Meet OurProject Advisory Board

Creative Newham Announces Project Advisory Board for
Newham Place Partnership Programme

Creative Newham and the University of East London (UEL) are proud to announce the formation of a new Project Advisory Board to help shape the delivery of Newham’s Place Partnership Programme, an ambitious, cross-sector initiative funded by Arts Council England and other key partners.

The Project Advisory Board brings together thirteen influential leaders and sector specialists from across arts, culture, health, education, social justice, green tech, AI, philanthropy and beyond. Their role is to provide independent, strategic guidance to this key, locally focussed culture-led programme.

Led by UEL as the accountable delivery organisation, the Newham Place Partnership (NPP) represents a major step forward for place-based cultural development in East London. At the heart of this work is Creative Newham—a dynamic and independent alliance of over 130 organisations committed to growing cultural mobility and opportunity across the borough. The NPP comprises two key strands: the Cultural Producers programme, which cultivates a new generation of creative leaders from Newham, and Powerful Partnerships, which forges new collaborations between the creative industries and other key sectors. The Project Advisory Board has been established to act as a critical friend to the project, offering expert advice, detecting early challenges, amplifying impact, and helping the team remain agile and relevant.

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Project Advisory Board Members

Emma Wilcox (Chair), Juma Harding-Dimmock, Kamara Gray, Dr Penelope Mendonca, Jordan Wiliams, Aoise Keogan Nooshabadi, Suzanne Bull MBE, Dr Yesim Deveci, Rose Sinclair MBE, Clara Giraud, Dr Dave O'Brien, Sanaz Amidi and Anne Pordes.

Aoise is a social entrepreneur and advisor with experience supporting charities, social enterprises, and mission-led organisations. She is the Co-founder and COO of Supply Change, a platform that connects buyers with social and environmental suppliers, helping to embed social value into everyday procurement.

Aoise has advised a range of organisations on fundraising, governance, and strategic planning. She has worked with charities such as Digital Opportunity Trust, SOSAD, and REAL ML, contributing to programmes that support displaced people, mental health services, and inclusive employment. Her work often focuses on building partnerships and systems that help organisations grow sustainably and with impact.

She is committed to social entrepreneurship, specifically for young and displaced people. Aoise has served as a Queen Mary’s University London Incubator Mentor, Digital Opportunity Trust Youth Leadership Advisory Board member and sat on the Gradventure Judging panel. She is a Catalyst 2030 Founding Member and a Trustee of HostNation, a refugee befriending charity.

Clara Giraud lives in Newham, and has worked as an arts producer since 2009 with a range of artists, and as Project Manager of Unlimited, a commissioning programme for arts by disabled artists. She was co-chair of the board Chisenhale Dance Space 2018-2024, and a passionate advocate of independent artists, and culture in our daily lives.
She joined Greater London Authority in 2019, where she currently works across Creative Health and Wellbeing Policy. A strategic and visionary leader with a proven track record in cross-sector innovation, driving impactful initiatives across the cultural industries and public sectors in the UK and internationally. Skilled in policy development, forging strategic partnerships, and managing complex, multidisciplinary projects, she co-designs transformative programs that achieve sector-level change.
Drawing on her background as a theatre and performance maker, Clara leverages creative processes to inspire collaboration, foster connection, and amplify narratives that catalyse positive change.
Clara joins the Project Advisory Board in a personal capacity.

Dave O'Brien is a globally recognised expert on the cultural and creative industries. Since completing his PhD on urban cultural policy in the Department of Sociology at the University of Liverpool, he has written extensively on key issues in the cultural and creative economy. These include the use of culture in urban regeneration, how policymakers use evidence, the stratification of cultural consumption, and inequalities in cultural work. His recent book, Culture is bad for you, co-authored with Orian Brook and Mark Taylor, was widely praised, and he has recently published a second edition.
His policy work includes the ground-breaking Measuring the value of culture report, and he was a co-author on the Panic! report, as well as the Creative Majority and Making the Creative Majority reports. He has twice been an advisor to the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiries, and has recently worked with the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee on their At Risk: Our creative future report. He was also a UKRI Fellow at the UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
He is part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, and is a member of the AHRC's Advisory Board.
He is the co-editor of the Palgrave Sociology of the Arts book series, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cultural Economy, and the host of the New Books Network’s New Books in Critical Theory channel.

