Meet the team

Nicole Andrieu – Project Administrator

Nicole has experience working on projects in finance and administration in various industries, including aviation, gas and oil, and education publishing in different countries. She is currently working for the University and her focus is the smooth running of the project.  

Jenny Barke  – Senior Research Associate

Jenny’s research focuses on the methods and ethics of co-producing research with people and groups outside of the university.

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In particular her research explores how to engage with, support and train community researchers and considers how new knowledge is produced through collaborative research.

Much of her work has drawn on creative and arts based research methods and she has collaborated with writers, actors, illustrators, visual artists and directors.

Sue Cohen – Honorary Research Associate 

Sue Cohen is presently working as a community consultant with the School of History on the SPAN History project.

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She is also working with the Gender and Violence Research Centre with displaced men and women, and with the School of Law, having been on the management team of the Productive Margins Programme, a five year Connected Communities initiative developing co-produced research with marginalised communities in Bristol and South Wales on the theme of regulation.

Sue is chair of the People’s Health Trust, that supports communities in the most disadvantaged areas of Britain to design and lead projects that improve their neighbourhoods and lives. She is a Board Member of the national Women’s Budget Group working to achieve a more gender equal economy. Sue is an active member of Bristol Women’s Commission’s Economy Working Group, and is involved in co-publishing work on feminist responses to Brexit.From 1990 to 2013, Sue was CEO of Single Parent Action Network, responsible for SPAN’s overall strategic development at a regional, national and European level, with an especial focus on women/single parent poverty, anti-racism, participatory research and transnational programmes.

Tim Cole – Professor of History at University of Bristol

Tim has a wide range of interests in social and environmental histories, historical geographies and digital humanities, as well as in co-produced research with communities.

Yvonne Deeney – Researcher

Yvonne is interested in community groups, history and politics. As a single parent she is interested in self-help, political campaigning and grassroots organisations such as SPAN.


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She is also a parent governor and safeguarding lead at Limes Nursery, a trustee at Barton Hill Settlement and also involved in Easton Lawrence Hill Activities For Families.

Sharon Evans – Researcher

Sharon has an interest in psychology and child development. Being a single parent herself she is interested in how SPAN developed and supported single people.

 

Rifat (Roofi) Hamid – Researcher

Roofi is from Kashmir with a PHD in Biochemistry.  Due to her academic background she is passionate about research.  Although she loves Bristol as the people are really friendly, she has found barriers to work as a migrant.  This has given her an insight into how people struggle as a result of discrimination.  She would like to compare the life of a single parent in the UK with Kashmere.

 

Lorna Henry – Project Evaluator

Lorna is a Senior Research Associate at University of Bristol and her main interests are the involvement and empowerment of people using health and welfare services, coproduction of research, research ethics, qualitative research methods and power in research settings. She also teaches and facilitates workshops for learners in community and university settings.

Muna Hussein – Researcher

Muna lives in Barton Hill, she is a proud mother of two. She enjoys working as a volunteer and loves to help her community. She is interested in the political and social history of grassroots organisations such as SPAN. Her ambition is to work with children and become a public speaker.

 

Jude Hutchen – Community Worker, Barton Hill Settlement

Jude Hutchen brings a wide range of community development experience from several years of grassroots human rights and reconciliation work in post war Bosnia Herzegovina to supporting the delivery of a range of creative, educational and fun projects in Bristol which promote collaboration, inter cultural learning and reduce social isolation.

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She trained in Edinburgh as an art psychotherapist, specialising in thematic group work in social settings such as homeless hostels, youth social services and PTSD support services.  She gained a MA in Fine Art for her socially engaged visual art practise at UWE in 2018 and continues to deliver community based print sessions at Cato Press Studio in Easton where campaign materials are generated for local groups by the general public.

Amber James – Researcher

Amber is a single mum to a five year old and loves children.  She is a ‘big kid’ who is fun and energetic.  She suffers with cyclical vomiting syndrome and wants to help people who have been through similar situations as herself.  She is a member of local community based project Easton and Lawrence Hill Activities For Families.

