More effective appropriate adults Our People
President
Professor Lord Patel of Bradford OBE
- Member of the House of Lords
- Chair of Social Work England
- Forrmer Chair of the Mental Health Act Commission
Patron
Professor Gisli Gudjonsson CBE
- Emeritus Professor of Forensic Psychology
- Institute of Psychiatry of King's College London
- World-renowned expert on false confessions
Trustees
As a registered charity, NAAN is governed by a board of voluntary trustees. The board is made up of people elected by our membership from within our membership; and those coopted by the board to broaden its skills and experience.
Chair
Penelope Gibbs (coopted)
Penelope has extensive governance experience, including as Chair of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, and has also volunteered in the justice system as a magistrate. She was a producer for BBC radio before being inspired to influence social change by joining the charity sector. Having first worked for the Prison Reform Trust, in 2012 Penelope set up Transform Justice - a charity which advocates for a fairer, more open, humane and effective justice system in England and Wales. During the pandemic Penelope has observed magistrates’ court hearings and blogged on the impact of the video and digital justice.
Treasurer
Kevin Wheeler (coopted)
Kevin is a Chartered Accountant who originally qualified as an auditor with Big 6 firm, BDO. He has 10 years of experience running finance for organisations within listed and Private Equity backed SMEs. He is an experienced board member in growing organisations.
Non office-holding
Andy Ward (coopted)
With thirty years police service at the ranks of Constable and Sergeant, including six years as a Custody Officer, Andy retired from Durham Constabulary in 2019. He spent over 20 years of his policing career as a Police Federation representative, specialising in Health & Safety, Equality, Conduct & Performance, and Police Custody. Andy is now active as a Policing Advisor and Training Consultant.
Charlie Rose (elected)
Charlie is an active volunteer appropriate adult, working in the London Borough of Southwark for the past ten years. He is a retired biotech business executive, experienced company director, business manager and fundraiser. Has set up and worked with various London-based charities and non-profit organisations as founding member and trustee.
Donna Buffong (elected)
Donna is the Court Bail & Remand Co-ordinator for Wandsworth Youth Offending Team. Donna has over twenty years' experience as a social worker specialising in criminal justice. She is currently the Senior Court Officer assessing, supervising and managing interventions for young people between the ages of 10 -18, from first entry into the Criminal Justice System to Bail, Sentence or Disposal. Donna manages the Wandsworth Appropriate Adult Scheme.
Lynn Frusher (elected)
Lynn is one of three Regional Managers, and the national training lead, for TAAS (the UK's largest AA provider). Having previously working in acute nursing for 23 years, she has 10 years of experience on the frontline of AA work and 6 years in management. Lynn has co-ordinated the out-of-hours referral line, taking and filling referrals and dealing with out of hours safeguarding.
Matthew Haynes (elected)
Matthew is a Team Manager at Coventry Youth Offending Service. Youth justice and protecting the rights of children and young people are his vocation. He has 22 years’ experience in the criminal justice system, including 17 as a manager in Coventry YOS and 12 as a qualified social worker. He has completed Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation’s (HMIP) assessor training and is currently working on a Level 5 diploma in Management and Leadership.
Michelle Dixon (elected)
Michelle is Head of Service for Child Action North West's (CANW) Criminal Justice Service. Committed to the rights of young people, she is very involved in helping young people who have committed criminal offences to understand the consequences of their actions, encouraging them to say how they feel about the service, and to suggest ideas for continual improvement. CANW provides volunteer AA services, principally in the North West of England.
Sherrelle Collman (coopted)
Sherrelle is the Managing Director of the Caridon Foundation, a not-for-profit provider of housing support for vulnerable people. Her career spans both commercial business and the criminal justice charity sector. She is a passionate advocate for the value of good quality housing.
Stephen Gray (elected)
Stephen is the Chief Executive of Young Lives Foundation. He is a a specialist in the education and social care sector, starting as a Youth Worker and Advocate for looked-after children. He co-founded children's charity YLF in 2007 and has led it through a period of continuous development and improvement. He as managed the successful recommissioning of local authority contracts, launched new services and introduced a fundraising strategy to ensure the charity is sustainable. YLF provides volunteer AA services in Kent and Medway.
Sue Nash (elected)
Sue has twenty years of experience as a Social Worker for Wiltshire Youth Offending Team. Since 2012, she has been managing volunteers who undertake various roles including appropriate adults. She previously taught in a female prison but left wanting to do a job where she could try and prevent young people entering the custodial estate.
Staff
Chris Bath
Chief Executive
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Chris was appointed as NAAN’s chief executive in 2013. Prior to this role, he was Director of Unlock, the national charity for people with convictions. Chris joined the criminal justice charity sector in 2005, having gained a degree in Management Science from Warwick University’s Business School, and then worked in sales and marketing. He is a member of the Home Office PACE Strategy Board and a fellow of the RSA. He has been a consultant on the King’s Fund Cascading Leadership programme, a free peer-to-peer leadership development programme for voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations working in health and wellbeing.
Grev Wallington
Effective Practice Manager
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Grev was appointed as NAAN’s Effective Practice Manager in 2016. With 20 years of experience of leading appropriate adult schemes, he has personally acted as an AA in around 2,000 criminal and terrorism-related cases. Prior to joining the staff team, Grev contributed 9 years of voluntary work to NAAN as a trustee, including a period as Chair. He is a Fellow of the RSA, and a qualified trainer and facilitator who has delivered AA training to hundreds of staff and volunteers across many organisations.
Kate Tokley
Operations Manager
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Kate was appointed as NAAN’s Operations Manager in January 2022. Kate's charity career has spanned the local (volunteer-based charity Action 21) and the global (Oxfam). Prior to joining NAAN, she was Operations Director at People & Planet (the UK’s largest student-campaigning charity) and Inclusion & Engagement Manager at Generate (supporting adults with learning disabilities to connect to their communities as equal citizens). In previous roles, Kate has been responsible for operations, HR, financial administration and reporting, health and safety, safeguarding, web development, media and communications.
Join our team
Interested in working with us? Please view our current vacancies.