Our team

Abheesh is the Assistant Director of Finance and Planning at the Youth Endowment Fund, where he ensures that funding is managed effectively to support initiatives that prevent youth violence. He plays a key role in optimising processes, enhancing financial planning and ensuring that resources are allocated equitably to maximise impact.

Previously, Abheesh spent over a decade as a Management Consultant at PwC, specialising in digital finance transformation, process excellence and intelligent automation. He has worked alongside clients across the public and private sectors to improve financial operations, implement data-driven decision-making and enhance organisational efficiency.

Before consulting, Abheesh dedicated over seven years to education, starting as a mathematics teacher through the Teach First Leadership Development Programme. He later became an Assistant Principal, leading on Curriculum & Progress to drive student outcomes. He has also served as a governor where he contributed to strategic leadership and governance at a secondary school in London.

Abheesh studied for an MEng in Materials Science & Engineering at Imperial College London and later pursued an MA in Educational Leadership at the University of Warwick.

Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Abi has focused her career on driving reform within the criminal justice system and supporting those affected by it, with experience across both the public and voluntary sectors. Most recently, she held policy and assurance roles at His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), where she contributed to the renationalisation of the probation system in England and Wales. She also led the design and implementation of the VCS Stewardship Fund, aimed at strengthening the capacity of ethnic-minority-led organisations to better access probation commissioning opportunities.

Earlier in her career, Abi led a team of caseworkers and volunteer mentors at a charity that delivered employability and emotional resilience programmes for young men in prisons across London, as well as for those at risk of going to prison.

Abi holds an LLB, an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy, and an MBA in Senior Leadership.

Andrea joined the Youth Endowment Fund after spending the previous decade growing and leading an international NGO focused on community protection and rehabilitation for those facing armed group violence in central Africa. She secured more than $25m for the organisation and built its team and systems to deliver impact across four countries. Prior to focusing on finance, operations, and programme management, she began her career in youth mobilisation, working in leadership roles in online and grassroots campaigns that were instrumental in securing landmark policy changes to protect some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.

Andrew has two decades of experience working with children and young people.

Andrew started his career as a secondary school teacher in west London, before working as a strategy consultant at PwC. From 2013-2018 he ran The Access Project, a charity that helps young people from under-represented backgrounds to reach top universities.

Prior to working at YEF Andrew was Chief Strategy Officer at AllChild, a children’s charity that supports children in underserved neighbourhoods to flourish at school socially, emotionally and academically.

Anna joined the Youth Endowment Fund having spent 10 years in the education and charity sectors. Anna is a qualified teacher who has specialised in teaching students who have Special Educational Needs. She has also worked for a national youth charity, helping to increase the charity’s inclusiveness and support for young people. Anna is highly dedicated to using evidence of what works to help improve opportunities and outcomes for young people.

Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Ben spent seven years in the children’s social care sector, beginning with Frontline, a social care charity dedicated to advancing policy, practice, and leadership improvements for practitioners. He then moved to Foundations, the What Works Centre for Children and Families. During this time, Ben cultivated a strong interest in program evaluation and a passion for helping organisations better understand and improve the services they commission. Ben’s expertise includes managing extensive portfolios of programs and evaluations, overseeing grant management processes, and building the internal infrastructure needed to support commissioning and grant management.

Since he began youth work at the age of 16, Caleb has had a keen focus on preventing young people from entering the criminal justice system, youth violence and exploitation. He has used young people’s voices to leverage action from key stakeholders (wide and varied) to work together in a public health approach for child centred outcomes. He states that people and organisations in the heart of communities are assets and have to create and deliver long-term solutions to reduce youth violence and exploitation.

He has a degree in Youth and Community Studies, however his personal expertise are shaped through mentoring of high risk individuals involved in gangs and running youth clubs. Caleb has worked with a range of stakeholders including The Home Office, VRUs, Police Forces, Public Health, Safeguarding Hubs, Educational leads, Voluntary Sector Organisations and Community Leads (including grassroots).

In this role at the Youth Endowment Fund, Caleb will utilise his skills in a national role to prevent young people from getting caught up in crime and violence.

Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Cassandra completed a PhD at Queen Mary University of London, looking at risk and resilience in Syrian refugee children living in informal settlements in Lebanon. Her research aimed to explore the impacts of war and displacement on children’s mental health and the meaning of resilience in this context. She also investigated the interplay between children and different aspects of their social and physical environments, with a particular focus on the family system. She joins the YEF with the aim of conducting and supporting research for impact, particularly for children facing disadvantage.  

