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  1. About us
  2. People
  3. Trustees

Trustees

Jane Barry, Chair of Trustees

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Jane Barry has spent over two decades within the civil service and has two teenage children, one who has moderate permanent hearing loss. 

It was Auditory Verbal UK's aspirations for deaf children and the hugely positive affect the programme has on the whole family and society in general which inspired Jane to take up the role which she did in March 2020.

Her current job on secondment to the Metropolitan Police as Director of Change, focusses on ensuring cross-UK capabilities are ready for the challenges ahead and planning for change.

 

Published: 2nd March, 2016

Updated: 29th September, 2021

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Katherine Bartrop, Trustee

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Katherine VasseyKatherine is an experienced leader in the charity sector, with her most recent role as Head of Regional Fundraising at Parkinson’s UK, where she doubled their fundraised income and developed a series of products including fundraising walks across the UK. Her professional interests include mentoring, learning and development, building and delivering a strategy and managing remote teams. 

 

Katherine joined the AVUK trustee board in 2022 and is excited to bring her strategic skills to the role at a time of ambitious growth for the charity. 

 

She has two young sons, Joseph and Robin. Robin is profoundly deaf with cochlear implants and joined the AVUK programme at nine months old. Outside of work, Katherine enjoys the theatre, sewing and making the most of the outdoors with her young family. 

Published: 3rd March, 2016

Updated: 2nd August, 2022

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Paul Clifford, Treasurer

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Paul is a former Company Director. An Oxford graduate, he spent most of his working life in publishing, the last 15 years as MD of Lion Hudson plc, the UK’s largest independent Christian publisher. He also had a spell of 8 years, mid-career, working for Oxfam in marketing and general management and promoting fair trade. In addition, he has been a lay minister in the Church of England for more than 25 years. Now retired, he is vice-chair of the board of governors of his local primary school. He is married with two adult daughters and two grandchildren.

Paul joined the board as the Treasurer in October 2016.

Published: 3rd March, 2016

Updated: 29th September, 2021

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Eleanor Conroy, Trustee

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Eleanor ConroyEleanor joined the Board of Trustees in 2020. She is a seasoned communications professional and now director of communications and marketing for Publicis Groupe UK.

Eleanor has more than two decades’ communications experience across a wide variety of sectors including media, entertainment, travel, consumer goods and retail, for iconic brands such as Holiday Inn, Starbucks Coca-Cola, Microsoft, P&G and Asda.

Eleanor’s daughter was born in 2018 with profound hearing loss. Shoshana started auditory verbal therapy prior to cochlear implant surgery in 2019 and has been on the programme since then.

 

Published: 4th March, 2016

Updated: 29th September, 2021

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Milly Ehren, Trustee

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Milly EhrenMilly joined the Board of Trustees in 2021. Milly is an experienced strategy professional, with a passion for creating social value and lasting impact. She is currently working at the City of London Corporation as Strategic Project Lead for Bridge House Estates (an ancient charitable trust). Milly brings her skills in articulating organisation-wide thinking on strategic issues and implementing transformational projects to support AVUK as it embarks on its major investment programme.

Milly will act as Board lead for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and will support AVUK to further develop and implement its DEI policies and plans. Milly is a strong advocate for people with disabilities and brings her personal experience of living with a chronic invisible illness. Milly’s lived experience affords her a natural insight and empathy that will help support families in their journeys through Auditory Verbal therapy.

Published: 25th March, 2016

Updated: 28th September, 2021

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Frances Owen, Trustee

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After studying modern languages at university, Frances trained and then worked as a technical translator. She held a range of administrative and managerial roles at the universities of Loughborough, City and Hull where she was University Registrar and Secretary for ten years, taking the lead on governance and compliance, quality assurance, educational partnerships and the student experience. Frances has served as Quality Champion at South East European University, North Macedonia, and as Vice-Chair of the Board of Bishop Burton College of Further and Higher Education.

Frances will act as Board lead for the quality assurance, development and enhancement of AVUK’s postgraduate and continuing education programmes. She will also support AVUK in business improvement and enhancing accountability.

