Meet our Regional Fellows
Regional Fellows
Our Regional Fellows have been selected from across Coventry and Warwickshire to help us build and strengthen links into the region. We will also benefit from the expertise and knowledge they will feed into the Institute.
Photo above: WIE Fellows Event 2nd March 2022: (Left to Right: Nor Aziz, Clare Wightman, Abbie Vlahakis, Sarah Windrum, Eilis O'Donnell, Laura Elliott, Francis Nielsen, Hardish Virk)
Clare Wightman, CEO of Grapevine, Coventry
We’re inspired by how social movements happen and we use the same methods to spark community action. We help people form strong two-way relationships and take collective action on the things that matter to them.
But we don’t stop there. We want to get at root causes of problems that won’t go way – not just treat the symptoms. We do that by working with systems and services like the NHS and local authorities to see how together we can understand and tackle the real problem – for good.
Hardish Virk, Cultural Consultant and Director of Jaivant Patel Dance and Coventry Artspace
Hardish began his professional career in arts marketing and PR over 30 years ago and has since worked with dance, music, theatre, festivals, visual arts, cinema, fashion, clubs, museums and heritage organisations and artists in the UK and Europe.
Hardish has also advised artists and arts organisations on audience and organisational development as well as race equality with clients including Arts Council England, British Council, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Danish Centre for Culture and Development.
Hardish began his career as a DJ, director and producer working in theatre, live events and club nights. He has also written for magazines as a guest editor and journalist as well as authoring a supernatural thriller, 'Spirits Message'. Hardish is currently working with Coventry Artspace on a major South Asian Heritage Project (working title), a project underpinned by identity and social history (which have featured throughout his working practise). He also continues his passion for film and TV.
On joining as a regional Fellow, Hardish reflected: “Engagement in all its’ forms and communities has underpinned the work I have been involved with for over thirty years, so it’s a real pleasure to join Warwick Institute of Engagement as a Regional Fellow, which has already demonstrated what is possible through the strength of internal and external partnerships.”
Marguerite Nugent, Culture and Creative Director at Culture Coventry
Marguerite is Cultural Director at Culture Coventry Trust, which cares for Coventry’s arts and heritage venues. She has a particular interest in supporting young people from all backgrounds into work within the creative industries.
She was previously Arts and Culture Manager for Wolverhampton City Council where she led the cultural venues and supported the development of the wider cultural strategy for the city, working as part of the Wolverhampton Cultural Compact and as Chair of the Cultural Education Partnership. She led on the Arts Council NPO funded programme and developed many collecting projects leading to acquisitions of art related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the conflict in Israel and Palestine and more recently the Black Art Group and its presence in Wolverhampton in the 1980s.
Marguerite has recently completed and Senior Leaders Masters Apprenticeship (Arts & Culture) at the University of Wolverhampton. In Coventry she is enjoying putting her business development skills to practical use through supporting organisational change at a key moment for the city as it emerges from City of Culture 2021.
Jet Jones, Director of Regeneration and Community Transformation, CEO of 'Together For Change'
Jet Jones is Director of Transforming Communities for the Coventry Diocese and Founder and CEO of the ‘Together for Change’ charity. Having worked at the diocese for 10 years, she also has over 23 years of experience working in the Christian faith and charity sector.
Jet has established significant grass-roots community projects in the most deprived communities across Coventry and Warwickshire, ranging from refugee and migrant support, work with the elderly and isolated, young people at risk, while also fundraising for capitol regeneration initiatives. She has more recently been involved in establishing a £4m social enterprise project called ‘Saints’ in Nuneaton that seeks to bring generational transformation to the heart of the town.
Jet is passionate about partnership working and bringing communities together to make a big impact for good. She is keen to work with the WIE to further explore this.
Johnathan Branson, Projects and Development Manager (Arts Section) Warwick District Council
Laura Elliot, CEO and Creative Director of the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
Nor Aziz, Member of the Board of Directors for Culture Coventry and Founder of Uniting Communities
Sarah Windrum, Chair of the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Business Founder, and Tech Investor, Leamington Spa
Sarah is a Business Founder and Investor in the West Midlands technology sector. She founded and sold a successful ICT project management business and is now investing in exciting new projects including Your Wellspace - a workplace well-being digital start-up - and Secure Workflows - a blockchain multi-agency platform. Her entrepreneurial success was recognised in 2021 when she was awarded the Nachural Business Woman of the Year.
Sarah has been a Board Director for the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) since 2016 driving the development of digital creative clusters with national and regional stakeholders. She became CWLEP Chair in April 2021 leading the public private partnership to implement the Strategic Reset Framework and transition to delivering on the Net Zero and Levelling-Up ambitions of Central Government. She is also a member of the Midlands Engine Digital Board and the West Midlands Combined Authority Innovation Board supporting digital transformation and securing investment to improve economic and social outcomes across the region.
Passionate about future digital talent, Sarah is on the Industry Advisory Board at Warwickshire College, has worked closely with UKIE’s Digital Schoolhouse programme, and was an Industry Partner for the Institute of Coding with Coventry University. She is also an Enterprise Advisor at Campion School and a current student herself studying an MSc in AI and Data Science.
Sheila Bates, Chair of the Coventry & Community Empowerment Network, Children's Champion
Sue Frossell, Public Health Consultant, Coventry City Council
Sue Frossell is a Public Health Consultant working within Coventry City Council. One of her key public health interests is the impact of the wider determinants (housing, jobs, education, etc.) on health inequalities; Coventry’s ‘Marmot City’ agenda is currently one of her lead areas.
Engagement is critical in Sue’s world, whether it is in the relationships which are essential for good partnership working to achieve real, long lasting impact; for gaining a deep understanding of the needs of service users and stakeholders in the commissioning process for key public health services; or for understanding what changes communities want to see and how communities want to be empowered to be a movement for the changes they want to see.
Sue is currently working on a NIHR bid for resources to build the infrastructure for a Health Determinants Research Collaboration in Coventry City Council, where a focussed attention on engagement is essential.
Sue’s other Public Health roles have included Regional Associate Director for Screening Programmes in PHE South Region, managing the transfer of Public Health from the NHS to the LA in Milton Keynes and working as a Health Protection Consultant in Surrey and Sussex HPA.