EVALUATION SUPPORT SCOTLAND - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Head of Policy for the National Trust for Scotland
Diarmid is Head of Policy for the National Trust for Scotland, overseeing internal policy development, and the Trust's public policy work with agencies and the Scottish Government. He has worked for a wide range of public bodies, conducting project and programme evaluations, developing strategies, and overseeing the delivery of funding programmes. Areas covered by this work include economic development, area regeneration, skills and training, and environmental protection. He has worked extensively on European Union-compliant evaluations and is keen to see Scotland continue to draw on this body of knowledge. His current work includes developing evidence of impact for culture and heritage. Diarmid is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Deputy Convenor
- Research Fellow
Dr Kevin Guyan joined the ESS board in September 2018. Kevin is a Research Fellow in the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow and previously worked for a higher education organisation that focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion among staff and students in universities and colleges. He also delivers workshops on evaluating the impact of equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives in the higher and further education sectors. Kevin completed a PhD in history at University College London in 2016 and has presented his research across Europe and the USA. He is a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Young Academy of Scotland and sits on Young Scot's Data Advisory Group.
Felicity joined ESS as Finance and Business Manager in January 2023. She has had a varied career working for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, running a family business and managing an educational support business. Felicity was keen to use her skills and experience in the third sector, and is delighted to have joined ESS. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with family, walking and coastal rowing.
Gary joined ESS as Evaluation Support Manager in November 2022. He is originally from Ireland and has been living in Scotland since 2005. His background is in education and project management of third sector programmes for children and young people. He is currently a PhD Researcher and Associate Tutor in the School of Education at University of Glasgow, where he supervises Masters dissertation students and teaches on the Educational Studies and Inclusive Education courses. His research interests relate to social justice, citizenship education and the philosophy of education. He initially trained and worked as a professional musician.
Gemma joined Evaluation Support Scotland in September 2022 as Communications Officer. She studied psychology at university and then completed an MRes in Evolution and Human Behaviour. After several years of working in the hospitality industry, Gemma then worked for a counselling charity gaining experience in administration, communications and counselling skills, as well as knowledge about the third sector. Outside of work, Gemma enjoys walking and exercising, spending time with friends and family, and listening to music.
Jacqueline has a long-held interest in and commitment to evaluation, developed over sixteen years in a funding context with the Big Lottery Fund (Director Scotland) and predecessor organisation the New Opportunities Fund and continued into her current professional role as Acting Regional Director UK Region and Director Scotland with the British Council where she is engaged in a strategic programme to establish an effective and proportionate framework for measuring and evaluating ‘value to the UK' of international cultural relations. She has been involved with several charities - Culture Republic, Stepping Stones for Families and most recently Home-Start Scotland - where she has always taken an interest in and tried to support the embedding of a learning culture. Key areas of interest to her have included trying to reduce the burden of evaluation on funded organisations; introducing and supporting self-evaluation among funded organisations and helping the funding community engage with this agenda; embedding and continually reviewing an outcomes approach to funding, and increasingly, encouraging discussion and understanding of co-production in relation to social change.
Jane is experienced in helping organisations to improve evaluation practice and the use of evidence for reflection, learning and service improvement. Over a period of nine years she was Director, Evidence and Learning at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, one of the UK's largest independent grant-makers. During this time, Jane led the Foundation's approach to evaluating its own effectiveness and to supporting organisations funded by the Foundation to learn from the evaluation of their own work. Jane's career has included wide-ranging experience of carrying out, commissioning and using evaluation and research for third sector organisations, to inform policy and practice.
Jane joined our board in September 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-whitworth-7029883/
Katherine joined the ESS board in September 2020. Katherine is the Head of Research & Evaluation at Scottish Book Trust, a national charity that believes books, reading and writing have the power to change lives. In her role, Katherine supports the staff at SBT to embed and carry out evaluation on the 25+ programmes the charity runs across all ages and stages; she is also working on an organisation-wide outcome mapping project. Katherine is particularly interested in the impact of arts and culture, both on individuals and on society as a whole, and the evaluation of social and cultural work carried out in complex environments.
