Our Trustees
Our Board of Trustees
Navdeep Deol
Navdeep joined as Chair and Trustee in December 2022.
Navdeep has been active with local community groups in West London for over four years, initially through litter picking but now championing street and tree champions, encouraging collaboration across London and drawing links between direct community action and local government policy on important issues such as the loss of biodiversity, water and waste management, enhancing the urban landscape and linking communities to nature.
Navdeep has always lived in London and is incredibly proud of the city, its diversity and landscape. It’s a place to discover and he is keen to encourage people to create and use the many green and blue corridors to explore the full potential of the city and our neighbours.
Emily Brennan
Emily is Forest Research’s Head of Science Centre where she oversees the provision of science, data and evidence to inform government decisions.
Emily has varied experience in natural and cultural heritage with roles at The National Trust, the South Downs National Park Authority, as Director of Conservation, Education and Outreach at London Wildlife Trust and conservation and project roles with ZSL, Butterfly Conservation, the Natural History Museum and WWF-UK.
Emily has completed a Clore Leadership Fellowship, the internationally- recognised programme for developing leaders in the heritage and cultural sectors and helped assure the sustainability of the Olympics and Paralympics as a Commissioner for the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012.
Jo Dimitri
Jo is a Senior Programme Manager for the National Trust, leading their programme in London to address unequal access to nature, beauty and history. Over 11 years with the charity, she has built up extensive experience delivering major infrastructure and improvement projects within heritage settings as well as leading large partnership initiatives in Birmingham, including the restoration of Roundhouse Birmingham and future plans for Moseley Road Baths.
A project professional for over 20 years, Jo started out in the events industry managing corporate, private and charity events across the UK before making the move into the cultural and heritage sector. Prior to joining the National Trust, she worked at the Natural History Museum on major public engagement events, projects and exhibitions, including the Ice Rink and Wildlife Photographer of the Year; and managed government investment into museums in the West Midlands, South West and London as part of the former DCMS Renaissance programme.
Kalpana Arias
Kalpana Arias is a guerrilla gardener, technologist, nature rights activist and food grower, writer, speaker and the founder of Nowadays, a social enterprise fighting for urban nature. Alongside Nowadays, Kalpana campaigns for the right to grow and nature rights through urban gardening projects and tech policy reforms.
She has been researching technological ecologies for over 7 years, delivered a global TED talk, spoken at the United Nations, featured on Evening Standard’s 30 under 30 list of Climate Activists On A Mission To Save London and alongside National Park City she is also a Trustee for the GROW charity.
In addition to her not for profit work, Kalpana is an environmental consultant for corporations and governments and works with leading charities, institutions, brands and grassroots change-makers.
Melissa Miners
Melissa has been working in sustainability strategy for over 12 years. She is currently at Unilever, with a remit of driving business action in support of and aligned with public policy relating to nature and climate adaptation.
Previous roles have included Sustainability Communications Manager at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, sustainability manager at the PR firm, Hill & Knowlton, advising clients such as WWF, HSBC, IHG. She previously took a sabbatical in New Zealand working for the Department of Conservation on indigenous bird conservation and for the Green Party, New Zealand. She has a masters degree in Publishing and a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Linguistics.
Claire EAGLE
Claire is a policy and strategy professional focused on cities and net zero. In her current role at the Connected Places Catapult, Claire is helping to scale innovation-led urban regeneration projects across the UK. Previously, she worked on transport policy at the Greater London Authority on London’s transport policy, supporting the Deputy Mayor for Transport in public transport-related areas.
Claire came to London six years ago to pursue a Masters of Public Administration at the London School of Economics. Previously she lived in three different cities in Canada, where she worked in strategy consulting with KPMG. Claire credits her experience across cities with sparking her passion for accessible, green, and wild spaces in urban environments, as she has felt firsthand the impact that these spaces have on urban life.
Shereen Chung-Blake
Shereen is the Future Gardeners Program Coordinator and Safeguarding Lead at Bankside Open Spaces Trust. The Future Gardeners programme has won two industry recognised awards from The Royal Parks Guild and the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and has supported more than 300 students since the course began in 2016.
A PGCE qualified teacher and senior leader with seventeen years experience in education and a BA Hon(s) in Marketing, Shereen transitioned into the Horticulture Industry just over two years ago after founding a community garden and allotment in her local area and then deciding to pursue qualifications in Practical Horticulture, Environment Conservation, Sustainability and completing an RHS Bursary Study Tour exploring Community Gardening in Housing Developments across Scotland.
Shereen is passionate about the Future Gardeners Program and the opportunity it presents to address social inequalities in the Horticulture Sector and wider society. As Southwark Council Healthy Environment Champion and included in the “Hort Week Heroes of 2024” and “Hort Week 100+ Women In Horticulture” lists, Shereen believes in community engagement and empowerment through education, art and horticulture. Shereen has lived in Washington DC, Porto – Portugal, Lagos – Nigeria and Amman Jordan but her home will always be Queen’s Road, Peckham!
Alice Harrison
Alice has over fifteen years’ experience as a campaign strategist working to persuade governments to protect our climate and environment. She currently sits on the Strategic Leadership team at the campaigns group Global Witness, which exposes how the industries fuelling the climate crisis profit from destruction and stands with the people fighting back.
Previously Alice worked at the non-profit Transparency International, where she worked with a global team based across Latin America, Africa and Asia to ensure climate finance was reaching those who needed it most. She began her career as a news writer at Deutsche Welle, Germany’s state broadcaster.
Alice has taken more of a hands-on approach to protecting nature too, organising a group of volunteers to clean up a waterway that ran through her community in London. She also liaised with her MP, the council and local conservation groups to tackle sources of pollution and educate residents across the borough in the benefits and joys of protecting nature.
Sylvia Perrins
Sylvia has worked as a Non-Executive Director and Trustee on a variety of charity boards over the past 25 years. She has been a NED for an acute London Hospital Trust, a Trustee for the British Pilgrimage Trust and is currently Chair of Trustees for a multi academy Trust in South East London.
She is particularly interested in strong governance and financial probity to ensure a charity can fulfil its purpose and mission. A qualified teacher and professional accountant with a Masters in Business Administration, Sylvia has combined these skills in past roles such as CEO of the National Skills Academy for Financial Services to help older students and young adults improve their personal money management. She recently stepped down as Finance and Strategy Director for two charities to enjoy her retirement and increase her voluntary work.
Sylvia has lived and worked in and around London all her life and truly values the diversity and open spaces the city has to offer. She is committed to maintaining the environment and encouraging more people to access the outdoors to improve their health and wellbeing.
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