Published: 25th March, 2016

Updated: 29th September, 2021

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Vinay Purwaha, Trustee

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Vinay PurwahaVinay is an accomplished programme manager specialist with over a decade of successful experience in delivering global projects on time and within budget. His experience is spread across various industries such as retail, biopharmaceutical, public sector (NHS and local government) and premium fashion retail. He has extensive experience in introducing global customer-centric initiatives, implementing cutting-edge strategies and managing change within large global organisations.

Auditory Verbal UK's aspirations to provide children with hearing loss the opportunity to lead enriched lives inspired Vinay to become a Trustee in September 2021. He is passionate about contributing to a worthwhile cause and to support AVUK’s growth plans. He is keen to promote diversity and inclusion in his role, which is in keeping with his well roundedness as an individual.

He holds a bachelors in mathematics and he received his MBA from Warwick Business School. Vinay is a service user of AVUK and has two young children. Outside of work, he is also a Member at a local academy school, enjoys road cycling and can sometimes be found binge watching documentaries on Netflix.

Published: 26th March, 2016

Updated: 1st August, 2022

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Gillian Smith, Trustee

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Gillian Smith FCIPD  

Having spent most of her career in the Civil Service, Gillian leads on People and Culture aspects of Accelerated Service Transformation in HMRC. She has led Equality, Diversity and Inclusion functions in several Government Departments and in a voluntary capacity has worked extensively with disadvantaged young people, coaching and supporting them to flourish in life and work.

Joining the AVUK Trustee Board in 2022, Gillian brings experience of having held Trustee roles in other organisations and having been a Governor at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She also brings her professional experience in Human Resources, business transformation and public policy making. As a mother of a child who became seriously unwell and needed access to additional services, she has first-hand experience of navigating the health and education systems and understands the challenges for parents faced with similar challenges. She is driven by a determination to help build a fairer world with good access to provision, removing barriers that create disadvantage.

Published: 27th March, 2016

Updated: 1st August, 2022

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Showing 10 of 8

Latest

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    Auditory Verbal UK launch BBC Radio 4 appeal to transform the lives of deaf children

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    Rebecca de Vyea's journey to become an Auditory Verbal Therapist

  • AVUK's charity appeal on BBC Radio 4

    AVUK's charity appeal on BBC Radio 4

  • Our latest Position Paper:  Raising expectations for deaf children

    Our latest Position Paper: Raising expectations for deaf children

Most read

  • What is Auditory Verbal therapy?

    What is Auditory Verbal therapy?

    Auditory verbal therapy is a highly specialist early intervention programme which equips parents with the skills to maximise their deaf child’s speech and language development.

  • Training to be an Auditory Verbal Therapist

    Training to be an Auditory Verbal Therapist

    Find out how you can train to become an Auditory Verbal Therapist in the UK.

  • Evidence base for Auditory Verbal therapy

    Evidence base for Auditory Verbal therapy

    Deaf children can learn to listen and speak – like their hearing peers. What's the evidence?

  • Our mission and values

    Our mission and values

    At Auditory Verbal UK, we want all deaf babies and children to have the same opportunities in life as their hearing peers.

  • Work for us

    Work for us

    Do you have an interest in transforming children’s lives? See our vacancies.

  • Foundation level

    Foundation level

    This 6-month course is available in an online learning format. Designed to equip professionals with the core skills needed to develop auditory practice when working with children with hearing loss and their families, we are also able to deliver this course in-service to employers wishing to train groups of staff.

  • The Education, Heath and Care Plan process

    The Education, Heath and Care Plan process

    Families have shared that the Education, Health and Care Plan process can sometimes feel daunting or confusing so we have collated the most frequently asked questions to try and help clarify the process.

  • Early intervention

    Early intervention

    What are the benefits of an early intervention programme?

  • Therapy sessions

    Therapy sessions

    Auditory Verbal therapy (AVT) is about enabling your child to learn to talk through listening. Read more about the therapy we provide.

  • Session activity ideas

    Session activity ideas

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Auditory Verbal UK is a registered charity (charity no:1095133). Registered company number: 4569764. Registered in England & Wales. Auditory Verbal UK is the operating name of the Auditory Verbal Centre.

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