Mike Allott
Mike has delivered frontline community projects for the last 12 years.

Professionally, he has worked for environmental charity Groundwork Solent the last 2 years as Project Officer; as a volunteer he is a non- executive director of Plus You Ltd, a regeneration charity.  Mike is also an agency board representative of his local NDC programme having already served as a resident board member.  He also acts as vice-chair of his local British Legion.

Nicky Cambridge
Nicky grew up on a council estate run by the Greater London Council and soon became a young activist and volunteer.  She left school with a poor education and took up a job in administration in the private sector.  Several years later her activist roots burst through again and I returned to education to achieve a Social Policy Degree.  From there she has worked in numerous voluntary and paid community development roles for a wide variety of community and voluntary sector organisation.  From this she took up a full time post in Brighton and Hove City Council's Community Development Team and progressed to managing one of the larger Neighbourhood Renewal and Sure Start programmes and a neighbourhood management pathfinder project.  Nicky has also undertaken independent consultancy work with the third sector and taught on the new local community development Foundation Degree.  She now sits within the Communities and Equalities Team of the City Council undertaking a strategic role in relation to third sector support, community engagement and regeneration.  This includes commissioning pieces of work with the third sector and developing policy in relation to engagement and neighbourhood working.  Nicky has also held several voluntary roles including Trustee of a local youth organisation and a Neighbourhood Trust in one of the most deprived parts of the City.

Shamsher Chohan
Shamsher has worked in the VCS for over 20 years locally, regionally and nationally as a volunteer, paid worker and for the last 5 years as a consultant in a developmental role.  She is the former Chair of the Community Development Exchange, a founding member of Voice4Change England and sits on Compact Voice which is the voice for the voluntary sector on compact issues as well as being a Board member for Urban Forum.  Shamsher is an associate lecturer at the University of Derby teaching the Capacity Building Module for the last 2 years and was recently involved in assessing applications to the Tackling Race Inequalities Fund managed by the CLG and is an asossiate lectuere on Capacity Building at the University of Derby.

Currently Shamsher is managing 2 national performance improvement projects targeted at BME infrastructure organisations as part of the activities of the National Performance Programme.

Shamsher has a passion for advocating for the needs and concerns of the BME sector and has campaigned locally, regionally and nationally for them to have an effective voice and beneficial outcomes.

Caroline Clark
Caroline started her working life in the private sector, working for a recruitment and selection consultancy, and then became a researcher for several years.  Between 1988-1992, she worked for Business in the Community, a national charity that brokers private sector support to the voluntary and community sector.  She moved on to Civic Trust, again a national charity that ‘cared for the places where people live and work', and worked there for seven years, running training and consultancy programmes on urban regeneration and voluntary sector capacity building.

Caroline became self-employed in 1999, and worked as an independent consultant, trainer and facilitator for voluntary groups, area-based networks, local partnerships and local authorities.  In this capacity, she helped establish new organisations and networks (including CENs), prepared funding bids, developed organisational strategies, designed and developed programmes and projects, facilitated awaydays and strategic planning sessions and helped clients with partnership development (including SRBs and LSPs), problem-solving and organisational development issues.

Between 2004 and 2008 Caroline had to take some time out of paid work because of a serious illness, and since recovering has focused her career more on writing and research.  She has also studied and trained in conflict resolution and mediation. Since 1992, she has been a trustee of a social enterprise in Brixton, South London which cares for a listed building and makes it available for a community use.  Since 2005, she has been chair of the board.

Caroline is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an Associate Member of the College of Mediators.

Chris Coffey
Chris is 61 and took early retirement six years ago.  He joined St Helens Community Empowerment Network three years ago and got involved in the Third Sector world: he attends ward meetings and LSP meetings so is beginning to understand how it works.  He attended Urban Forum's conference in 2008 and submitted his name for election to the Trustee Board at that time.  Before he retired he worked for the Inland Revenue so understands a little how the public sector works.

Jo Dean
Jo is Partnerships Manager at Nottingham Council for Voluntary Service where she has worked for 4 years with a team to help voluntary and community groups be more informed, more involved and more influential in the work of the LSP.  Jo is also an active board member for Framework housing association which supports homeless and vulnerable people.  She takes a particular interest in championing the association's specialist women's services.

Previously Jo was Housing Development Officer at a district council and, before that, she was a lecturer in housing and community care at the University of Glasgow.

