordan – Chief Executive, Leeds City Council

Tom has been Chief Executive of Leeds City Council since 2010 and during this time has overseen £300m of efficiencies across the organisation and a significant transformation of the city, which is halfway through a £10bn investment pipeline. Plans are set to double the size and economic impact of the city centre through regeneration of the South Bank, one of the largest city centre regeneration and growth initiatives in Europe. Tom’s top priority is for the city’s growth to be inclusive with a key ambition of reducing health inequalities and improving the health of the poorest the fastest.

In 2018, Tom led the regional bid that secured the new Channel 4 headquarters in Leeds bringing over 300 new jobs and unlocking growth in Yorkshire and the North East. Tom is leading the city’s participation in the Boston MIT global programme which will drive innovation and enterprise across the region, and played a key role in securing and running the 2014 Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Yorkshire.

Tom has come full-circle from a North Yorkshire state education, via Oxford University, a Civil Service fast-stream career in international environmental policy and then leading the Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward.

Leeds City Council won the MJ’s Council of the Year award in 2016 and was named Digital Council of the Year in the 2019 Digital Leaders 100 awards. For his commitment to the region, Tom was awarded Yorkshire Man of the Year 2017 and most recently CBE for services to local government in the 2020 New Year’s Honours. He is also a trustee on the Centre for Cities Board, and the Council’s mental health champion.

Tom is a Trustee of the Centre for Cities, chairs the Leeds Academic Health Partnership and has held various roles promoting local and central government engagement, including devising the local COVID contain framework during the pandemic.

Anna Ridley – Inkwell Arts, Leeds Mind

Inkwell Arts is a safe, creative art space in Leeds, enriching lives through creativity and promoting positive mental health. Creativity can play a significant role in helping people recover and maintain a robust mental health. We all benefit from a healthy wellbeing and we believe creative activity provides a powerful tool in helping us do this.

The course facilitator, Anna Ridley, works at Inkwell as Community Arts Coordinator and has a history within the mental health, charity and care sectors. Anna graduated with a Fine Art degree in 2013 and has worked for Leeds Mind for over two years.

Creative Team Building can be extremely effective in promoting employee happiness, retention and productivity. Now, more than ever, it is so important to bring our teams together and to promote healthy wellbeing and positive communication around our mental health. Team building exercises don’t have to be expensive or time-consuming and can be offered remotely or face-to-face.

Emma Baylin – Director at Shared Harmonies CIC

Emma took on her first role as a volunteer at age 14 and now has approaching 30 years’ experience of facilitation and delivering training

Emma is a highly experienced trainer delivering on a range of topics including impact measurement and partnership working. She is also a highly recognised facilitator, working on the development and delivery of a number of national programmes for clients including NHS England / Improvement as well as bespoke programmes for individual clients.

A key part of Emma’s work is helping organisations or systems to identify barriers and enablers to complex challenges and support the creation of action plans to implement solutions. She likes to enable participants to view things through a different experiential lens, apply learning to their own practice and develop clear development actions.

Emma has worked with employees from some of the UK’s leading companies including Nissan, Hermes, Royal Canin, Pinsent Masons, PwC and Manchester Metropolitan University

Emma’s main passions are the power of human connection, improving health & wellbeing and singing.        She also delivers wellbeing programmes for participants affected by health & wellbeing conditions including COPD, poor mental health, cancer, Parkinsons and dementia

Uddyotani Doherty and Laura Smith – Members and BAMBA-registered trainers at Leeds Mindfulness Co-operative

Uddyotani Doherty and Laura Smith are members of the Leeds Mindfulness Cooperative, both experienced BAMBA registered trainers.

Leeds Mindfulness Cooperative exists to deliver a creative program of mindfulness courses and events which are affordable and open to all. We have been delivering Breathworks Mindfulness for Health and Mindfulness for Stress courses for over 10 years (previously as Leeds Breathworks Project).