With thirty years’ experience in the cultural and creative industries, Emma’s specialism is in purposeful placemaking, delivering culture-led regeneration with equity and relevance. Her expertise has been honed across a wide range of roles, including as the founding Director of Creative Estuary, as a consultant to local government and to arts and cultural organisations including Turner Contemporary, Creative Folkestone and Culture Trust Luton. She has senior executive experience, leading complex projects and programmes, as well as a track record as a creative producer.
A strategic thinker, Emma is flexible and innovative with a track record of building partnerships across the public and private sectors to maximise investment and add value to complex programmes. Emma has significant experience as a speaker and chair at conferences and in the facilitation of events and roundtable discussions.
Emma is an experienced board member and Chair with Non-executive Director and committee experience. She is trustee-elect of Clowns Without Borders and an Advisory Board member of Sea for Yourself commissioning programme in Plymouth. She recently stepped down as Chair of People United, an arts charity using creativity to elicit and support positive health and wellbeing, placing Radical Care at the heart of their work. Emma is committed to supporting organisations focused on delivery with and for communities, with equity and relevance.
Emma is firmly committed to equity and inclusion, ensuring that diverse voices and those with lived experience are engaged in shaping relevant and meaningful solutions to the challenges and opportunities they face. Emma is a Fellow of the RSA and a member of Women on Boards.

Jordan Williams, Artistically known as "AURA-KL" (Oracle), and founder of Adversatile Artists, is a interdisciplinary creative hailing from East London. Jordan has made a remarkable impact on the creative industries, some of his achievements include the prestigious BSC Emerging Cinematographer recognition and honored as one of "100 Black Creatives Inspiring Change" by The Dots, highlighting his influential presence in Film, Music, Design and community... Adversatile Artists is an Interdisciplinary creative production house that champions neuro-divergent talent to propel the Arts and Societal progress.
Currently curating a team of unlikely superheroes.

Juma Harding-Dimmock is a cultural engagement strategist and artist with a specialist focus on creative health. As Head of Engagement at The Line, she leads the development of inclusive programmes and organisational strategies that use art to support wellbeing, foster social connection, and remove barriers to cultural participation. Her work is grounded in deep community consultation and shaped through co-creation, centring care-led practice and long-term impact. Juma has led initiatives that create pathways into the creative sector for young people, embed access and equity into institutional strategy, and amplify underrepresented voices in cultural decision-making. She previously worked at the Museum of London, piloting youth-led representation initiatives, and with the Council for British Archaeology, co-developing national frameworks for inclusive youth engagement. She studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and is currently studying for an MBA in Creative and Cultural Leadership. Her artistic practice explores social and political themes through nature and symbolism.

Kamara is the Founder and Artistic Director of Artistry Youth Dance, a London based youth dance company that supports young people of African and Caribbean heritage, empowering them through creative dance development. She’s an award-winning dance artist, teacher, and choreographer, having worked extensively in the UK, Australia, and Kuwait. Previous teaching includes: Urdang Academy, Buckinghamshire New University, City and Islington College, the Royal Academy of Dance school, and the British Academy of International Arts (Kuwait). As a choreographer and performer, her credits include film, television and live events. Kamara is also on the Board of Trustees for English National Ballet.

Dr Penelope Mendonça has been an independent graphic facilitator and cartoonist for 25 years, serving UK public and voluntary sectors, and global organisations. Her work has been published widely, translated into multiple languages, exhibited in the International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (Geneva), Westminster Abbey, the Ōtoromiro (Aotearoa, New Zealand), and Rich Mix (London). Commissions include visual methods for workforce and public engagement, education, research and co-production, as well as developing written policy submissions.

Pen’s career represents a long-standing commitment to addressing poverty and inequity, promoting community-led approaches, and transforming health and social care systems. She has contributed to the campaign for justice for the Windrush Generation, was part of the team leading the Banknotes of Colour campaign (2018-19), supported South Asian Heritage Month and 100 Great Black Britons. Her award-winning article on visual representations of women’s leadership in education was published by Frontiers, her artwork commended by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement.
Through a PhD, Pen developed the concept of values-based cartooning for examining social issues (Central Saint Martins, 2019), offering an ethical framework for visual practice. She is a lecturer, and associate of the Comics Research Hub at London College of Communication (UAL), where she taught Contextual and Theoretical Studies.
Pen grew up in Aotearoa in a mixed heritage whānau. She has worked in mental health, substance misuse and learning disability services as a manager, a support worker, and a cleaner. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, a member of UAL Comics Research Hub, and of the Community of Practice for Migrant Victim-Survivors of Domestic Abuse (City St George’s). As a self-employed single mum raising a talented artist, Pen has painted the pandemic, drawn disruption, documented discrimination, and poured pints. She is delighted to join Creative Newham’s Place Partnership Advisory Board.

