Board of Trustees

Alison Dunn is a committed social justice advocate who strives to empower communities in 
the creation of a fairer society for all. She has been the Chief Executive Officer of Citizens 
Advice Gateshead since 2012. She leads the independent charity to support hundreds of 
thousands of people in the North-East and maximise household income, resulting in 
approximately £84m of financial gains over a ten-year period. Under her leadership, the 
charity has undergone significant growth, increasing turnover from £1.4m to over £5.8m,
growing a workforce of more than 220 staff members, and supporting around 70 volunteers 
each year.

In 2018, Alison took on a second role as Service Director for Voluntary and Community Sector Development and champion for VCSE participation and commissioning in Council activity.  In this role, she provides a single point of leadership across the charitable and public sectors, encouraging a 
less bureaucratic, more open, mutually beneficial and impactful cross-sector collaboration to 
deepen outcomes and bring about change.

Alison is the Chair of VONNE, a Commissioner for the Gateshead Poverty Truth Commission, and an Executive Director for Society Matters Community Interest Company.

Speaking about her role as Chair of the VONNE Board, Alison said, “Over a decade of welfare reform, austerity, a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis the VCSE has proven itself time and time again to be an essential support for North East communities. Given the ever-present crisis in which we seem to live and the unprecedent demand for charitable support ensuring the sector has the policies, good practice, influence and funding required to protect and develop its work is a priority for me personally and something VONNE is renowned and revered for, so VONNE was the obvious place for me to land”.
 

Craig is a chartered accountant, with more than ten years’ experience working in the accountancy and finance industry. He currently works as Associate Audit Partner at Haines Watts serving a wide range of charity and not-for-for profit organisations around the North East region. He therefore has a keen understanding of the finance and governance arrangements needed in charitable organisations. It is these skills he brings to the VONNE board which he joined as part of a desire to help promote the interests of VCSEs across the North East, knowing the pivotal role that VONNE plays in this area. 

Outside of accountancy and finance, Craig enjoys golf and cricket when he isn’t being run ragged by his young twin sons. 

Angela serves as the Charity Manager for Pride Action North, an organisation supporting the LGBTQIA+ community in the North East. With over 13 years of experience in the community and voluntary sector, Angela has developed a strong commitment to promoting equality and inclusion. She believes that global equality can be most effectively achieved by focusing on local action and is dedicated to creating positive change in her region.

A particular focus of Angela’s work is addressing the significant health inequalities faced by the transgender community. She is passionate about challenging these disparities, advocating for systemic change at both local and national levels. Angela’s leadership at Pride Action North reflects her deep dedication to improving lives, fostering understanding, and building stronger communities.

Angela is also an active supporter of VONNE, valuing their vital role in strengthening the voluntary sector and driving forward impactful social change.

Michael is Centre Director at North East Law Centre and has extensive experience across all sectors. Prior to joining the Law Centre, Michael worked for a private law firm, and before that was CEO of a national charity. Michael is passionate about social justice and protecting human rights. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and spending time with his family.  

Cheryl leads Helix Arts, a regional arts charity connecting and collaborating between diverse artists and communities. 

She is a regional champion for the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance and is an advocate for creative health with various voluntary roles to support this, including as a VCSE representative on the North Tyneside Council Health and Wellbeing board. 

Cheryl is a great believer in wellbeing in the workplace and cares a great deal about the creative freelancer landscape. 

She has held previous trustee roles including Chair at LD: North East a North Tyneside charity. She is a PilotLight and Common purpose Alumni, with a regional role to advocate leadership development. She is currently Chair for the North Tyneside Cultural Education Partnership and is passionate about young people's potential and routes into industry, especially the creative workforce.

She is a Mam to her two young boys Elijah and Ezra. 

Cheryl loves running and also loves to talk about running, watch out...she loves all things health and fitness.

Emma is the CEO of Teesside Mind.

Lawrence is the Director of the Hospital of God at Greatham.

Peter Neal is the CEO of local infrastructure organisation RCVDA. 

Peter has worked in the charitable sector for more than a decade after working as a land developer and management consultant in the private sector for SME. In his role as CEO, he is focused on ensuring that the charity delivers its core purpose: to support and facilitate local communities in taking action. 

Peter is also a trustee of Hart Gables CIO, a charity supporting the LGBT+ community, a co-founder of his local food bank, Saltburn Solidarity CIO and trustee of VONNE.

Shaun is the CEO of Easington Lane Community Access Point (ELCAP) and also Chair of Trustees for another two VONNE members: Hetton-le-Hole Independent Methodist Church and Hetton Colliery Railway 200.

Following a career in hospitality, Shaun entered the sector through paid employment more than 20 years ago, but has almost 40 years’ experience within the sector as a Volunteer Youth Worker.

Shaun is passionate about his local area and is keen to raise its profile, as well as to work on behalf of the whole region.
 

Ram is Executive Manager at Young Asian Voices (YAV), a national award winning charity based at the Heart of Sunderland UK. He has been supporting and providing Youth and Community Services for over 27 years. His mission at YAV is to help young people develop and transform diverse communities through sport, employability, training, cultures, youth empowerment and volunteering.  

Colin is Senior Partner of Ward Hadaway.  He has advised on company law, commercial contract, charity law and public sector issues for over 40 years. He is one of only four members of the Legal 500's Hall of Fame for company and commercial law in the North East. Colin also heads the Ward Hadaway team which undertakes a range of initiatives supporting charities.

Colin is also a Trustee of the Community Foundation Serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland and is a leading figure in the local economy being a member North East Local Enterprise Partnership board, the strategic advisory board of the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative Limited and a director of the Open North Foundation.

Adam Hill is a digital leader and serial entrepreneur having setup his first business over 25 years ago aged 17. He specialises in digital, business, community development and social change and has worked across the world helping people and organisations make a difference with technology.

In 2020 Adam founded his digital consultancy Digital Changemakers, before taking on the role of Head of Digital Adoption at Sunderland Software City. Since then he has founded the No-Code North East community and is now leading on Tech for Good North East initiative with regional partners, while supporting the strategic and operational development of Software City as Continuous Improvement Lead. He is an active member and advocate of the Drupal open source community and was invited to the Community Working Group (CWG) supporting 100,000's of developers and designers globally.

At the end of 2022 Adam was invited to become a trustee of VONNE, bringing his specialism of digital in the VCSE sector to the board.

Catherine Parker is a Consultant in Public Health and Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. Catherine has a passion for addressing inequalities and challenging stigma through partnership working.  Catherine has a particular interest  in public mental health to deliver on inequalities, prevention and social determinants of mental health across the organisation. Her VONNE role sits outside of her employment but she hopes to bring her experience of over 20 years across the public sector to the board.  

Speaking about her role, Catherine said “The Community and Voluntary sector are key to the health and wellbeing of the population and I hope to contribute in a small way through VONNE to supporting the sector to thrive in the North East”