We offer free community-based courses across Leeds and Bradford with a particular focus on increasing access for disadvantaged communities. We work with employers across the public, private and third sector to deliver mindfulness training to support wellbeing at work.

We also offer self-funded Breathworks courses throughout the year.

Juliette Alban-Metcalfe – CEO of Real World Group

Juliette is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and CEO of Real World Group. She is passionate about leadership, diversity and inclusion and positive psychology. She consults with organisations worldwide and has authored a number of articles and book chapters on her favourite subjects.

Jodie Hill – Founder and Solicitor at Thrive Law

Jodie Hill trained as a barrister, cross-qualified as a solicitor and founded Thrive Law in 2018 founder and Managing Director of multi-award winning Thrive Law, headquartered in Leeds City Centre. Jodie has specialised in employment law throughout her career and has a keen understanding of this complex legal sector, together with all HR related issues.

Jodie also has a passion for helping to encourage understanding around mental health and has a strong desire to help end stigma surrounding the subject, to create a happier, healthier workforce. This passion can be seen in her campaign: #OneMind, to bring mental health to the top of the business agendas, with her campaign being featured by Sky News, the BBC, The Times, The Law Society Gazette, Yorkshire Post and other key media. Jodie’s campaigning has been recognised by many, which recently led to her being shortlisted for several Law Society Excellence awards, she awarded a fellowship of the Royal Society for Public Health. In 2019 she became a Law Care Champion and in 2020 she launched This is Me Yorkshire, and appeared on the InsideOut Leader Board as well as being awarded their Advocacy Award.

Thrive Law have won two prestigious awards in 2019 for social mobility and diversity and inclusion. They were also featured by the SRA in their disability leadership campaign and by the law society in their managing mental health in the workplace guidance for their culture. Thrive are now an EDI mentor for the SRA with smaller firms.

In 2019, Jodie also founded Thrive Women – part of her ongoing mission to enable people to ‘Thrive’ in the workplace – and is disrupting the world of Employment Law as a female entrepreneur with her own firm before the age of 30.

Jodie was recently appointed to the Law Society’s Employment Law Committee in 2020 where she will be at the forefront of the changes post Brexit and COVID related.

Jodie is also frequently asked to comment in national media (TV, radio, print and online) on a range of employment law, mental health and diversity issues.

Lisa Rowlinson-Brown – Symington’s Limited

I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Proud to work for Symington’s as People Director leading the people agenda and our transformational project centred around inspirational leadership. Employing 1000 colleagues over 4 sites in the UK we are an ambient food manufacturer.

Mell Handley – Behind Closed Doors

Mell Handley is a Support Worker from the Prevention and Recovery Service at Behind Closed Doors.

Behind Closed Doors was established in Otley in 1997.  We now now cover the whole of Leeds, and support clients across the gender spectrum.  Since 2011, we have been part of Leeds Domestic Violence Service (LDVS). BCD provides the Community Domestic Violence Team within LDVS, delivering practical support to clients and working with those who are at medium and high risk. In 2012, our Prevention and Recovery Service was established, and this provides one-to-one emotional support sessions for clients to help them process the emotional and psychological impact of previous domestic violence and abuse, and to rebuild their confidence and self-esteem.

Sue Alderson – Director at Azure Consulting

I’m passionate about helping individuals and organisations be ‘at their best’ more of the time. I believe we all have masses of potential and see my purpose as helping every individual to have the courage and confidence to unlock that.

I love working with individuals who want to enhance their effectiveness as leaders and the energy and passion to make that happen. I especially enjoy working with leadership teams, helping them to make their ambitions for their organisations a reality. I get a real buzz from seeing individuals and teams grow and develop, and in turn make a real impact on the performance of their organisation.

I believe in a strong connection between body and mind, and my passion is for keeping fit and healthy. A Yorkshire girl at heart, I love being outdoors, walking and enjoying the natural world with my husband. In 2015 I climbed Kilimanjaro and as a result of that adventure, have set up a charity to bring clean water to North Tanzania. I’m a mum of a son at university and highly value time with my small close family.