Rose Sinclair MBE is a Reader Design Education, Goldsmiths, University of London
Her ongoing PhD doctoral research is distinctive with its focus on Black British women their crafting practices, as demonstrated in textiles networks such as Dorcas Clubs.

Rose’s works utilise public engagement and participatory immersive workshops, in site specific-installation spaces such as the V&A London, House for an Art Lover, Timespan in Helmsdale, Scotland. Her work on Dorcas Clubs has featured on national TV in ‘Craftivism: Making a Difference’ BBC4 Feb 2021.

She co-curated the first retrospective of Caribbean textile designer Althea McNish, in 2022 at the William Morris Gallery 'Althea McNish: Colour is Mine' and The Whitworth in Manchester. Rose ‘s latest research, is the first monograph about Althea McNish, and co-curated installation with Craftspace, ‘Dorcas Stories from the Front Room, Textiles Narratives, Now and Then’ (23rd Sept – 29th Oct 2024)

Rose has authored several textile books, and co-edited chapters her most recent works being ‘Tracing back to trace forwards, What it means/takes to be a Black Designer' in (2021), Igoe (Ed) Textile Design Theory in the Making; Does Design do Race (Dec 2022) in Hardy (Ed) Debates in Design & Technology Education'. She Co-Editor-in Chief of The Textile: Journal of Cloth and Culture and is Co-Editor of the Journal of Textile Research and Practice. Previously Chair of the Equity Advisory Council at the Crafts Council, Rose is now a Trustee at the Crafts Council, a Trustee of the Textile Society UK and a Heritage Crafts Ambassador Heritage Crafts UK, and an Associate member of the APPG Group for Craft, and a founding member of the UBAE (United Black Art Educators) which is part of the NSEAD. Rose was awarded an MBE in 2024 for Services to the Arts.

Sanaz Amidi is an international consultant with 20+ years of experience in the creative economy, specialising in cultural leadership, placemaking, and strategy. Previously, as CEO she doubled investment at Rosetta Arts, prioritising diversity and creative health. As an executive coach, she empowers leaders to overcome challenges like work-life balance, isolation, and burnout. Sanaz serves on the boards of the English National Ballet and Creative United, driving significant growth.
www.sanazamidi.com.

Suzanne is a creative consultant, supporting disability diversity where it intersects with arts and culture, climate sustainability and cancer patient advocacy. As a disabled, working-class woman, Suzanne proves that lived experience is a powerful tool for systemic change, having held senior management and leadership roles for the majority of her career. Suzanne was publicly recognised with an MBE for her services to music, arts and disabled people in the Queen’s Honours in June 2013 and has won other awards since. In 2000, Suzanne founded the charitable organisation, ‘Attitude is Everything’, but after 25 years, stepped down as Founder to pursue new adventures. The Newham Partnership Programme Advisory Board excites Suzanne because it allows her to bring her experience of working in creative partnerships that change people’s lives, to the borough of Newham.

Dr Yeṣim Deveci works relationally connecting people, places and ideas; she centres respect, kindness and justice in all aspects of her work. Yeṣim grew up in Newham and has lived and worked in the borough for the past 25 years.
As Director of Careers & Enterprise in the School of Childhood and Social Care at the University of East London (UEL), Yeṣim leads on developing cross-sector collaborative partnerships. She is a Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Studies and member of the Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees, and Belonging at UEL. She was previously Director of the Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) at UEL which supports displaced learners to access Higher Education. Yesim is a Visiting Lecturer at The Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust and a Co-opted School Governor at Sandringham Primary School in Newham.
Yeṣim’s work is informed by 15 years’ experience in the voluntary and community sector. As Founder/Director of Dost Centre for Young Refugees & Migrants, she led the development of a ‘360º relationship-based model’ of practice offering advice, advocacy, therapeutic casework, education and social activities for children and young people aged 11 – 25, separated from their families and subject to UK immigration control. Yesim’s doctoral research with young people with ‘no papers,’ and recent publications explore the everyday lives, life histories, hopes and dreams of undocumented youth in the UK.
As a creative relational practitioner and leader, Yeṣim is committed to inclusive, collective and community-led action to support and sustain creativity, solidarity and human dignity.