Trustees

Trustees listing

• Toby Brandon ( Chair )

  is a Reader in Mental Health and Disability at Northumbria University where his research and theory focuses on the Social Model of Disability, Mad Studies, inclusion and emancipation. He has published around advocacy, disability hate crime and the effectiveness of local mental health services. (more…)

• Malcolm Macourt ( Vice Chair )

  has been involved in the governance of many not-for-profit organisations since moving to Newcastle in the late 1970s as an academic.  He has been a Board member of organisations providing housing, transport, social facilities, education – secondary, further and higher; he has concerned himself with the development and co-ordination of voluntary sector organisations and the provision of services for refugees. (more…)

• Alison Blackburn

  I have been a chair for Newcastle Disability Forum since 2000 and a Trustee for Disability North since 2001. I worked for the majority of my career as a qualified nurse before taking ill health retirement at 40 due to a visual impairment and thus have an extensive knowledge and understanding of the third sector. (more…)

• Tim Williams

  I have been a consultant neurologist at the RVI since June 2000. Before that, I trained as a medical student and junior Dr in Newcastle and the hospitals of the North East and consider myself a naturalised Geordie! I have been a member of the executive committee of Disability North since 2006. (more…)

• Beth Williams

  works as a User Development Worker for Launchpad, a user led organisation, which aims to develop and support mental health user involvement in the design, delivery and scrutiny of services; and to assist in the development of user-led initiatives. (more…)

• Arthur Scott

  was educated at a Church of England School, ships draughtsman by trade time-served shipwright. A fulltime Trade union Official for thirty years. Secretary of the Tyne & Blyth Confederation of Engineering and Shipbuilding Unions, Chair of the Northern TUC for five years prior to retirement from full-time employment. (more…)

• Joe Ayton

  I’ve been a member of The Executive Committee since 2008. I am a disabled person and after graduating from The University of Sunderland in 2007 with a BA Hons in Film and Media I worked for a leading North East Disability Charity. (more…)

• Sandra Wheatley

  After qualifying as a State Registered Nurse in 1977 Sandra Wheatley has worked extensively within the NHS in the UK as well as SW Kenya.
  She was the Regional Nurse Specialist for those affected by Neural Tube Defects working with a National Charity specialising in this field. (more…)