I hold a belief that everyone can achieve whatever they desire with hard work and the right kind of support.

Sharon Klein – Director at Azure Consulting

I believe every individual is truly unique and love spending time working with people to determine how they can put their unique talents into practice in their everyday work.  Most people are capable of so much more than they think they are but upbringing, education and many work places have managed to knock that belief out of people.  A huge part of my job is to help people find that belief and confidence and I find the results hugely inspiring! Another large part of my work is helping teams to face up to their challenges and say the difficult things that nobody wants to say, but done in the right way can make a massive difference to the way they operate.

I started my career in Hospitality Management but soon changed that to one where I was developing others on a full time basis. I am a qualified coach and mentor, experienced facilitator and expert in leadership development and I also love the qualifications we run to help others to qualify as coaches. Having started Azure with Sue in 2002, we have never looked back and I believe our success is down to the huge effort we put into building fantastic relationships with our clients. I class myself as privileged to have a job that I love so much.

Out of work, my husband and I love to walk, I find gardening really therapeutic and I’m a big ‘foodie’, both cooking lovely food and eating it in all the myriad of great restaurants we have around West and North Yorkshire and indeed abroad too.  I am also a proud stepmother to an amazing young man who has become a commercial pilot in the last couple of years.  I am a massive advocate of mindfulness that I believe is absolutely essential in the current fast paced world in which we live and bring this into my work wherever it’s appropriate.

Susan Gee – Yorkshire Water

Susan is Head of Occupational Health & Wellbeing at Yorkshire Water and previously worked at Bradford Metropolitan District Council. An experienced occupational health professional she has an outstanding record of achievement created through the development and implementation of robust strategies, initiatives and organisational change in occupational health.  She was previously a visiting lecturer in sickness absence management at Leeds Becket University and has a BSc(Hons) in Occupational Health,  an MA in Health Care Law  and an MSc in Leadership and Change in Health and Social Care.

Alison Lowe – Touchstone

Alison Lowe has worked with Voluntary Organisations for nearly 30 years. Right now she works as the Chief Executive of Touchstone a Mental Health Charity in Leeds and wider West Yorkshire. Touchstone work with and for people that are affected by mental health problems and they specialise in working with people from different cultural backgrounds. Touchstone have received multiple awards for their work in inclusion and diversity, including the number 1 spot in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 UK Top 50 Most Inclusive Employers Award and the 2018 National Diversity Award for Most Diverse Company.  They are a Stonewall Top 100 LGBT-Friendly Employer for the 8th year running and are again a 3 Star Extraordinary Sunday Times Best Company to work for in 2020, being placed in the top 10 for the last 4 years. Additionally, Touchstone were judged to be Investors in People Platinum at their latest assessment – only the third organisation in Yorkshire to gain this accolade and one of six charities nationally.

Before Alison started working with Touchstone she was a senior manager with Foundation Housing, a charity that supports people that have just come out of prison or are on bail to find housing.

Alison has been involved in local government for 29 years and was a councillor with the Labour Party. Alison was also the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel, the body that scrutinises the performance of the Police and Crime Commissioner and represents the interests of all the 2.2 million people across West Yorkshire.  Alison was the Deputy Lord Mayor of Leeds in 2003-4 and was made an Honorary Alderwoman of the city in 2020.

Alison is chair of Leeds Survivor-led Crisis Service and is a trustee at several charities including Wooden Spoon which raises money for disadvantaged children.

Over the years, Alison has been a well known campaigner on equal rights and chaired the Leeds Domestic Violence Forum that raises awareness of domestic violence against women and children by known men for over 25 years.

Alison Lowe holds an MA in Medieval Studies from Leeds University and a BA in History. She was invited to become a Windsor Castle Leadership Fellow in 2020.  Alison has 2 grown up children, Adam and Rosy and a grandchild called Mae.

