Meet the Team
The COREN is led by:
Dilwara Ali – Dilwara is the chief officer of Blackburn with Darwen Healthy Living. She is an expert in community level service delivery, and in working collaboratively with public health and policy makers. Dilwara has been involved in the ARC (and under its previous name CLAHRC) for many years and is passionate about building productive relationships between the voluntary sector and researchers.
Jan Campbell – an has worked in health-related services in both the NHS and in the voluntary sector for more than 30 years. She is currently based at Sefton CVS as a Health and Social Care Officer, where she facilitates the Health and Social Care Forum and the Sefton In Mind Forum. Through being involved in CoREN she is looking to strengthen the relationship between experts by learning, practice and experience, bringing academics and communities closer together.
Joe Hannett – Joe Hannett is the Partnership Manager at Community Futures. Based in Preston, Joe has been a leading voice in building VCSE leadership and governance structures in the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICS.
Tracy Hopkins – Tracy is CEO of Citizens Advice Blackpool and has almost 20 years’ experience as a CEO in the VCFSE. Whilst at Citizens Advice, Tracy has implemented new initiative including Social Prescribing, debt and mental health services and Young Citizens Advice. Working with communities experiencing some of the worse and most entrenched health inequalities lead Tracy to explore the potential of research. She is currently pursuing a pre-doctoral fellowship with the NIHR, studying clinical research at Lancaster University. Tracy also Chairs the VCFSE Leadership Group across the Fylde Coast and represents the VCFSE as a participant member on the board of Lancashire and South Cumbria’s ICB.
Neil Joseph – Neil is one of the Public Advisors on the group. As a community activist/volunteer in Knowsley with nearly 30 years involvement in grass roots projects, Neil believes that co-production & Public Involvement are cornerstones of improving services, locally, nationally and globally. His interests include, social & environmental justice, lifelong learning, improving mental & physical health, social prescribing and non-clinical interventions.
Conal Land – Conal is the Research and Campaigns Officer at Citizens Advice Blackpool. Conal has recently begun to work on projects relating to health research. He worked on the NIHR’s CRN’s Research Ready Communities pilot and presented the findings at the CRN’s Strategic Leadership Summit. Conal is also a member of the NIHR’s Under-Served Communities Programme Board. Conal is passionate about bringing research closer to the community and ensuring that researchers are community-ready and able to engage people who have previously been under-served by health research.
Annie MacLean – Annie is the Community Development Manager at ForHousing, a Housing Association based in the North West of England that looks after 24,000 homes. Annie has a wealth of experience in Community Development, working closely with communities to empower them to tackle issues in their local areas and build on local successes. She also works closely with various charities and community and voluntary sector organisations to deliver projects and services and develop partnerships that support people’s health and wellbeing and help to improve lives.
Amelia Nicholson– Amelia is the Service Development Manager for Cumbria CVS. Amelia has a background in social psychology and is passionate about empowering others to be connected with their social environments through collaboration and public participation. She has vast experience with funding and managing projects as well as leading partnership working across all sectors. Amelia has a long history of working with the public sector and moved to CCVS 12 months ago with an ambition to foster wider collaboration and change across Cumbria’s third sector, while championing the benefits of increasing digital developments and evaluation techniques.
Omotayo Opaola – Omotayo is the Evaluation and Research Officer with Cumbria CVS, with a background in Social Research.
Claire Selby – Claire is the stakeholder researcher and engagement manager for the ARC-NWC and is responsible for keeping the train on the tracks. Claire’s background is working in the third sector – in arts and heritage, volunteering and in public health – as well as in management of research programmes and is passionate about building relationships and creating networks to form more joined up ways of thinking and working which will help improve health and social care research and ultimately address health inequalities.
Clare White – Clare has been a VCFSE leader for over 20 years and is currently CEO at Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services. She has extensive experience in collaborative working with public health and policy makers. In her role at LCVS, Clare advocates for the sector, sitting on a number of strategic boards across Liverpool including the Liverpool Strategic Partnership, the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Poverty Action Group. She is Vice Chair of LCVS Strategic Health Leads Group, a group which was set up to engage strategically with the new ICP system. Clare is currently involved in a number of research pieces both for LCVS and in partnership with public sector colleagues.
Saima Gull – Saima is one of the Public Advisers on the group and has been part of ARC for the last two years. She comes from Balochistan, Pakistan and has 25 years working experience of the development sector, specifically working with communities. She is passionate about working in health equity and inequalities. She contributes in her personal capacity to facilitate the Afghan migrant population. She knows more than five local languages of her area and, representing south Asians, her language ability always helps to bridge the gap between marginalized communities and achieving positive outcomes in health and wellbeing. As a community activist, she tries to bring in voices for improving the health of individuals in communities through networking.