Cassandra also has an MSc in Psychological Research from the University of Oxford. 

Chad is a mixed methods researcher with a background in prevention science, child participation and ethical research. He has worked as a consultant for UNESCO, UNICEF, Plan International and Healthcare Improvement Scotland on research related to violence against children.  Prior to joining YEF, Chad worked at the Early Intervention Foundation – primarily to support EIF’s Guidebook – by assessing the strength of evidence of effectiveness of early intervention programmes.

Chad holds a doctorate degree from the University of Edinburgh, focused on exploring the impact of maternal childhood adversities on poor infant outcomes via a wide array of biopsychosocial mediating prenatal risk factors, using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from nine countries.

Prior to joining Youth Endowment Fund, Chanel completed an MSc in Forensic Psychology at The University of Kent. She focused her research project on examining the relationship between power and sexual aggression. She also worked as a Research Assistant within the Forensic Psychology department, where she worked on a study investigating why individuals disclose information when undergoing polygraph examinations.

Chanel also holds a BSc Psychology degree. During her undergraduate degree, she conducted research investigating the effect of alcohol priming on aggression towards women.

Prior to joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Chantelle dedicated over ten years of her career to B2B organisations, specialising in both traditional and digital marketing. Additionally, she spent 3-years at a youth charity where she led initiatives to boost brand recognition and enhance their online presence, all in support of their positive activities with young people. Chantelle was also instrumental in formulating digital fundraising campaigns.

Whilst at the charity, she worked with aspiring young media enthusiasts keen on establishing careers in the field. She provided guidance and support to help them gain experience and skill development in media, collaborating closely with a global marketing agency to facilitate work experience or an early entrance into the industry with them.

Chloe’s role is to translate research into actionable insights to help prevent young people from being drawn into violence. She brings a rich background in research, teaching, and developmental psychology to her work. Before joining YEF, Chloe co-led a series of policy analysis papers in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine which explored the interplay between health and education outcomes and highlighted the need to prioritize child and adolescent mental health. She taught in a secondary school in Croydon for six years and holds an MSc in Child Development from University College London, where she conducted research into emotion regulation. She is dedicated to using evidence-based approaches to improve outcomes for children and young people.

Before joining YEF, Ciaran spent a decade building a national reputation as a youth practitioner, media spokesperson and author. In his education work, he has designed and delivered creative writing, social inclusion and violence prevention programmes in schools, youth clubs and prisons across London and the UK. In his journalism, he has written about social justice, music culture and issues affecting young people for publications such as the Guardian, Tortoise and British GQ, and advocated for the youth sector in parliament.

His debut book, Cut Short, a story spanning five years about his time as a youth worker in south London, was published by Penguin in 2021, and is widely regarded as a generational text on understanding violence affecting young people in modern Britain. Ciaran now leads on YEF’s brand and narrative storytelling, building audience awareness about and support for our work, and strategising on policy change at the top of government and politics.

Claryn is a health economist with a background in mental health and wellbeing research. Prior to joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Claryn spent seven years in academia, applying econometric models to understand socioeconomic causes and consequences of poor physical and mental health, loneliness and social isolation, and low overall wellbeing.

Claryn is passionate about ensuring that policy and practice are informed by high-quality evaluations and robust evidence. She holds a PhD from the Centre of Health Economics at Monash University, Australia, and a First-Class Honours in Psychology from Monash University Malaysia.

Colin has spent over 20 years working in the youth and community sector. He initially worked as a JNC qualified youth practitioner leading projects with young people from a range of backgrounds in South East London and later worked for nine years with a national charity pioneering and delivering programmes focused on building a more integrated society. Most recently Colin supported the development and growth of a new organisation providing intensive support to children and young people caught in a cycle of repeat offending.

He joins YEF with a passion to ensure young people’s voices are at the heart of our work at all levels from governance, research and project delivery.

Daniel leads the evaluation work at the Youth Endowment Fund.

He has extensive experience in the evaluation of early interventions and evidence-informed policy making. He held a range of different roles before joining the YEF, including at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Early Intervention Foundation, and the Office for Civil Society at the UK Cabinet Office.

Daniel has a PhD in developmental psychology.

Dennis is a former school and Alternative Provision leader who specialises in leadership and strategy.

He co-founded Heads Forward (Teach First’s National Ambassador Headteachers’ Network) which supports school and system leaders to work collaboratively, share best practice and improve the sector.