Corrina Lawrence – Chief Executive Officer of Feel Good Factor

Chief Executive Officer of Feel Good Factor, a third sector health and wellbeing organisation working with some of the most culturally diverse and poorly served communities in Leeds.

Corrina has over 30 years’ experience of working within the Third Sector and in particularly with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities and as a Board Director sits on, Leeds Community Foundation, Leeds Older Peoples Forum and Care and Repair (Leeds) as well as a number of other forums and networks in Leeds.

Corrina is clear on the need to have a workforce who are representative of the communities they service and the reasons why this is fundamentally important to ensuring equity of service for all.

Kate Dean – Director of Enable Disability and Inclusion Consultants Ltd

Kate Dean is Director of Enable Disability & Inclusion Consultants Ltd, supporting organisations to remove barriers to high performance through meaningful inclusion.

Kate has spent over 10 years working in universities managing student facing disability support teams, ensuring that students with a wide range of disabilities and long-term conditions could access and participate on their course, through a combination of reasonable adjustments and enabling strategies. Kate led a number of key institutional collaborative projects which sought to anticipate needs and remove barriers across recruitment processes, in policies and procedures and by embedding enabling technologies into mainstream provision.

Kate has offered specialist advice to HR and Occupational Health colleagues, coordinated an institution-wide training programme on disability and inclusion, and led a project with the National Autistic Society to improve provision for autistic students.

Enable Disability & Inclusion Consultants Ltd offer end to end solution focused support for businesses, offering workplace assessments, training, and consultancy.

Linda Glew – Time to Shine

Linda Glew joined Time to Shine in January 2019 as the programme manager for legacy from a career in the third sector of 25 years . As part of the work to create a long lasting legacy for the Time to Shine Programme, Linda is leading the Friendly Communities team at Leeds Older People’s Forum, in parrhership with Age Friendly Leeds, to develop the Age & Dementia Friendly Business Guide. The guide aims to encourage local businesses to contribute to making Leeds a place where older people play an active role in their community and their workplace.

Madlen Sayar – Carers Leeds

Madlen Sayar is the coordinator of the working carer support service at Carers Leeds, an independent charity dedicated to improving the lives of the 74,000+ carers in Leeds through quality advice, information, and support.

Madlen supports those balancing work with unpaid care for a friend or relative, and coordinates the Leeds Employers Forum; a group of key Leeds businesses who meet to exchange best practice in supporting working carers.

Clare Price – Leeds Bereavement Forum

Clare is a Counsellor, Psychotherapist and Freelance Bereavement Trainer, as well as a Cruse Bereavement Support volunteer and supervisor. In addition to face to face work, Clare is trained in supporting clients remotely (via video platform and telephone) and has experience in delivering webinars by video platform.

As a HCPC registered Occupational Therapist, Clare worked in the NHS for 15 years in mental health, dementia services, learning disability services, care homes and in hospitals.  She also worked for NHS England on their National End of Life Care Programme.  Clare has a passion for raising awareness in our society about death, dying and bereavement.

Leeds Bereavement Forum is a small charity in Leeds, working to develop and improve bereavement services across the city.

They signpost people to the most appropriate bereavement service, as well as providing bereavement training, information, events and conferences.

Through our campaigning work, in partnership with Dying Matters locally and nationally, we encourage people to talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement and to make plans for the end of life.

Nicki Eyre – Founder and Director of Conduct Change

Nicki Eyre had a varied career before becoming a coach, working in finance before moving into education and training roles with senior management experience in the public, private and charity sectors. During her career, she has experienced both opportunity and adversity, including her own experience of feeling bullied at work, and is able to bring this wealth of experience to her role as a coach, speaker and trainer.