Lauren is Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at environmental charity Changeworks. Lauren designs and manages evaluation for projects delivered by Changeworks and external clients. With a background in social research, she also manages a range of research projects, specialising in consumer protection, fuel poverty, energy retrofit and decarbonisation. Lauren has a range of experience in third sector roles, including having worked for a social enterprise, two environmental charities and a housing association. Lauren is an advocate for effective evaluation and its important role in creating a space to reflect on projects, with the objective of improving outcomes for those they support; as well as utilising these findings to secure future funding.
Martha has worked in the third sector for over 30 years and has many years of experience working with people with disabilities. This includes her time at the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Research Unit at the University of Stirling where she was involved in the development of the communication aid Talking Mats™. In 2002 Martha co-founded Pass IT On - an Edinburgh charity which adapts donated computers and gives them to people with disabilities - and is still involved on a voluntary basis. She has also learned about being in the role of funder by sitting on the grants allocation panel for Shared Care Scotland's Better Breaks fund. For five years Martha was the Quality Officer with Befriending Networks, where she developed the Befriending Code of Practice and Quality in Befriending standard. Martha moved to ESS in 2013 and what she enjoys most is meeting people from organisations, large and small, in a range of different fields.
"I love the moment when I can see that evaluation has changed from being something dull that organisations have to do, to something which makes sense to them, is useful and even fun!"
She has a special interest in helping projects explore how best to involve the people they work with in evaluation, for example by developing appropriate and accessible information collection methods or by inviting service users to become involved in the process of evaluation itself.
Maxine has over 20 years experience of working in health and social care and has worked in the voluntary sector for 16 years in a variety of development roles. She is currently working with Leonard Cheshire as Community Engagement Manager (Scotland). Maxine is also a Doctorate of Education Candidate with the University of Glasgow with strong interest in involving people and learning from lived experience.
Job Titles:
- Head of Strategic Planning at the Scottish Prison Service
Michael is currently Head of Strategic Planning at the Scottish Prison Service. He has worked in third sector health supporting evaluation and improvement in volunteer and professionally delivered services and in the children's sector focussing on planning, quality and information management. He holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews and is a graduate of the NHS Scottish Improvement Leaders programme. Michael joined our board in September 2021.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer
- Senior Risk & Compliance Manager at Founders Pledge
Ricki is Senior Risk & Compliance Manager at Founders Pledge, a global charity whose mission is to empower entrepreneurs to do immense good. His role involves overseeing risk and compliance across the charity's operations in the UK, USA and Germany. Prior to Founders Pledge, Ricki was Head of Internal Audit & Business Improvement at Historic Environment Scotland, a Scottish public body and charity, and before that worked in Risk Assurance at PwC. A Chartered Accountant with ICAS, Ricki also serves as the Treasurer for ESS.
Shona joined ESS in February 2017. She studied Psychology and Sociology at University, and has worked in the third sector for many years in areas such as youth work, criminal justice, and HIV & hepatitis C. Her experience in the sector ranges from being a volunteer, a staff member and a manager, and she draws on her wide-ranging experience to help organisations find the most suitable evaluation processes for them and the people who use their services.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Founding Director
- ESS 's Director
Steven Marwick, ESS's Director. If Steven does not satisfactorily answer your complaint, or your complaint is about him, please contact our Board of Trustees. Our convenor is Diarmid Hearns.
Steven Marwick is the founding Director of Evaluation Support Scotland (ESS). He has overall responsibility for strategic and operational management and reports to the board of trustees. He provides evaluation support to third sector organisations, runs learning programmes and facilitates our networks with funders and with third sector evaluation champions. He works with Scottish Government to improve positive funding relationships and to support the use of third sector evidence.
Steven's previous jobs include policy and research posts in the National Lottery Community Fund and Scottish Government and he has served on the boards of Eczema Outreach Support, Volunteer Centre Edinburgh and the Association of Chief Officers of Voluntary Organisations. Steven relaxes by swimming, running and going to concerts (not all at the same time!).
Job Titles:
- Administration Officer
- Finance
Wing Yen also known as Winnie joined ESS in July 2016 as the Workshop and Events Administrator, as of January 2023 she is now the Finance and Administration Officer. She studied Accounting at college and Finance at university, and has in the past volunteered at RNIB Scotland as admin support and up until Jan 2023 was working at Friends of the Earth Scotland as their Membership and Finance Officer. When not working, Winnie enjoys relaxing at home and occasionally knitting.