Our Board of Trustees
The team of volunteers who focus on the goals of the Charity and ensure that it is run sustainably.
Elmore’s Board has a range of knowledge, skills, and backgrounds, giving us valuable insights and support.
Lesley Dewhurst
Interim CEO
Lesley has worked in the health and social care sector for over 35 years, as both a leader and practitioner. She has a long history with Elmore Community Services, starting in 1988 as one of the founder members of staff. Her work since has been entirely within the not-for-profit sector, leading charities supporting people with a wide range of issues such as mental health, homelessness, substance misuse and offending. Lesley was proud to be given the honorary title of Freedom of the City of Oxford in 2016, for services to homelessness. She is very proud to be leading Elmore during the transition period prior to the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive later in 2024.
Nigel Chapman
Chair of the Board
Nigel Chapman was appointed Chair of the Elmore Board in February 2024. A former Director of the BBC World Service, and CEO of the children’s development NGO, Plan International, Nigel has served on a number of charity Boards. He chaired Nacro from 2016 to 2022, and led the Care International Board as interim Chair for two years. He has also been a Trustee of Shelter, the housing charity.
Nigel is currently a councillor and Cabinet Member on Oxford City Council and a Non Executive Director of the South Central Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust.
Pauline Scully
Trustee and former Chair of Trustees
Pauline has been an Oxfordshire NHS leader for over 40 years before retiring in 2019. A registered mental health nurse since 1988, Pauline worked in several roles within the NHS, including Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Service Director for Children and Young People, and Service Director for Adult Mental Health Services, all at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Liz Challis
Trustee and Quality Sub-Committee Chair
Liz has worked as a clinical psychologist in Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust since qualifying in 2017. She is currently part of the Emergency Department Psychiatric Service at the John Radcliffe and Horton General Hospitals, and prior to that worked in Child and Adolescent mental health. Pre-qualifying Liz worked in mental health community teams and inpatient settings, primarily with children and young people, as well as a specialist personality disorder service.
Gareth Kenworthy
Treasurer and Finance Sub-Committee Chair
Gareth is a CIPFA qualified accountant with 25 years of experience in NHS finance. Having joined the NHS through the graduate training scheme, he first had experience of mental health services working for Oxfordshire’s NHS provider, progressing to Director of Finance in his 12 years at the Trust. He then went on to become the Chief Finance Officer of NHS Oxfordshire CCG. During that time he led on the negotiation of the Oxfordshire Outcome Based Mental Health Contract and helped to establish the partnership. He has been instrumental in the set-up of Oxfordshire’s pooled budget arrangements with Oxfordshire County Council and serves on the joint management group which included oversight of mental health services.
Dr Joe McManners
Trustee
Joe is an NHS GP in Oxford, the Clinical Director of a Primary Care Network, and leading a collaboration of Oxford City Primary Care Networks. He served as the Clinical Chair of Oxfordshire CCG for four years then as an NHS England Clinical Advisor.
Originally from County Durham, Joe has lived in Oxford since 2003, joining the Manor Surgery in Headington in 2006. He is now Senior Partner at the surgery, a highly-rated large practice, and leads on pioneering work with older and vulnerable patients.
Joe has a decade of experience as an Oxford City Councillor with executive roles for housing.
Dr Shona Morrison
Trustee
Shona has a long academic research career and has worked in Australia and the UK. Shona developed and evaluated an enhanced arrest referral programme designed to assess drug, alcohol, mental health and learning difficulties of those entering custody. She has co-created Victims First, a flexible process and system for supporting victims providing tailor-made support to match each victim’s needs.
In 2021, Shona moved to the Open University to teach on the policing programme within the Faculty of Business and Law. Her research interests involve violence against women and girls (VAWG) and child criminal exploitation (CCE).
Vanessa Odlin
Vice Chair and Trustee
Vanessa is a Managing Director in Central and Northwest London NHS Trust. Her portfolio includes CAMHS and mental health rehabilitation over five boroughs, physical and mental health in Hillingdon, and a variety of community services in Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Harrow, and Ealing. She trained as a mental health nurse, qualifying in 2002, and has worked various roles in the NHS ever since, including inthe Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership.
Becky Willis
Trustee
Becky is a programme manager at Oxford City Council. Her varied career with housing associations and local authorities has included frontline and leadership roles in housing management, tenancy sustainment, community development, software implementation and, most recently, organisational development. For the last two years she has managed the Council's People Strategy Programme, focused on developing organisational capability and culture to promote innovation and collaboration and to meet the challenges of changing demands and ways of working. She is interested in how decision-makers in organisations and systems can learn from those closest to problems and has worked with Marmalade to test approaches to measuring the impact of services and projects.
Professor Nadia Wager
Trustee
Nadia is Director of the None in Three Centre and a Professor in Psychology at Teeside University. She has a long history of evaluating community interventions for victims of serious crimes and conducting research, for example, for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse on the quantification of online-facilitated child sexual abuse/exploitation and a national survey of the Police exploring their experiences of and perspectives on the disruption and prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation.