Tricia has worked for more than 30 years with disadvantaged communities, service providers and decision-makers, to tackle poverty and empower local communities.

She co-founded the Priority Estates Project (PEP), a national research and development project, which pioneered tenant and neighbourhood management, promoted social enterprise, and empowered residents and workers from some of the most deprived areas in the country.

During this time she advised the government on policy and practice in social housing. She also served on a number of national advisory bodies including the government's Review of Co-operative Housing, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Inquiry into Income and Wealth, and UKCAP/Oxfam's Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power.

From 2001-2006 she was seconded to the department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) as senior community adviser, based in the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (NRU). Since 2006 she has worked as a free-lance consultant.

The focus of her work continues to be transforming poor communities through resident empowerment and neighbourhood management, drawing on models of participatory democracy and citizen engagement from around the world, especially the global south. She has organised a number of international events, working with the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, in collaboration with DfID, CLG, the LGA, IdeA and recently with partners in South Africa.

Tricia is a graduate of Newcastle University, the London School of Economics and the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee. She is a member of the Oxfam board of trustees; a director of ‘Just Change', an international ‘fair trading' network linking local communities in India and the UK; a trustee of ‘Faith in the Future' a Muslim-led, inter-faith project in east London; and an active member of TELCO, the east London branch of London Citizens. In 2007 she was awarded an MBE for her work with local communities and her contribution to the government's empowerment agenda.