 

Vivian Latinwo-Olajide – Archival Fellow

Vivian is an interdisciplinary researcher and PhD Student who engages with, makes and narrates records.

Catherine Lecointe – Chair of Management Board

Catherine has many years of experience in the voluntary sector and in community activism in Bristol, including running the Buktu Saturday school and setting up the Newfoundland Employment Centre.

Josie McLellan – Professor of History at the University of Bristol

Josie began her career as a historian of Germany, but now focuses on projects that collaborating with people outside the university, to see history in new ways, and to bring new voices into the discussion of the past. 

Yanhong / Margaret Nie – Researcher

Yanhong is interested in grassroots organisations in UK.  She would like to improve her confidence and social experience.  She enjoys working as a volunteer in St. Pauls Nursery and Children’s Centre.

Annie Oliver – Community Inclusion Manager, Barton Hill Settlement

Annie Oliver has worked in Bristol supporting disadvantaged families for 29 years – campaigning,  designing and leading both local and national projects.

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She has always been involved in anti poverty work and previously worked with partners to set up The UK Coalition to Eradicate Poverty, a United Nations initiative. She also spoke about single parenthood, poverty and food poverty in documentaries, in parliament, on news programmes, in research, newspapers, books, magazines and at conferences in the UK and Europe.

She has always worked with grassroots groups in empowerment projects that then influence politically. Work around equalities has been a constant in Annie’s career and her personal experience of being a young single mum and volunteer in a charity through into managing in charities over 29 years influences her work and the passion to continue to give a voice to the most marginalised people in society is still there.

Annie is currently Community Inclusion Manager at Barton Hill Settlement responsible for the SPAN Parenting Support Team, The Network including Social Action Hub and Community Organisers and Bristol Aging Better Community Navigators Project and other social cohesion work. Prior to this Annie worked for Single Parent action Network for 26 years from 1990 until 2016.

Amal Omer – Researcher

Amal is a mum of two children who loves to write and enjoys learning, especially about different cultures.  She hopes in the future to become a teacher to young children.

 

Ellie Pridgeon – Consultant Archivist

As an archive consultant, Ellie has undertaken over 30 projects around the UK. She has extensive experience of working on grassroots and community archive, heritage and outreach projects, most recently for Spare Tyre Theatre Company (Deptford), Wac Arts (Camden), and for the British Society of Gerontology.

More about Ellie »

As a former resident of Bristol, Ellie is familiar with the city and its communities. After graduating from the University of Bristol in History and Medieval Studies, she worked for several years at the university’s Library and Special Collections. More recently, she has undertaken consultancy work for the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust.

 

Bianca Ramshaw

Bianca is a proud mum of one child who is two. She owns her own hairdressing business. She has been working on my business for several years since establishing it in 2015. Her interests are community work and seeing people happy. She is very social and loves meeting new people.

Chloe Scholefield – Researcher

Chloe is a mum to a lively 2 year old boy.  She works in arts and wellbeing and is interested to see how creativity can be used to present the story of SPAN.  She has a strong interest in the history and process of setting up grassroots projects led by women and how we can learn from these to set up new groups and projects.

 

Jendaye Selassie – Researcher

Jendaye, mum of three, was born and raised in Easton, Bristol.  She is experienced as a manager and is also a Cultural Competence trainer as part of Bridging Gaps.

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She is also a very active member in a community based project called Easton Lawrence Hill Activities for Families (ELHAFF). She has worked closely with Barton Hill Settlement being a trustee, safeguarding lead and recruitment panellist for several years.  She studied Psychology and Criminology.

Jess Wheeler – Researcher

Jess lives in Easton, is the parent of a young child, works in healthcare research, is a founder member of the Bristol Cooperative Childcare Collective and is part of the Bristol Patients Not Passports Group.

 

Becky Whitmore – Researcher

Becky is interested in local history and community action.  As an artist Becky is interested in creative methods to tell the story of SPAN.