Nicki founded Conduct Change as a result of her passion for working with individuals and businesses to prevent and resolve workplace bullying.  Their mission is to end workplace bullying through the development of meaningful prevention activities for organisations and the implementation of effective routes to redress for individuals.  She leads the work of the Advisory Board as they strive to ensure that everyone feels heard, valued and respected in the workplace.

Rob Kilner – Workers’ Lunchtime

Workers’ lunchtime is a personal project that developed from years of work experience. Here’s some of my work stats:

Experience (things i’ve been paid for) inc:

• paper round
• labourer
• paste-up artist
• writing
• shop assistant
• stockbroker
• church organist
• tour guide

Shortest Job: 3 hours

Longest Job: 20 years

Workers’ Lunchtime escapades have been featured by: Leeds Bid, Mindful Employer, The Idler and Les Echos, and Leeds Civic Trust

Patricia Cranswick – Mental Health Employment specialist for WorkPlace Leeds (Leeds Mind)

My name is Patricia Cranswick and I am a Mental Health Employment Specialist working for Workplace Leeds which is part of Leeds Mind.  My clients are at various stages of recovery and I work with them around a variety of individual needs, for example, managing their mental health, increasing their motivation, confidence and self-esteem, to access training and with employability techniques to enable them to research companies, apply for vacancies and perform well at interview.  I also provide clients with in-work support once they have secured employment and I am also available to work with the employer at the clients request.

Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale – Job Centre Plus and DWP

My name is Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale. I am the national co-chair of DWPride the DWP LGBT+ staff network, and DWP National Diversity Ambassador on Trans issues, a role in which I work cross civil service and with employers delivering trans training and helping to develop trans guidance and policy. In 2017 I was awarded a Honourary Fellowship of Bradford College for Service to the Trans community and the City of Bradford.

Roz Doherty – Peer Support Lead at Leeds Mind

I have worked in the Peer Support Team for two and a half years, being responsible for the line management of a number of staff members as well as managing both statutory and non-statutory peer support services. This is involves close partnership working with Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and various third sector organisations across the district of Leeds.

Lived experience a vital part of the Leeds Mind approach to Peer Support that we use our own lived experience in our approach. This carries though to sharing my lived experience with the team, as part of staff management when appropriate and also when delivering facilitator training, and in wider professionals meetings as a way of role modelling a positive mental health approach.

Andrea Wood – MSc graduate of Leeds Beckett University

Recently completed my MSc in Public Health – Health Promotion at Leeds Beckett University and as part of my dissertation undertook an evaluation of the Leeds Mindful Employee initiative.. I work in an adult mental health inpatient rehabilitation and recovery service for Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust. My role focusses on supporting individuals with severe mental illness to improve both their physical and mental wellbeing via the adoption of healthier lifestyle changes.

Clare Price – Leeds Bereavement Forum

Clare is a Counsellor, Psychotherapist and Freelance Bereavement Trainer, as well as a Cruse Bereavement Support volunteer and supervisor. In addition to face to face work, Clare is trained in supporting clients remotely (via video platform and telephone) and has experience in delivering webinars by video platform.

As a HCPC registered Occupational Therapist, Clare worked in the NHS for 15 years in mental health, dementia services, learning disability services, care homes and in hospitals.  She also worked for NHS England on their National End of Life Care Programme.  Clare has a passion for raising awareness in our society about death, dying and bereavement.

Leeds Bereavement Forum are a small charity in Leeds, working to develop and improve bereavement services across the city.

We signpost people to the most appropriate bereavement service, as well as providing bereavement training, information, events and conferences.  Through our campaigning work, in partnership with Dying Matters locally and nationally, we encourage people to talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement and to make plans for the end of life.

More information about our training, events, including our virtual Death Cafés, and our online directory of bereavement services, can be found on our website www.lbforum.org.uk

Damian Dawtry – Coordinator of Men’s Health Unlocked

Damian’s role is centred around building a city-wide network to connect, support, develop and celebrate the exciting work currently taking place in Leeds in the field of men’s health and wellbeing, at both a local and national level.

