Our Board
Sue Williams
Chair
An artist and creative at heart Sue originally trained as a painter. Recognising and experiencing numerous barriers that she experienced as a disabled person developing a creative practise in the arts she began to focus and work in equality. Initially this involved developing, designing and delivering a range of projects promoting inclusion and equality. Latterly her work has focused on working in large public sector organisations to develop equality policy and strategy. She is specifically interested in the complexity and challenges of developing initiatives that promote cultural change and equality at an institutional level.
She has previously worked as a Senior Diversity Officer at Arts Council England’s National Office developing national policy, strategy, funding streams and exploratory commissioning programmes. As a result she has developed has an in-depth understanding of equality legislation and its application within organisational settings and policy making.
After leaving the Arts Council Sue completed a Masters in Illustration at Camberwell College of Art. She currently splits her time between working in higher education and pursuing her own artistic practice. She has undertaken residencies in Australia and at the Watershed in Bristol, selling and exhibiting her work (whenever possible). She remains passionate about and committed to equality and inclusion in the arts and education.
Lara Jonah
Lara is a Chartered Forensic Psychologist, with over 20 years experience working in criminal justice settings. She is currently one of the national clinical leads for domestic abuse programmes, within His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service.
In previous roles Lara has worked as a head of psychology, in large and complex prison. In this role she developed and led on a number of initiatives and was awarded a Butler Trust award in 2009 for her work with difficult to manage prisoners.
She has a keen interest in the arts, including theatre, literature and poetry. Lara has previously set up and run book clubs for work colleagues and friends, one of which has run for over 15 years. She routinely organises trips to the theatres amongst friends and colleagues. She is currently in the process of setting up a ‘theatre club’, which will aim to create an interest in fringe theatre performances in non-theatregoers.
Uchenna Izundu
Uchenna is an experienced strategic communications and content leader with an interest in the arts sector and, in particular, raising the profile of black artists and productions. She has led on diversity and engagement programmes targeting black talent in the media and arts sectors at the Royal Shakespeare Company, FT, BBC, Channel 4, ITN, and The Guardian.
Cristian Patilea
Cristian comes from the financial sector. He has a degree in international trade and a Summa cum Laudae MBA in Finance. He did investment banking, international banking and cross border loan workout before settling at Ambac Assurance UK in 2007 where he is now a director in portfolio risk management.
In the arts sector, he has a full feature film scriptwriting credit for “Monies, cons and bones” (2010), two playwriting prizes in Romania, a play selected by the “Page to Stage” Liverpool festival in 2017 and a couple of short plays staged in London. He also sits on the Board of the Daisy Farris Dance Collective.
Rebecca O’Neill
Rebecca O’Neill has held senior Communications roles across the financial services sector in listed, unlisted and trade association organisations for over twenty years. Having held senior roles with Fitch Group, ISDA, Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Rebecca firmly believes in the importance of strong and effective Communications in achieving strategic business goals.
With a strong interest in theatre and the arts, Rebecca is a passionate advocate for the full inclusion and participation of all disabled members of society and wants to see platforms and opportunities created that secure the full participation and representation of all voices in society.
Rebecca is co-Head of Alumni with the non-for-profit membership organisation, Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF).
Kate Lovell
Kate is a disabled and neurodivergent writer, director, dramaturg, script-reader and theatre maker. She is as an artist-activist, making and supporting work that pushes for social change.
She worked for five years at Theatre Royal Stratford East as their Agent for Change, pushing for a step-change in the theatre industry for deaf and disabled creatives and audiences.
Kate has provided access consultancy for the Young Vic and smaller touring companies. Kate sits on the advisory board for BLINK – a dance-theatre company with neurodiverse and learning-disabled leadership.
Kate is also a journalist and has written for Disability Arts Online, Arts Professional, the Theatre Times, and a regular blogger for the Direct Action Project.
Kate has made theatre work underneath railway arches in Brixton, on Dunraven beach in South Wales, promenading the streets of Scarborough, in the bowels of Shoreditch Town Hall, amidst the residential estates of Camden and outside King’s Cross and St Pancras stations.
She has made work for traditional theatre spaces including the Young Vic, Camden People’s Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Wales Millennium Centre, Neadd Ogwen, Slung Low’s Hub, Bloomsbury Theatre and the Lakeside in Colchester.
Kate is currently working on two disabled and neurodivergent-led digital arts projects with accessibility at their heart.
