About us Our Team Our Team Headliners (UK) is governed by a Board of Trustees who come from different walks of life including former participants in the Headliners programme. For profiles of our Trustees, please click here Senior Management Team Headliners is managed by the Chief Executive supported by a dedicated staff team. Our journalists and project staff deliver the projects with young people across the UK. Ali Talbot Role: Chief Executive Ali has worked in the public, private and third sectors at senior management level for the past 25 years. She specialised in strategic, operational, marketing and communications, project and resource management of sports, leisure and cultural services including sport, leisure, tourism, visual and performing arts services. In her career, Ali was previously Chief Executive of Cerebral Palsy Sport, a national disability sports charity. Prior to that she was RNIB's National Leisure Services Manager and lead manager of RNIB's National Leisure Services team, who specialised in improving access to all aspects of culture, leisure, arts and sport for blind and partially sighted people. Ali has also held varied leisure senior management posts in the public sector and private sector leisure facilities and sport development services management and hotel management. Ali had the pleasure of chairing LOCOG's London 2012 Disability Community Engagement Forum, and represented RNIB on Glasgow 2014's Advisory group, led on RNIB's London 2012 project and sat on a number of cultural advisory bodies including the government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport Accessible Tourism Stakeholders Forum. Ali was the Event Director for the Nottingham 2015 CPISRA World Games and is a current member of Scope's National Assembly. When not working, Ali enjoys spending time with her family in Lincolnshire . Ali has two sons who love sport and a husband who isn’t a great fan of sport. Her eldest son has cerebral palsy and is a national and international FrameRunner. Her favourite food is Italian food, loves gymnastics, reading, cooking and is a closet 80’s music fan. When Ali is not working, she can be found on a side of an athletics track supporting her sons. Lisa Jones Role: Head of Programmes and Operations Lisa joined Headliners (UK) on 9th May 2022 and is really looking forward to taking on the role of Head of Programmes and Operations. She will be London based but will oversee the teams in Northern Ireland, the NE of England and London. Her career began in private banking before moving to the third sector where she has worked for the past 15 years. During her time at Save the Children and The Salvation Army, her roles included project management, programme development and operations, safeguarding and anti-trafficking. She also spent a year as a volunteer teacher and youth worker in Burundi, Uganda, Haiti and the USA working for various international charities. Lisa completed Brave the Shave and her first skydive for two cancer charities and as an adventurous person has also been fortunate enough to complete 2 further skydives, coasteering and zorbing. She also loves the theatre, museums, galleries, photography and eating out. London: Chloe Ly Role: Project Officer I am Chloe, Project Officer as part of Headliners' London team. My first experience with Headliners was as a young person on the ‘Wild Action Programme’ they put together with The London Wildlife Trust. This was a project which encouraged us to engage more with our local environments (during the Pandemic) and address the barriers/issues regarding youth accessibility to London’s Green Spaces. I have since worked on the #UNFILTERED Project for Headliners (UK), with a similar aim to provide young people an unfiltered voice on the issues they face. I am now excited to be leading my own environmentally based project, London Green Champions which is a combination of my interests in the environment, youth mental health and sustainability. As both a project officer and delivery officer, I get to do all the best bits! I love creating projects and seeing the change they have first-hand on young people’s confidence and understanding of the world. Being a young person myself, I am grateful to be able to discuss and creatively act upon topics that I and other young people collectively care about. When I am not working, most of my free time is spent skateboarding, messing around with my friends, and eating a lot of good food! North East: Holly Ayrton Role: North East Project Manager - Hi, I’m Holly and I’m the North East Project Manager. I have been working with young people and in the third sector for over 9 years. During this time I have had the opportunity to work with lots of different community and youth groups, local authorities and charities. All of which make the North East and incredible and diverse place to live and work. I graduated from the University of Sunderland with a degree in Community and Youth Work Studies during this time I completed two university placements with Headliners. I love doing social action work with young people as I love seeing how much it empowers them and raises their voices in the community. I have always had an interest in Journalism and the Media and working for Headliners (UK) lets me combine my passions. In my spare time I enjoy getting outside and into nature, I love being by the sea or in a forest with my dogs. Nooshin Shabani Role: Lead Journalist - Tynesiders / Safe Spaces Hello, My name is Nooshin and I am based in the