Damian has a wide range of experience in community development, having worked for over 20 years for statutory and third sector organisations. This has included working in the fields of autism, fundraising, and community and prison theatre.

In recent years, he has specialised in men’s health engagement; testing and learning a variety of approaches to engaging isolated men and supporting them with their health and wellbeing. He has recently been coordinating the Orion Partnership’s ground-breaking Manbassador Project, developing a network of local businesses to signpost their male customers towards health and wellbeing activities and agencies.

Damian is a volunteer for Circles of Life: Women Together / Voices of Men and is proud co-founder of the Unity Day Pantomime, now in its 21st year. At the age of 42, his goalkeeping career was cruelly cut short by injury whilst in the lower reaches of the Yorkshire Amateur League, so he now spends his Saturdays on the allotment, playing music, or playing with his son.

Gary Blake – Social Action Manager at Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL)

Gary has been working and volunteering in the third sector for nearly 30 years. For the last ten year he has been working at Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL) where  amongst his responsibilities is the strategic development of volunteering. He also has responsibility for undertaking research around volunteering.

John Bradfield – Inspector with West Yorkshire Police

I am an Inspector with West Yorkshire Police, having worked for the organisation since 2009 following my transfer from Hampshire Constabulary.

My interest in mental health stems from my partner being diagnosed with bi-polar 7 years ago after our son was born which had a massive impact on all of our lives. As a result of my interest, I volunteered to be the WYP Leads District Mental Health Lead early in 2016. In June 2016, with the help of Leeds Mind, I set up the Districts Peer Support Group which has gone from strength to strength in providing support to staff experiencing mental ill health.

Following on from the success of the support provided in Leeds, again with the assistance of Leeds Mind, Peer Support has been rolled out across the Force and I have been heavily involved in its implementation and assisting with the training.

I am currently an active Peer Supporter, a Peer Support Lead for the force, and present around this and other mental health topics and interventions on a regular basis.

Abdullah Adekola – Peer Supper Facilitator at Leeds Mind

Abdullah is passionate about social justice and has an interest in mental health recovery. He enjoys creative writing, spending time with family and friends and playing basketball.

Rob Baker – Tailored Thinking

Rob is a specialist in bringing positive psychology to work and brings zest and curiosity to all that he does. He is the founder and Chief Positive Deviant of Tailored Thinking, a leading evidence-based positive psychology, wellbeing and HR consultancy.

Rob is world-leading when it comes to bringing job crafting to life within organisations. His work, ideas and research on how people can personalise work and bring their whole and best selves to the workplace have been presented at academic and professional conferences around the globe.

Rob is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a Chartered Fellow of the Australian HR Institute. He has a first-class Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Melbourne and continues to research and collaborate with academics from the University’s Centre of Positive Psychology.

As a senior HR leader and consultant, Rob has delivered sector-leading and award-winning people initiatives and business transformation projects working with companies across sectors ranging from multi-national banks to digital start-ups.

An avid runner, Rob has previously competed on the international stage, having represented Great Britain in mountain running and orienteering. These days, Rob runs and cycles purely for fun and reflection and enjoys outdoor (mis)adventures with his family in Durham.

Lucy Chaplin and Elisabeth Holdsworth – Leeds Trinity University

Leeds Trinity University provides a unique and rich combination of academic, professional and personal development in an inclusive and nurturing university community. The University is here to make a difference to the people, the professions and the places that we serve. Care for our students, our staff, our partners and the wider community lies at the heart of our culture and is the embodiment of our values in action.

Elisabeth Holdsworth is HR Services Manager at the institution and a key member of the Trinity Wellbeing team, with an intrinsic role in developing University-wide wellbeing initiatives.

Lucy Chaplin is Senior Corporate Communications Officer, overseeing the University’s press and media relations,  and also leads on Trinity Wellbeing communications.