While working at the Centre for Social Justice, Dennis developed and published the Alternative Provision Quality Toolkit – a comprehensive guide to understanding and evaluating AP quality.

As a consultant and coach, Dennis works with a wide range of schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and charities and has extensive experience in supporting leaders to maximise their impact.

Dennis has an MA in Education Leadership from Warwick University and is an alumnus of The Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford’s Pathway to Success programme.

Donia works in the Evaluation team at the Youth Endowment Fund, managing project evaluations in themed grant rounds.

Before joining YEF, Donia completed a PhD at the Jill Dando Institute of University College London. Her research focused on the societal impacts of the illicit drug trade and examined the efficacy of interventions in changing drug-related behaviours. She was then a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL where she applied social network analysis to help understand human trafficking victim and offender networks. She has extensive experience in research methods relating to crime and security, with a focus on topics such as drug trafficking, drug policy, human trafficking, decision-making, and behaviour change.

Donia also holds a BSc in Forensic Science and an MSc in Crime and Forensic Science. Beyond academic research, she has assisted in the teaching of MSc modules and undertaken consultancy work involving complex and sensitive datasets using mixed methods approaches.

Previous to joining YEF, Eimear worked for the Reach Foundation in Feltham for two years leading their research and evaluation work with a focus on qualitative and participatory methods.

Eimear holds a MSc in Music, Mind and Brain from Goldsmiths University of London where she specialised in music’s influence on episodic memory encoding and recall. Prior to this, she studied Biochemistry at University College Dublin. 

Alongside her work with YEF, Eimear leads the Feltham Community Choir and passionately believes in the power of arts and its ability to influence positive, sustainable change within communities.

Ellie previously worked at Girl Effect for four years, where she ran, designed and managed research projects across a global network of peer researchers for high profile donor funded projects. She has a track record of working on qualitative and digital research projects across a range of thematic areas, from young people’s education, safety economic empowerment and health. She has a passion for participatory research approaches.

Ellie holds an MSc from the University of Bristol in Contemporary Identities.

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.

Fahmida brings with her over 8 years of experience working in the charity and education sector. She specialises in programme management to drive positive change through strategic project management and social impact initiatives. Before joining Youth Endowment Fund, Fahmida delivered and implemented a change programme at Teach First; she has also worked with middle and senior school leaders to develop a strategy to successfully implement a tailored careers curriculum for their respective schools through the Careers Leader Programme. 

Fahmida is also a Trustee for Urban MBA – a charity focussed on developing enterprise skill sets to equip marginalised and disengaged young adults to be resilient in times of personal turmoil as well as during the journey of building a business. Her focus as a Trustee is on supporting their strategic decision-making to upscale internationally and offer recognised qualifications.

Fardawza joined the Youth Endowment Fund having spent four years in the charity and funding sectors. Prior to YEF, Fardawza worked at the National Institute for Health and Care Research supporting the social care funding strand, from commissioning to project monitoring. Fardawza also worked as a Senior Programmes Manager at Foundations (formerly known as ‘What Works for Children’s Social Care). In her role, she managed large-scale social care projects and evaluations and supported delivery organisations to take part in robust evaluations. Fardawza is highly dedicated to using evidence of what works to help improve opportunities and outcomes for children, young people and families.

Fardawza holds a BA degree in International Relations from the University of Birmingham.

Before joining Youth Endowment Fund, Freya worked for three years as a Research Officer at Bangor University, in partnership with Public Health Wales and the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research. In this role, Freya collaborated on the Home Office police transformation funded programme ‘Early Action Together’, which was dedicated to transforming policing and criminal justice by drawing on adverse childhood experiences and trauma-informed approaches to enable early intervention and prevention to keep vulnerable people from entering the criminal justice system. Freya has also worked on evaluation of trauma-informed practice in youth justice services, which utilised clinical psychology supervision and multi-agency case formulation to support children.

In 2018, Freya completed her PhD in Psychology. Her research focussed on self-identity and psychological needs and their relationship with mental health in high performing athlete populations. Freya holds an MSc in Applied Sport, Health and Exercise Psychology.

Freyja is a psychologist; her PhD focused on sexism across cultures. Before joining YEF, Freyja worked at the Early Intervention Foundation (now Foundations) and at a global, research-based consultancy.

Freyja has experience working on and assessing quantitative research in the areas of children and young people, mental health, and social emotional skills.