North East office. I have been working for Headliners since 2012. Most of the groups I have worked with have been LAC, developing short films and photography projects to get their voices heard, which I have a passion for. I have also previously been the NCS lead for South Tyneside, alongside piloting projects such as Digital Transitions and Tynesiders. I am currently working on the Safe Space's Hubs project funded by The Peoples Post Code Lottery. My degree is in Journalism, but I have a lot of experience managing young people and volunteers overseas for NGOS. I lived and worked in Ghana for 4 years, New Zealand for 1 year, and India for 4 months. I have also spent a lot of time Volunteering and backpacking in several parts of the world, including Nepal, South America, Vietnam etc. Outside of work I love to spend all day every day at the beach, rain or shine. Rob Austin Role: Project Officer - Tynesiders Hey, I’m Rob. I am currently working with Headliners as the Project Officer working on several projects. My main project is Aiming-Hi, a project where I am working with young people from new, emerging and established communities in Tyne and Wear. My headliners journey started in 2015 when I became sessional youth worker to delivery National Citizen Service (NCS). During my time at Headliners (UK) I have worked with some amazing colleagues and young people and it’s amazing to see both staff and young people grow. I have huge passion for social action and often do a lot of social action outside of work by planning events for my local community. David Kidger Role: Project Worker - Digital Transitions Project Hi, my name is David and I’m the project worker for Digital Transitions and one of the Wave Leads on the National Citizen Service (NCS) project. I’ve worked with Headliners for over 5 years now and have loved every minute of it. I’ve learnt so many new things from the help of colleagues and young people I have worked alongside with and watch them grow. In my spare time I’m quite the movie buff and do enjoy spending time with family. Chris English Role: NCS Co-ordinator Hi I am Chris I am a new addition to the Headliners team as NCS co-ordinator! I have worked with young people for 5 years now and have a degree from Sunderland University in Youth and Community Work studies. I pride my self in working with young people and always aim to support them in having a voice. I love to make a difference and in general like to have fun. My hobbies include gaming, football, going to the gym, spending time with my partner & friends and my dogs! Mandy Lee Role: Digital Transitions Project Assistant - Kickstart Apprentice Hello everyone. I am Mandy and I am a Digital Transitions Project Assistant - Kick Start Apprentice. Prior to moving to Newcastle, I was studying BSc Social Analytics at Cardiff University from 2018-2021. As this field of studies might be new to lots of people, Social Analytics is about researching common social ideas shown from our daily lives, how we react to what happens around us. I was interested in education and identity. Consequently, I wanted to know what shaped friendships and how connections were made between the teacher and their students. I became conscious of how education could make us think that we had to know a certain amount of knowledge to understand how the world works, when I really believed that students learn better by taking action to cause a positive change in other people's lives. Thankfully, in Digital Transitions, I aim to help the young people by appreciating their photography and piecing together their ideas. After reading literature on how previous information from other social scientists could still be relevant to the world, I wanted to challenge myself to find connections in between strands of data from social matter. Since then, I have enjoyed writing and becoming more aware of society. It really made me understand how it is important to reach out to vulnerable people and help them boost their voices in representing the society. I am also interested in art, photography and watching documentaries. Giving young people the space, they need to develop their photography skills and grow their independence has been fantastic! Northern Ireland: Gareth Doherty Role: Project Manager My name is Gareth and I am the Project Manager for Headliners in Northern Ireland, I am responsible for staff management and the day to day running of the National Lottery Community Fund "Together We Can, Together We Will" programme aimed at working with young people who are socially isolated, on the autistic spectrum, or are leaving care or living in supported housing. I graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in European Politics where I was also editor of the student newspaper. I have extensive experience working in the community sector where I gained experience working with young people on different funded projects including the 2013 City of Culture year which was great to work on and good for the city. In my spare time I am a keen photographer, enjoy watching football and listening to music. Pádraig Ó Meiscill Role: Journalist/Project Worker Pádraig ó Meiscill is a journalist and writer based in Belfast. He has worked for various newspapers since he left school at 18. Pádraig has also been involved in numerous community and youth projects over the years, including the making of the Waiting on a Childhood documentary, focusing on the plight of children and young people living in conditions of housing stress in 2018.