Vanessa Suttill and Jenny Walley – Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service

Vanessa Suttill is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner for Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service, having worked as an Occupational Therapist for 7 years in secondary mental health services.

Jenny Walley is a Mental Health Practitioner for the organisation, with a background in various mental health settings in primary care and employment services spanning 7 years.

Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service provides a range of therapeutic interventions for people across the city with common mental health problems, from self-help information and resources, information workshops, psychoeducational classes and groups, through to a range of 1:1 therapies. The service also works with employers and employees across the city to better understand the impact of work on our mental wellbeing, and how we can improve this, running weekly Wellbeing in the Workplace Sessions.

Steve Phillip – The Jordan Legacy

From 2009. Steve Phillip had been a successful consultant, trainer and keynote speaker in the world of social media and sales and marketing, when on December 4^th 2019, he received a call which would change his life – his son Jordan had taken his own life.

Faced with the choice of either sitting on a sofa with a bottle or creating something to prevent other families from having to experience the trauma of losing a loved one to suicide, Steve chose the latter.

With a LinkedIn following of more than 21,000 people, his articles and posts have engaged a global audience of millions. Early in 2020, Steve established The Jordan Legacy CIC, to provide support to those struggling with their mental health or considering suicide, whilst accepting the position as Head of Mission, at Champion Health UK Ltd, a rapidly growing tech and client services company in the world of workplace employee wellbeing.

Steve be can be contacted:

E: steve@thejordanlegacy.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevephillipsalestrainer/

Jo Loughran – Director, Time to Shine

Time to Change is a growing movement of people changing how we all think and act about mental health problems run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.

Jo is an experienced leader and strategic thinker with almost 20 years of involvement in the UK charity sector pulling on her specialist knowledge of behaviour change campaigns, mental health anti-stigma programmes, and lived experience leadership.

Director of Time to Change since 2016, Jo leads the team to improve public attitudes and behaviour towards people with mental health problems, reduce discrimination people with mental health problems report in personal relationships, social lives and at work as well as making sure even more people can take action to challenge stigma and discrimination in their communities, in workplaces, in schools and on-line.

Jo has been employed by Rethink Mental Illness since 2003 and, in her previous capacity as the Head of the Time to Change’s Children and Young People’s programme led the development from concept to implementation of England’s largest comprehensive mental health anti-stigma programme aimed at young people aged 11 to 18, and their parents.

With her own personal experience of mental health problems which began in her teenage years, Jo is passionate about creating an environment where no-one has to feel isolated or ashamed to speak out.

She likes to think that she can run (well, … fast walk) and sometimes completes the odd 10k and half marathon with the mantra:  slow and steady wins the race!

Paul Farmer – Chief Executive of Mind

Paul Farmer has been Chief Executive of Mind, the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales since May 2006.

Paul is Chair of the NHS England Independent Oversight & Advisory Group which brings together health and care leaders and experts to oversee the current mental health long term plan for the NHS in England. He co-authored ‘Thriving at Work’ for the government, setting out how to transform mental health in work places.

Paul is a Commissioner at Historic England. He has an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East London, is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford, and The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours 2016.

Victoria Eaton – Director of Public Health, Leeds City Council

Victoria has been in post as Director of Public Health at Leeds City Council from 1^st March 2020, having previously held the role of Deputy Director of Public Health, and Consultant in Public Health in Leeds since 2007. Victoria has worked in a range of public health roles in Leeds since 1998, following previous public health appointments in the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber regions.  Before training in public health, Victoria’s early career was in NHS leadership and management in the North West region.

Throughout her career, Victoria has had a strong commitment to addressing health inequalities and the social determinants of health, and their impact on physical and mental health.  During her time in Leeds she has established award-winning public mental health and community health development programmes, as well as leading work to ensure core public health services are shaped and informed by population needs.  She has taught on several academic public health programmes, and maintains a strong involvement in workforce development, training and education in public health at a regional and national level.