Freyja is interested in how programmes achieve change in children and young people’s behaviour to improve their life outcomes and mental health and has worked on this from multiple angles – assessing programmes, conducting research and now managing YEF projects.

A social worker by profession, Gail has over twenty years’ experience of working in the public sector – predominantly in the fields of mental health, young people, policy development and commissioning.

Between 2014-2020, Gail was CEO of Sheffield Futures – a young people’s charity providing specialist support and mentoring for young people in Sheffield and the surrounding region. Whilst there, she led on two Social Impact Bonds and was both an Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations Fellow, and a Fellow of Practice at Oxford University’s Government Outcomes Lab.

An experienced Board member and Chair, Gail is especially interested in collaborative partnership working, in user voice and participation, and in outcomes based delivery programmes.

Hannah has a background working in local government in roles in strategy and development. More recently she has worked for small charities in the fields of mental health and social isolation amongst older people. Hannah holds an MA in Social Policy and a BA in French and Italian. She is a trustee for a charity working to reduce social isolation.

Hannah joins YEF having previously worked at MOPAC (Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime), managing the Mayor’s youth justice portfolio, and focusing on reducing ethnic disproportionality in the youth justice space. She also managed programmes providing services for domestic abuse victims in safe accommodation across the capital. Before this, Hannah worked at Plan International, a global children’s rights and gender equality charity, working on a variety of projects across policy, advocacy, research and diversity and inclusion.

She has previously worked in secure hospitals in both the UK and Sri Lanka, and with a master’s in Criminal Justice and Social Research, Hannah has spent her career to date working to better support those in the criminal justice system.

Hannah is also a trustee for Good Vibrations, a charity using communal music making to help build life skills for those in challenging circumstances.

Hashim is a Research Manager with an MSc in Social Research Methods from City University, London.

He has extensive experience in mixed methods research in a variety of policy areas, from education and skills development to health and wellbeing. Previously Hashim has worked at NatCen Social Research, Ecorys UK and M&C Saatchi World Services. With experience managing and conducting fieldwork throughout the UK as well as in Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Uganda, Hashim is very much a global researcher.

Helen brings over two decades of experience supporting senior leaders, building strong organisational culture and developing organisations to bring about social change. She came to the Youth Endowment Fund from More in Common, which she helped set up in order to understand the forces driving us apart and how we might bring people together to tackle our shared challenges.

Hollie has over a decade of experience developing, producing, and managing transformational programmes of work for young people in a range of settings. In recent years, her work has focused on the strategy and facilitation of youth voice programmes both at Peer Power Youth and Young Ealing Foundation ensuring that young people have a platform not only to be listened to but that what they share informs meaningful change whether for themselves, communities, or systems.

Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Jake has spent fifteen years working across programme implementation, research, evaluation consultancy and – for the last 7 years – leading evaluation and fund management for UK and international funders. This has included Comic Relief, UN agencies, international and national charities and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. With a focus on youth, education and gender, Jake has designed commissioned and managed large scale, multi-country mixed methods learning and grant programmes on areas such as criminal exploitation of young women and girls, feminist movement networks and young men’s mental health.

Jake holds an MPhil in Historical Studies from Cambridge University and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Development Studies from the Open University. He is passionate about the role of funders in the social sector, particularly around children and young people, and how they can support effective programming, organisational development and learning.

Joana joins Youth Endowment Fund after 10 years of working in several areas of the hospitality sector.

She first started at the Lisbon Airport assisting travellers through flight disruptions and on ground operations. She then moved on to managing large corporate and leisure groups at some of the biggest Hiltons in London.

Joana is also part of the British Red Cross Community Volunteer Reserve, a network of people ready to help their community in an emergency or crisis.

Joe leads the Youth Endowment Fund’s work interpreting findings from evaluations and translating them into actionable insights to prevent young people becoming involved in violence. He also supports the development of the YEF’s Toolkit.

Joe’s previous career was in education, primarily at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), where he supported the generation, synthesis, and mobilisation of evidence to close the attainment gap in English schools. This included producing evidence-based guidance for schools on how to deliver feedback and professional development. He also has experience working in higher education, supporting underrepresented students to access university and succeed once they arrive, and spent time in the classroom as a secondary history teacher in Birmingham.

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.

Lara is a qualified social worker (MSW), with an MSc in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation from the University of Oxford.

