Jo is a researcher and project manager with extensive experience in qualitative research into health, disability, homelessness, and social policy. She is passionate about participatory research methodologies and ensuring people most impacted by social issues are central to developing solutions to them.

Previous work:

Jo previously worked as Head of Research at Groundswell, a charity which aims to amplify the voices of people with experience of homelessness to create solutions to homelessness and health inequalities. She completed her PhD at the University of Glasgow exploring welfare conditionality for Disabled people.

As Director of Communications at IVAR, Katy leads on the articulation and sharing of our work and vision, helping to ensure we have the greatest impact possible.

Previous work:

Before joining IVAR, Katy was Director of Communications at New Local, a think tank and network dedicated to transforming public services through community power. Prior to that, she led communications for Prisoners’ Education Trust and held roles with various international development charities. She began her career as a journalist, reporting for a global legal journal for a few years before moving into the third sector.

Other interests:

Katy is an avid reader who has kept a book club alive for 12 years. She has a penchant for trashy TV, while also appreciating thought-proving documentaries. She is also a podcast enthusiast, enjoys planning holidays, and is surprisingly good at table tennis.

Ben has supervised over 250 IVAR projects, ranging from small organisational reviews with grassroots groups to national programmes of support and learning. He was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List in June 2024.

Previous work: Ben has worked in and around the voluntary sector for over 30 years, as a volunteer, manager, trustee and researcher. His primary experiences as a practitioner were in the housing and homelessness field, working with homeless families and campaigning for welfare rights; and in the HIV/AIDS sector.

Other interests: Ben is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck University and a Governor of his local Foundation Stage School.

Katie is an experienced researcher and project manager. She has a particular interest in practice learning on participatory action research methods and has contributed to a range of academic and sector publications.

Previous work: Katie’s work has included project managing a multi-country action research study with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). She has worked extensively with voluntary, community and disability sector organisations in the UK and overseas. Katie has a Masters in Social Research from Birkbeck, University of London.

Other interests: Katie spends her time running on the pavements of London, hiking up mountains and kayaking on the nearest available body of water.

Sonakshi leads on Connecting Health Communities. She has led IVAR’s learning partnership with Comic Relief and worked to develop a new approach to cross-sector partnership working in Lancashire and South Cumbria.  

Her interests are in livelihoods, health, women empowerment, political economy, rural and urban poverty, and community-led development. 

Previous work: Sonakshi has experience of enabling better livelihoods for different rural communities in India. She has experience of working with national and international donor agencies in India including International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Ford Foundation, and World Bank. 

Other interests: Sonakshi is passionate about making people’s lives better and can also be found in experimenting with new cuisines. 

Houda is a researcher with experience of working in public participation and community engagement. 

Previous work: Houda has held roles at Involve and Public-i. She has worked on programmes to improve public engagement in local and national policy-making, health and social care, and science and technology research.  

Houda worked on a national programme aiming to give citizens a say in NHS decision-making, leading on outreach and relationship building with community and voluntary organisations. 

Other interests: Houda is interested in how the voluntary sector work with statutory organisations. She is interested in how research can support the voices of service users, communities, and citizens in the design and delivery of welfare services. 

Previous work: Before joining IVAR, she worked as Office Manager for the Inland Waterways Advisory Council (IWAC), a Non-Departmental Government Body, which advised Government, navigation authorities and others about the use and development of the inland waterways, prior to them becoming a charitable trust.

She has also worked for the BBC, the Royal Air Force Museum, in publishing, for an internet company, the General Optical Council (the regulatory body for opticians) and the Pensions Management Institute (the educational and professional body for those working in pensions).

Other interests: Diana is a chartered librarian, and has used her information management skills throughout her varied career.

Alex works across a diverse range of IVAR’s research projects and brings both qualitative and quantitative research skills to the table. She is currently leading on IVAR’s work on AI with funders and charities and has developed the Open and Trusting framework on risk.

She has a passion for telling stories with data and driving change in the sector.

Previous work: Alex almost became an architect before following her interest in researching social issues. She worked for the Gauteng City-Region Observatory in Johannesburg, providing insights for local governments on issues such as the challenges of parenting in the city, and the quality of life of residents. She has a PhD in urban planning from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Other interests: Alex loves art and dabbles in painting with watercolours. After hours you can find her at the cinema, watching birds in nature reserves, or exploring heritage architecture.

Annie is committed to working towards equality and the widening of access to social opportunities.  

She leads IVAR’s work on social technology, working with CAST, Comic Relief and Paul Hamlyn Foundation to explore how technology can be more usable and relevant for social welfare services.  

Annie manages IVAR’s work as the Learning Partner to the Pears #iwill NHS network. She also manages our Leading in Uncertainty peer support sessions.  

Previous work: Annie has worked in rehabilitation centres and on education projects in Africa and the UK. She has a degree in History and Education and a Masters in Developmental Psychology from the University of Cambridge and worked as a researcher for the Tudor Trust. 

Vanessa manages IVAR’s portfolio of events. 

Previous work: Vanessa started her career at the BBC, working on community engagement campaigns. After a career break to bring up her two children, Vanessa worked as a primary school Teaching Assistant.  More recently, she coordinated Reading Oasis, a literacy campaign for the charity United Way UK which places library resources into primary schools. 

Other interests: Vanessa enjoys working on campaigns which engage local communities and affect positive social change. She is a volunteer Events Manager for The National HIV Story Trust. Vanessa has a degree in English, Film and Drama from Reading University. 

Vita is an experienced researcher and project manager. She is Vice Chair of Voscur and board member of the Voluntary Sector Studies Network.  

She is interested in organisational change, welfare service provision, community participation and empowerment, emotions and wellbeing in voluntary sector work and is a co-author in the third report on Human Learning Systems. 

Previous work: Before joining IVAR, Vita worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership, Open University. She has worked on projects such as Lloyds Bank Foundation ‘The Value of Small’; Tracking the Transforming Rehabilitation programme and collaborative leadership within the voluntary sector. 

Keeva works across several projects that support IVAR’s research programme, including researching organisations’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the use of technology in small organisations. 

Previous work: Before joining IVAR, Keeva worked at NCVO producing outputs for the UK Civil Society Almanac. She has also worked at research agencies on large-scale surveys that provided a range of statistics on the UK population, including on crime, health and nutrition. Keeva has been involved in work exploring diversity in the voluntary sector. 

Other interests: Keeva is interested in how research can break down power dynamics between researchers and participants and is passionate about research that brings about practical advice and real change.