Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Amy worked on a PhD at Cardiff University. Her research aimed to determine whether an emotion recognition training programme could be used as an early intervention technique to improve the behaviour and wellbeing of children at risk of future criminal behaviour.

Amy also holds a BSc in Psychology from Cardiff University. During her undergraduate degree she spent a year working as a research assistant on a Europe-wide research project examining sex differences in conduct disorder.

Chan is an experienced grant maker and works across an open portfolio of existing funding partners on behalf of the Youth Endowment Fund to further support organisations working with vulnerable young people. She joined the Fund in July 2019 and prior to this has worked extensively in providing strategic support, project management and development for various funding programmes spanning the arts, housing, criminal justice and youth sectors.

Chan holds a BA degree from the University of Nottingham and a postgraduate certificate in Grant Making, Philanthropy and Social Investment from the Centre for Charity Effectiveness (CCE) City, University of London’s Business School. Chan is passionate about providing social action opportunities to young people in effecting change, and when time allows, volunteers with a panel of Young Grant Makers in Islington.

Damilola has over thirteen years’ national and international experience leading charitable giving to support projects in the education, manufacturing and not for profit sectors. In her previous role, Damilola was responsible for managing two employability programmes within the hospitality sector. These programmes aimed to engage, train and rehabilitate young people not in full time education and employment, and young people currently in prison, to help them gain employment in the hospitality and service sector.

Daniel is a developmental psychologist, with an MSc in psychological research methods and a PhD in developmental psychology at the University of Nottingham.

He has extensive experience in the fields of early intervention evaluations and evidence-informed policy making. Previously Daniel worked at the Cabinet Office, where he managed research and evaluation projects in support of the Office for Civil Society and Youth Policy. Before that, he was a research associate at the Centre for Education Research and Practice at AQA Education.

Biography coming soon.

Deborah has over a decade of experience in social finance and grant making, and has overseen the delivery of £120m of grant funds at Social Investment Business.  Her experience has seen her work with a range of partners to deliver grant funding that makes a difference to the organisations receiving it.  Deborah has also been a member of a variety of grants committees for different funding programmes.

Donna works extensively with policymakers in Whitehall departments, national sector organisations and local areas.

Before joining the Early Intervention Foundation, Donna spent over 10 years in central government in various roles developing policy and leading the implementation of programmes to provide targeted support to children and families. She has also worked as a policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the Social Exclusion Unit.

Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Ema worked on various mental health research projects with both adults and children, including investigating resilience in adolescents and comparing pharmacological agents in depression. She has also been involved in providing direct care to a variety of clients in a range of services, including talking therapies, residential care and school settings.

Ema graduated with a BSc in psychology from the University of Exeter and an MSc from King’s College, in psychiatric research.

Emma has spent 15 years in the youth and community sector, initially focused on fundraising and strategic development before moving into programme design and operations. Most recently Emma designed and developed a new model for youth social action and employability which is now a central part of London’s youth strategy and which operates nationally as a core part of many high-street businesses’ entry-level recruitment strategy. Emma also oversaw work with the Department for Education on T Level policy design, piloting and evaluation.

Emma is a Trustee for the Hilden Charitable Fund, a grant-making trust which supports small, grassroots refugee, homelessness and youth charities.

Helen has spent the last two decades supporting work which enables communities to rethink their identity and what it means to connect and belong in an increasingly fragmented world. She comes to the Youth Endowment Fund from More in Common, which she helped set up in order to understand the forces driving us apart and to help bring people together to tackle our shared challenges.

Jon Yates has two decades of experience in the youth and community sector. He started his career as a community worker in Newham before joining McKinsey and Company where he advised charities, companies and government on strategy and organisational development. He left McKinsey in 2004 to work in social enterprise, first in Kenya, supporting small businesses to scale up. When he returned to the UK, he co-founded the youth charity The Challenge, and supported the founding of the community organisation More In Common.

He is also an experienced policy maker, working as the Chief Policy Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education between 2018 and 2019, where he oversaw the Department for Education’s policy and strategy on schools, colleges, children’s services, nurseries, universities and apprenticeships.

Laura joined the Youth Endowment fund from the lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality charity Stonewall, where she was responsible for the planning, development and delivery of campaigns, research projects and policy interventions. She previously led the policy and public affairs team at reproductive rights charity FPA and worked in corporate communications.

She’s also a trustee of Brook, a national charity empowering young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health and wellbeing.

Matt has over ten years’ professional communications experience, working in both the private and charity sectors. Prior to joining the Youth Endowment Fund, he headed up the marketing and communications for Sport for Social Change charity, Sported.

Natasha joined the Youth Endowment Fund from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, where she worked as a research officer, managing the day-to-day running of commissioned research projects and conducting literature reviews.

Prior to this, Natasha was working on her PhD, which examined the key factors associated with why young people re-offend and the implications for youth offending team practice.

Peter has over a decade of experience in evidence and evaluation, with a particular emphasis on ensuring that evidence is practical and widely used.

Previously, Peter worked at Prime Advocates, where he led their impact and evidence practice, and was a Director at the Social Innovation Partnership.

Peter has also worked with a range of foundations to create effective evidence systems across their funds, including Nesta on their Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund and UnLtd’s Big Venture Challenge.

Tom leads the evidence generation work across the Early Intervention Foundation.

Tom has 15 years of experience of public sector research and analysis roles. He joined EIF from the Department for Education, where he led the Strategic Analysis function providing analytical support across all areas of DfE policy. Much of his work focused on the performance of disadvantaged children, and the role of education in improving social mobility.

Prior to that, Tom worked for eight years at the National Audit Office, where he developed and led the Decision Analysis and Modelling group as well as designing and delivering multi-method evaluations across a range of government activity, including end-of-life care, PFI hospitals and government forecasting.

Tom has a BSc in genetics and an MA in bioethics, from the University of Sheffield.

William leads on quantitative research for the Youth Endowment Fund, focused on data gathering, analysis and reporting.

Previously, he held the position of senior economist at Early Intervention Foundation, working on UK early years education, cost/benefit analysis and the organisation’s approach to late intervention spending. Before that, Will was at the Department for Education, where he worked on a diverse array of policy and analytical areas, from demographic projections and capacity planning through to school choice and access.