Having previously worked directly with children at risk of offending, as well as individuals following imprisonment or alternative sentencing, Lara is passionate about developing the evidence base for ‘what works’ to prevent youth offending.
Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Lara worked at Lumos, an international NGO working to end the institutionalisation of children. She led on developing Lumos’ approach to measuring child outcomes and systems change, primarily focusing on their work in Africa and Latin America. Prior to this Lara worked at the Early Intervention Foundation, working across the breadth of the organisation’s research portfolio, including interparental relationships, child development and mental health, and programme evaluation.

LaToya comes to the Youth Endowment Fund with a varied background ranging from Innovation to Senior Operations. The common thread is a solid 15 years’ of people leadership and development. Previously the COO of Gett UK, LaToya helped to create the business foundation that pushed the business from small to medium size. She then moved on to Barnardo’s, taking various roles including the Head of Innovation.

LaToya is also on the Board of Trustee for the Marsha Phoenix Memorial Trust, a charity focused on supported housing for single homeless women.

Laura is leading the Youth Endowment Fund’s Toolkit, an accessible summary of the best available research on preventing young people getting involved in violence and crime.

Laura has experience working with policing, criminal justice, education, health, the voluntary sector and academia. She is committed to driving evidence-based policy and practice, and recently worked on a place-based violence prevention programme in East Africa. She helped to set up the East Midlands Police-Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) and led the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice, for several years. Laura completed her PhD whilst working in policing, with the University of Leicester.

Leanne holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Sciences and a Master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice, both from Oxford University. Over the past eight years, she built a diverse career across the justice sector, spanning research, frontline policing, and policy advisory roles.

Leanne began her career as a research assistant at a criminal justice charity, where she specialised in leading qualitative research projects and authoring reports. She then transitioned into policing through the PoliceNow leadership scheme, which emphasised evidence-based and community-led policing practices. Within Cambridgeshire Constabulary, she served as a Neighbourhood Constable before progressing to a Detective Constable role in Serious and Complex Crime.

Subsequently, she moved to New Zealand and joined the Ministry of Justice. Where she worked as a policy advisor in the Criminal Justice Unit, focusing on sentencing, rehabilitation, and equity in sentencing practices. Later, as a senior advisor, she contributed to the Ministry’s response to a national inquiry examining the justice system’s impact on Māori communities.

Luba is passionate about justice and equality in every sense. This led her to study Law at SOAS University of London. Following this, she completed an apprenticeship while working with inspiring changemakers from the Family Justice Young People’s Board; whom she credits for changing her career trajectory from law to the youth sector. Luba supported the young people to design resources, deliver presentations at government/stakeholder events, develop strategy, complete inspections and use their voices to make a change for children and young people with experience of the family justice system.

She went on to join Envision where she facilitated a skill building social action programme for young people and worked with volunteer mentors. This gave her valuable insight into the education sector and strengthened her facilitation experience and understanding of partnerships.

Her varied work experience highlights her passion and intention to continue to amplify voices for positive change and contribute to a brighter, fairer future for all.

Lucy is a mixed-methods researcher with a background in social work practice. She previously worked at the Social Care Institute for Excellence, where she led research relating to social care, health and youth participation. Prior to that, she worked at the Early Intervention Foundation, where she focused on evaluation methodology. This included assessing the evidence underpinning school-based and parenting programmes to inform commissioners’ decision making. Lucy has an MSc in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation from the University of Oxford.

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.

Matt has 15 years’ experience in the charity sector focused on using research and evidence to improve outcomes for children and young people. Prior to joining the Youth Endowment Fund in November 2020, Matt worked for eight years at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), a What Works Centre dedicated to improving educational outcomes for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

His role at EEF focused on managing large-scale research trials and developing guidance for schools. In particular, he led EEF’s work on early years education, social and emotional skills, and parental engagement. Prior to that, Matt worked for charity consultancy and think tank, NPC, where he published research on children’s mental health, youth justice, and early intervention.

He is currently completing a PhD at UCL Institute of Education, focused on longitudinal analysis of children’s social and emotional development, using the Millennium Cohort Study and National Pupil Database.

Mollie is a social statistician with a background in education and equality research. Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, her career spanned academic, third sector and consultant advisory roles. She holds a PhD in Social Statistics and an MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics.

Mollie’s previous roles have included leading and commissioning complex longitudinal evaluations of national and international interventions. Much of her experience is in the evaluation of educational programmes in the UK, where she has applied a wide range of experimental and quasi-experimental techniques.

Mollie’s passion lies in social equality. Through her work, she wants to help level the playing field by improving opportunities for disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalised young people.

