Keynotes
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Conference keynotes
Our keynote speakers and panellists bring a range of perspectives that help frame and challenge conference conversations. This page shares their details and the expertise and experience they bring. See the programme page for full conference details.
Keynote speakers and panellists are listed alphabetically by last name.
Helen Barnard, Director of Policy & Research, Trussell
Helen Barnard is Director of Policy & Research at Trussell. She was formerly Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Research and Policy Director at Pro Bono Economics. She is a leading national expert on poverty, inequality and social policy. Her extensive body of research and policy work have covered poverty, destitution, labour markets, housing, social security and civil society. She is author of ‘Want (Giants: a new Beveridge Report)’ which examines modern day poverty and the institutions and reforms required to address it.
Isabelle Bourgeois, Ph.D, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada
Isabelle Bourgeois, Ph.D., holds the positions of Full Professor at the Faculty of Education and is the inaugural holder of the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue Professorship on Public Policy at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her ongoing research work focuses on measuring and building organizational evaluation capacity (EC) in the public and community sectors, as well as evidence and research use by policymakers. Dr. Bourgeois was the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation from 2017 to 2022. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Karl-Boudreault Award for Leadership in Evaluation from the National Capital Chapter of the Canadian Evaluation Society (2017), the Parenteau award from the Canadian Public Administration journal (2021), the Contribution to Evaluation Award from the Canadian Evaluation Society (2025), and the University of Ottawa’s Knowledge Mobilization Award (2025).
Celia Chartres-Aris, Government Special Advisor, & Co-Founder of Disabled By Society
Celia Chartres-Aris is a multi-award winning Disabled Government special advisor, campaigner and lobbyist, researcher, policy and legal expert, founder of multiple Disabled-led organisations and an investor focused on improving the equity of deal flows. Celia has received multiple awards recognising her work including being named The Most Influential Disabled person in the UK, on The Global Diversity Leaders list, and a Global Future Young Leader. She is also the author of the bestselling book Unlearning Ableism.
Andrew Leicester, Executive Director, Frontier Economics
Andrew is Frontier's Head of Evaluation and co-leads its Public Policy Practice. With more than a decade experience in evaluation, he has particular interest in policies to promote productivity, innovation and industrial strategy, and expertise in evaluating policy impacts on businesses, sectors and the wider economy. Key clients include UKRI, DSIT, DBT and DfT. He has also written on value for money, and the need to link appraisal and evaluation more closely.
Sam Freedman, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government
Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and writes regularly on politics and policy for the Observer the FT and others. Sam’s politics substack newsletter ‘Comment is Freed’ is the most popular in the UK and has over 80,000 subscribers. His first book “Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How to Fix It” was released in 2024, made the Sunday Times bestseller list and was named an Economist, FT and Daily Telegraph book of the year. Sam is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark; Vice-Chair of Ambition Institute; and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.
Andi Fugard, Director, IFF Research
Dr Andi Fugard is a social policy evaluator and Director at IFF Research, specialising in quantitative impact evaluation. With over 15 years’ experience, they have led evaluations commissioned by government departments and What Works Centres, spanning policy areas including crime and justice, mental health, and education. Previous roles include leading evaluation teams at Verian, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), and Anna Freud, as well as holding academic posts in social research methods and statistics at University College London and Birkbeck.
Shivonne Gates, Head of Impact and Research, Into Film
Dr Shivonne Gates is an evaluation specialist who believes strongly in purpose-driven evaluation activities that inform impactful programme design. She has designed, delivered and commissioned a broad range of evaluations of interventions seeking to tackle social problems affecting children and young people. She also has extensive experience conducting qualitative research exploring race and ethnicity, youth identities, and linguistic practice. Her previous work experience includes the National Centre for Social Research, Youth Futures Foundation, Frontline, and Class 13.
Laura Hayward, Evaluation Director, Ipsos
Dr Laura Hayward is a Director of Evaluation at Ipsos, looking after a team of around 50 evaluators. She has worked professionally in evaluation for over 15 years across three organisations and over that time has supported professional development through communities of practice, formal training programmes and on the job learning and mentoring. She has been a member of the UK government Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel since 2024 and has designed and delivered training for different government departments.
Hannah Hesselgreaves, Professor Public Service Reform, Director of Policy Evaluation and Research Unit, Manchester Metropolitan University
Hannah's research and evaluations explore how people learn collectively to innovate in public services. Following a 15 year career in medical education, she now supports public services develop learning strategies through an action learning, engaged scholarship lens. As well as leading PERU, she has leadership in the research agenda for Human Learning Systems (HLS) and provide learning partnerships for those adopting HLS and other relational approaches to public management.