Sal Hampson (Acting-Chair)
Sal is a partner in 'changes': facilitation, training and consultancy, specialising in community empowerment, community engagement, community development and active citizenship.  She manages contracts, facilitates events and delivers training in different locations across the UK, working with community groups, local and national voluntary sector organisations, local and national government, and regional bodies.  In a voluntary capacity, she is on the board of Age Concern Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin; a co-ordinator of Shropshire's Lesbian and Gay Film Week, and a Master Composter!

Dave Hannay 

Jeanette Harold

Sally Hiscock
Sally is Chief Executive of Brighton and Hove Community and Voluntary Sector Forum, a membership organisation which networks and represents the local third sector.  Sally is responsible for overseeing delivery of CVSF's strategic plan and management of the organisation.  Sally has over ten years' experience working in a number of infrastructure roles in the third sector, including managing trustee learning schemes at the Governance Hub and capacity building development work with the third sector in West Sussex

John Houghton
John is the co-chair of his Local Area Partnership in Tower Hamlets, East London, and a community rep on the borough LSP.  John has also been a member of local neighburhood renewal bodies, and also previously worked within central government on community engagement and third sector policy and programmes.

Naya Naqvi
Naya is Chief Executive at Thurrock Council for Voluntary Service (TCVS), which is the Local Infrastructure Organisation (LIO) in Thurrock and has a membership base of more than 550 organisations and individuals.  Thurrock CVS mainly provides services in Thurrock but some initivies are Essex-based. Naya's previous employment was at London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC) as Deputy Director.  LVSC is an Umbrella organisation for 33 London based CVS's and umbrella organisations.

Naya has served on Urban Forum's board for four years and has been active member of the research group.

Naya's strengths include developing voluntary sectior organisations as social enterprises.  She has demonstrated strong leadership in third sector development, staff management and leadership provision to the voluntary sector.  Naya is connected to national, regional and local voluntary and community organisations.  She also has close connections with academic institutions as she is providing university-level accredited training programmes to the VCS in Essex.

Naya's professional aims include providing a strong voluntary sector voice on urban and regional policy and the promotion of sustainable regeneration initiatives.  She places special emphasis on consultation and on encouraging equal opportunities for more marginalised communities.  Naya recognises the richness and creativity of a diverse society.  She also recognises that inequalities exist and will therefore give priority to working with individuals, groups or communities whose full participation in society is limited by economic, political and social disadvantage.

Abu Nasir (Treasurer)
Abu is employed by Luton Borough Council as their Regeneration Projects Manager which includes the Accountable Body role and contract manager for the NDC Programme.  He has over 16 years experience in Regeneration, Community Development and large scale financial management experience in the public and private sector including successful delivery of multi million pound projects and programmes.

He is regularly involved in voluntary and charity work and also represents a number of other organisations at Board level including Chair of the BME Football Forum, Chair of Governors at a Luton School, Chair of a Semi Pro Football Team, advisor to the Football Association, and has a number of business interests in the UK and abroad.  He has also been involved in policy development for central government, and a number of third sector organisations and is part of the I&DeA BME Leadership Programme.

Barry Navarro
Barry's background is in community development, community regeneration and anti-poverty work. Barry has worked in the public and voluntary sectors including local authorities and a housing association.  Barry has recently joined Community Development Foundation as Local Authority Programme Manager and previously he was a freelance consultant.

Barry is secretary of Knowsley Ethnic Minority Support Group, a small voluntary group that supports victims of racial harassment in Knowsley.

Pam Stewart
Pam, current Chair of Urban Forum, has been involved in local governance for many years including, Chair of Westleigh Community Partnership, Director of Womens Refuge, Chair of North West Regional Activists Network, community representative  on the LSP, community representative on Economic Regeneration, Governor of Wigan and Leigh College, and Director of Douglas Valley Community (a grant giving body in Wigan).

Suet Ying Ho
Ying is an independent consultant and researcher and has been a Trustee since December 2005.  She has been involved in a range of activities of the Urban Forum, including the Policy Forum on community cohesion, the research on Places, Bases and Spaces (as a member of the advisory group for the project), and the Skills, Knowledge and Experience Audit for the Board of Trustees.  Her research projects included NI7 and the third sector, Local Strategic Partnerships and community profiling.  Ying has worked in the public and voluntary sectors in England and East Asia before becoming an academic, teaching urban regeneration and planning at the University of Liverpool and the Leeds Metropolitan University for many years.  Currently she is a visiting research fellow at the University of Bristol.