Peter is leading the development of the Youth Endowment Fund’s Toolkit, an accessible summary of the best available research on preventing young people getting involved in violence and crime.

Peter works with practitioners, academics and policy makers to ensure that research is useful and has a positive impact on young people. Previously he worked for seven years at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the What Works Centre dedicated to improving educational outcomes and equity. Peter led the EEF’s work in special educational needs, literacy and mathematics.

Philip has a wide research of, evaluation and project management experience working with organisations in the UK and Internationally over the last 30 years. Philip’s work has included, amongst others, evaluation in the international development sector (Oxfam International, Concern Worldwide, WorldVision, Plan International), clinical trials, drug development, social and behavioural science studies in medical research with FIND, and University of Oxford/ISARIC, support to research capacity, and the UK data and environmental sectors. 

Before joining YEF, Rain was the Head of Evaluation at TASO, where she led a range of impact evaluations to strengthen the evidence on improving access to higher education for students from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds. With over six years of experience in research and evaluation in the charity sector, Rain is dedicated to using robust evidence to shape decision-making, enhance policies, and improve services for young people.

Rain holds an MA in Psychology from the University of Aberdeen and an MSc in Migration and Development from SOAS University of London. She is passionate about social justice and equality, focusing on creating sustainable change through data-driven insights.

Sophy has worked as a funder and leader in the Voluntary and Community Sector, focussing on cross-sector partnership working, social justice and tackling health inequalities. In recent years she led strategic funding programmes at the National Lottery Community Fund including Healthy Communities Together, a partnership programme developed with the King’s Fund. Sophy is an associate consultant for the King’s Fund/GSK Impact Awards, and an NHS Non Executive Director for Oxleas NHS Mental and Community Health Foundation Trust.

Stanislava leads the Trusted Adult Grant Round and manages complex and large-scale evaluations across sectors. 

Prior to YEF, Stanislava held multiple research roles, primarily in academic setting and within the focus area of trauma, violence, and substance abuse. She worked at the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs where she supported the longitudinal evaluation of the health-focused intervention programme for low-income families in New Jersey, USA. Stanislava also conducted research at the Trauma Risk and Resilience Lab at Rutgers University, including her independent work exploring the PTSD and nicotine dependence comorbidity among survivors of intimate partner violence. 

Stanislava holds Master’s Degree with honours in Psychological Science from Rutgers University-Camden. 

Stevie is a policy and evaluation professional with extensive experience of designing and implementing complex, high profile projects related to violence prevention.

Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, she was Deputy Director and Head of Data, Evidence and Evaluation for Leicester’s Violence Reduction Unit. She led the National VRU Network for Evidence and Evaluation on behalf of the Home Office.

Prior to this, Stevie was an Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Leicester, and was part of various national advisory panels including for the UK Government, NPCC, HMICFRS and the CPS. Stevie has a PhD in Criminology.

Prior to joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Susan previously worked at Opinium for four years. During her time there she designed, ran, and managed a wide variety of social research projects. Utilising both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Susan explored socio-economic trends that helped inform client strategy and communication. She also has strong experience conducting research amongst Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic audiences.

Susan holds a BA in Politics and International Relations and an MA in Cultural Studies.

Prior to joining the YEF, Tania completed her PhD in Psychology and Education at Cambridge University. At Cambridge, Tania lectured undergraduate and postgraduate students and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Previously, Tania reported directly to the Malaysian Ministry of Education as Senior Research Manager evaluating the Government’s nationwide curriculum reform. She has led educational research in the UK (Assessment MicroAnalytics), India and Indonesia (Cambridge Assessment) and worked as Advisor to the Singaporean Ministry of Education.

Tania holds an MPhil in Psychology and Education, also from Cambridge, applying her psychological knowledge to design and deliver mental health interventions for young carers (aged 8-11) at Centre 33, a children’s charity.

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.

Before joining the Youth Endowment Fund, Yasmin spent five years working in a Young Offender’s Institution directly with young people who had often been involved in serious youth violence.

She started off by delivering an effective thinking skills programme to young people who had been involved in incidents within custody, and moved on to become an engagement and resettlement worker. This involved having her own caseload of young people, monitoring their time in custody and then preparing them for either release into the community or transition to the adult estate. Her experience has led to a passion in wanting to see ‘what works’ in preventing young people becoming involved in violence and the outcome of custodial sentences.

She holds a BA degree in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of Leeds.