Fatima Husain, Head of Business Development, The National Centre for Social Research
Dr Fatima Husain is a social policy researcher and, currently, Head of Business Development at the National Centre for Social Research. She has led evaluations commissioned by public sector clients and WWCs across a range of policy areas including employment, education, child poverty, and children and family policy, more broadly. With a deep commitment to equity and inclusive research practice, she is a Race Equity Associate for the Youth Endowment Fund, on the Research Advisory Panel for Equi and recently served as a Trustee for Class 13.
Aoife O'Higgins, Director of Evidence, Foundations: What Works Centre for Children and Families
Aoife O’Higgins is Director of Evidence at Foundations, the National What Works Centre for Children and Families, where she leads research, evaluation, and grant‑making to strengthen evidence based support for children and families. She also contributes to teaching and academic supervision at Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention. Her work focuses on building rigorous, policy‑relevant evidence to improve outcomes for children, especially those with experience of children's services.
Jessica Ozan, Head of Education, Children and Families, Ipsos
Jessica is the Head of Education, Children, and Families at Ipsos, where she utilises over 18 years of experience in public policy evaluation. Her career began in France as a consultant in public policy evaluation, further enriched by her doctoral research on theory-based evaluation at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre in Ireland. After relocating to the UK, Jessica engaged in academia at Manchester Metropolitan University before joining Ipsos. Jessica leads large-scale evaluations, with a focus on participation, for governments and third sector organisations.
Dr Justin Parkhurst, Associate Professor of Global Health Policy, LSE Department of Health Policy
Dr Parkhurst’s research interests lie in global health politics and policy, as well as the political nature of evidence use to inform policy decisions. He is the author of the Open Access book The Politics of Evidence: From Evidence Based Policy to the Good Governance of Evidence; and is currently co-leading an NIHR supported project on Systems of Evidence to Inform Health Policy in Africa (SEIHPA) which studies evidence advisory systems in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda.
Nick Posford, Executive Director, UK Evaluation Society
Nick joined the UK Evaluation Society as its first permanent Executive Director in February 2024, with a passion for raising the profile of evaluation across the public, charity, and private sectors. Nick was previously CEO of the British Dyslexia Association, after a career in the third sector and a degree in Social Policy as a mature student from LSE. He is keen to see evaluation used more and recognised for the insights it can bring to solving the multiple challenges humanity faces today.
Sarah Pearson, Dean of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, Sheffield Hallam University
Sarah Pearson is Professor of Social Policy Research at the Centre for Regional Economic Research and Dean of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange at Sheffield Hallam University. She is an expert in neighbourhood renewal and community engagement. She is Director of the Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness, a recent £10m UKRI investment under its Creating Opportunities, Improving Outcomes priority. The Centre brings together researchers, practitioners, policy makers, funders and residents to deliver an ambitious vision for better connected communities across the UK.
Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, The British Academy
Hetan Shah is chief executive of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. He is Chair of Our World in Data, a website providing long run data and evidence on global challenges. Hetan was appointed in 2024 by the UK Parliament to the board of the National Audit Office, the UK’s independent spending watchdog. He is Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. Hetan serves on a number of advisory boards including at the Resolution Foundation and UCL’s Policy Lab.
Reema Vadoliya
Reema Vadoliya is a UK-based data practitioner with over 10 years’ experience working across multiple roles in the data and insight space. She specialises in making data more accessible, ethical and human-centred, helping organisations move beyond metrics to understand the stories and experiences behind the numbers. Reema has worked with charities, social enterprises, public sector bodies and industry teams to design approaches that centre equity, lived experience and care in how data is collected, interpreted and used.
Sophie Wall, Head of Strategy and Learning, Mission 44
Sophie Wall is Head of Strategy and Learning at Mission 44, a charity founded by Formula 1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton. She leads the organisation’s approach to strategy, evaluation, and organisational learning, embedding a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement to ensure strategic insights guide decision-making. Previously, Sophie held roles at Turn2us and Unlocked Graduates, where she designed and delivered a range of evaluation projects.
Levin Wheller, Deputy Director, Head of the Evaluation Task Force
Levin leads the Evaluation Task Force (ETF), a joint Cabinet Office and HM Treasury team set up in April 2021 to deliver a step change in the scale, quality and impact of evaluation in government. Levin works with HM Treasury spending teams and analytical teams in departments to help develop robust evaluation plans in areas of priority spending. Levin also leads the delivery of the Evaluation Accelerator Fund, which aims to drive forward evaluation activity and create actionable evidence in government priority areas.
James Yarde, Head of Impact and Evidence,Trussell
James leads Trussell's team of highly skilled evaluators and data analysts, whose work informs strategic decision-making and use data insights to inform policy and campaigns. Prior to joining Trussell, he led the Sutton Trust's impact evaluation work, with specialism in quantitative evaluation approaches. James' background is as a quantitative analyst and survey methodologist and he has worked on a range of national surveys, including British Social Attitudes (BSA), the COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities Study (COSMO), and the Family Resources Survey (FRS).