Our people
Meet our skilled team, expert partners, and influential trustees.
Aderonke Ademola
Research Officer
Aderonke brings experience in research, education, and advocacy, with a focus on EDI and the criminal justice system, alongside skills in qualitative methods and inclusive education.
Al Mathers
Associate
Having previously been Director of Research and Learning at the RSA, and Head of Research at Good Things Foundation, Al is passionate about The Young Foundation’s commitment to realising a fairer future with communities, and supporting evidence-driven social change.
Amelia Clayton
Senior Researcher
After completing her masters in sociology, Amelia joined The Young Foundation as a research officer and was promoted to Senior Researcher in 2025. Amelia has a passion for uplifting marginalised voices, especially among disabled and chronically ill communities, and in fringe subcultures.
Charlotte Healy
Head of Social Business and Innovation
Charlotte’s background is working as an Economic Development Programme Manager in Local Government. She loves all things social enterprise and is interested in how we can use social innovation to create a more equal society.
Damian Hebron
Senior Innovation Practitioner
Damian is passionate about involving citizens in decision-making and has worked for more than 20 years in arts, health, campaigning and community engagement. He has campaigned extensively to promote the impact of creativity on people’s health.
Daniel Farag
Director of Innovation and Practice
Dan leads our practical social change and innovation work with communities, public systems, and social enterprises. He has worked across the public, private and charitable sectors, and was previously a director of Nesta’s Health Lab.
Gary Fawdrey
Senior Innovation Practitioner
Gary leads our grant management processes. He is an experienced project, programme and grant manager, specialising in social innovation. Prior to joining The Young Foundation, he supported social innovators and designed innovation funding programmes through roles with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund and Nesta’s Challenge Works.
Iqra Farooq
HR Manager
Iqra manages the HR department and provides support across the organisation. Prior to joining The Young Foundation in 2017, she worked at AEG Europe, based at the O2, in a similar capacity. Iqra has more than five years’ HR experience and is CIPD-qualified.
Isabella Pereira
Head, Institute for Community Studies
Previously Head of Qualitative Research Methods at Ipsos’s Social Research Institute, Isabella is a qualitative and mixed methods expert with more than 15 years’ experience in researching vulnerable audiences. Her published research includes work on the resettlement of Syrian refugees for the Home Office, and on the Living Home Standard for Shelter.
Jack Layton
Place Research and Impact Manager
Jack is passionate about making our towns and cities better places to live, and his PhD thesis focused on the role of urban public sports facilities as social infrastructures. Jack has written several widely read and highly cited articles that have developed the concept of social infrastructure in a UK context. At The Young Foundation, he works to ensure people’s voices across the country are heard and their needs prioritised.
Jem Hai
Senior Researcher
Jem joined The Young Foundation in 2023 after having worked as a Research Assistant for a charity supporting children living in deprivation.
Jennifer Clayton
Innovation Practitioner
Jen’s background is in designing and delivering support and scaling initiatives for social innovators and entrepreneurs. Before joining The Young Foundation, she held integral roles in grant management delivery, challenge prize design, and business mentor brokering at UnLtd and Nesta.