Our people
Holly Smith
Civic Scholar
Holly is a PhD student at University College London, where her thesis looks at community action. She has a focus on high-rise estates in Britain from 1967 to 2015. An interest in social justice is at the heart of her research.
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.
Isaac Stanley
Nesta
Isabella Pereira
Head, Institute for Community Studies, 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.
Islam Jalaita
Community Advisory Board
Islam brings 15 years’ experience, knowledge, understanding and strategic thinking, working with diverse communities to empower people to lead and nurture resilient communities.
Jack Layton
Place Research and Impact Manager, Institute for Community Studies
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.
Jacob Coburn
Knowledge Exchange Manager
Joining the Institute for Community Studies in 2023, Jacob leads work focused on supporting anchor institutions to develop deeper more integrated relationships, aimed at enabling greater knowledge-sharing and strategic thinking.
