Our Trustees

I support Parallel Histories because of the moments it creates for young people and the impact on their lives. As young people analyse evidence and argue for different perspectives on controversial topics, you see them understand how they to debate respectfully but robustly with those with different views and backgrounds to them. As young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, present their arguments in front of their peers, you see them grow in confidence and understand how they can achieve their ambitions.

It is not just because I have seen this impact that I support Parallel Histories. It is not just because I have seen the evaluations and data. It is also because experiencing those sort of moments shaped me. That impact has opened up doors I couldn’t have imagined growing up, including being the first person in my family to go to university.

I’ve been involved with Parallel Histories almost since its inception – discussing with the founder, Michael Davies, on its name, fundraising and opportunities to scale.

I joined the board in 2023. Why? Firstly, because my experience as a teacher showed me how important it is for kids to understand how to deal with complex, contested history and develop the skills to listen, debate and reach across the aisle. Second, because I believed my experience as founder of a non-profit in education could help Parallel Histories to expand its work into more schools and more countries.

To the board, I’ve brought my experience in education as a teacher, and school governor, social entrepreneurship as founder of a non-profit reaching 5+ million young people a year, and governance sector as trustee of two charities (Refugees at Home and Just Like Us). I’ve also been in senior leadership and strategy roles as a Principal Advisor at the Behavioural Insights Team, and Partner at an international consultancy.

Since joining the board, I’ve been involved in designing the CEO recruitment process to hire our excellent new CEO, oversight in fundraising and budgeting and providing strategic guidance into the charity’s strategy. My mission is for every school student to have the chance to work with Parallel Histories, so they better understand conflict and develop the oracy and critical thinking skills they need to navigate the modern world.

As Michael’s wife, I’ve been closely involved in Parallel Histories from the beginning – from the long discussions with him over the kitchen table about how the Middle East was no longer being taught in schools, to the time we spent in the West Bank and Jerusalem where he began developing the dual narrative approach; from the early development of teaching materials when it was just him at his desk, to working with the designers who developed the charity’s brand identity and professionalised the website and the whole ‘look’ of the charity’s educational materials. I saw at close hand, month to month and year to year, how he helped teachers put his ideas into practice with delicacy and rigorous objectivity in an arena where every fact is contested and passions run extremely high.

I’m a novelist and former journalist, and for the last thirteen years I’ve been drawing on my own background and experience as a writer to help, both practically, and to deepen my grasp of the mission and work of Parallel Histories. As a freelance journalist I contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph and still review books for The Guardian. My fiction is especially interested in settlement and the theft of land, colonisation and religious conflict. My three novels, Clear (2024), The Mission House (2020) and West (2018) are published by Granta; two earlier short story collections (2014 and 2008) are published by Salt.

Michael always involved me in his preparation for his interactions with the media, from the first piece he wrote about Parallel Histories for The Guardian, to Helen Pidd’s early profile of a debate at Abrar Academy, to an especially prickly interview on BBC Radio Ulster.

In his search for someone to take over at the head of the charity after his death, he consulted me throughout on all the most promising candidates. This was a truly  momentous decision and I know he valued my judgement as someone who understood his vision and the qualities his successor would need to build on his work and be true to that vision. When he asked me to join the board of trustees – which I did in September 2024, just after he died – he said he wanted me there because I would bring strategic clarity; because I knew what Parallel Histories is, and what it isn’t.

In September I took on the job of copyediting Michael’s book Parallel Histories: everything you wanted to know about Israel and Palestine but were afraid to ask and I’ve been working closely with Joshua Hillis, Chair of Trustees, as we move through the production process towards publication.

Meanwhile I maintain close personal relationships with many of Parallel Histories’ most loyal supporters, including Julian Richer who co-founded the charity with his generous and continuing support.

To put it simply, Michael lived and breathed Parallel Histories and I, working a few yards away from him in our Edinburgh flat, lived and breathed it too. I’m here now as a trustee to contribute my skills and experience in any way I can.

I am the Head of School Development and Managing at the PTI (Prince’s Teaching Institute). I was an English teacher, AST and Deputy Headteacher for over 20 years working closely with the PTI as course designer for NTSDs and the English Residential Course. In 2018 I was seconded by the PTI as Head of Education Strategy and Development, establishing the Primary Hub model, developing leadership CPD and launching the Subject Leadership Certificate, including an international stream; leading to joining the PTI full time as Head of School Development and Membership in 2023. I am a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and I passionately believe that teachers should remain curious about their chosen subjects.

I am very supportive of Parallel Histories. I remain fully committed to the charity and to my role on the Board of Trustees; I find myself talking about this role increasingly widely with my friends and contacts and the role that we are playing in building empathy across a spectrum of people approaching these difficult issues from fundamentally different starting points.  By background I am an Audit Partner at Deloitte, with now almost 40 years serving public companies across Life Sciences and TMT and I am a Fellow of the ICAEW and have an MBA from Manchester.  My experience has been audit, due diligence, M&A, privatisation and IPO and I have worked across some of our most complex, global clients, listed in London, US and Europe.”