Welcome to WISH North East.

Crystal currently works in a freelance and interim capacity supporting the social housing sectoris following her role as Assistant Director of Customer Service at Your Homes Newcastle.  She was with YHN from 2019 - 2023. She has extensive experience in customer experience, leading large, complex teams and projects to deliver customer excellence.

Her career started in arts, culture and tourism where she has held senior positions in some of the UK’s largest attractions and venues. She moved into housing in 2014, working in development and business growth roles. She has a specialism in homelessness prevention and partnership management and prior to her role at YHN was Director of Development at Oasis Community Housing. She has an MA in Management, specialising in the Equality Agenda and CIH, CIPD and CIM professional qualifications.

Crystal has a passion for using her skills and experience to benefit others, serving as Vice Chair on the Charted Institute of Housing board and as a Director for Society Matters CiC in Gateshead. She is also a professional mentor through the IofF mentoring programme.

As a learning and development consultant, Judith is able to communicate effectively with all stakeholders and understands the challenges faced by all three sectors.

She previously held senior roles with Northumbria Police, and was the Force lead on Gender issues establishing the Northumbria Police Gender Support Association and was a representative on the National Superintendents Association Equality and Diversity Committee.

Judith now serves as Board Chair of Believe, she is the group’s first Chair since its establishment in 2015, and also sits on its Remuneration and Nominations Committee.

Judith has a wealth of housing experience, having also spent eight years as an independent member on Your Homes Newcastle’s (YHN) and Leazes Homes’ Boards, including time as Vice Chair at YHN.

She strongly believes that social housing is not simply providing a house; its aim is to develop services that turn an individual’s or family’s house into a home.

I’ve been working in the social housing sector for over 8 years with a focus on Financial Inclusion & Employability. I am actively involved in the HDN Mentoring scheme and have held numerous non-executive director Board roles for local and regional organisations such as Credit Unions, Community Partnerships and CICs. I am passionate about empowering women and ensuring real equality in the workplace. I love working within social housing; finding the sector dynamic, innovative and caring that has so much potential for even greater things.

I’m Head of Innovation and Marketing for Thirteen Group, my role is to lead Thirteen in its drive for innovation to ensure new products are developed that meet customer demands and to enhance and promote Thirteen. It’s an exciting role where no 2 days are the same and I can honestly say I love my job. I’ve spent my career working in social housing from working as a generic housing officer, to anti-social behaviour, through to setting up bespoke housing services for customers that need a little more support to live independently. My passions from a work perspective are developing new services, developing people and providing great customer experiences. I’m an accredited Customer Experience professional (CCXP) and an accredited coach. Learning is another of my passions! I’m excited to be part of WISH, promoting the housing sector as a career of choice and, as a mum of 2 girls (and 2 sons), I feel I’m duty bound to make sure the world of work is one that welcomes them, embraces their talents and encourages them to be the best they can. Lots of people ‘fell’ into housing, I know I did, it was never discussed as a career, and platforms like WISH are a brilliant way to show how working in social housing, having a rewarding role that makes a real difference in communities, is achievable and a career path of choice.

I am absolutely delighted to join the WISH NE Board and am looking forward to working alongside some of the region’s most inspiring and talented leaders.  I started my career in social housing north of the border at a specialist housing provider before moving to the local authority where I most definitely learnt the trade covering every aspect of housing management!

I then returned to university in Edinburgh to complete my Post-Graduate Diploma followed by a Masters qualification.  As part of the course I undertook a placement with one of the NE region’s largest housing association’s and I stayed there for the next 13 years.  I held various roles from Estate Manager at a neighbourhood level to Housing Manager with a regional remit as well as leading on the government Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder initiative in the West End of Newcastle.  

After taking time out of my career to raise a family, I returned to what I know best at the end of 2019 as Chief Operating Officer for a national specialist supported housing provider.  Whilst some things have changed in that time, the opportunities and challenges remain the same and I am excited to be involved in influencing and shaping the future of our sector.

I am an experienced diversity, inclusion and wellbeing specialist with experience across sectors and in a broad range of industries. I am currently working in the housing sector as the Inclusion and Belonging Strategic Lead at Karbon Homes alongside working with clients through my own consultancy.

I support regional groups including the North East Chamber of Commerce to support businesses on their journey to put D&I at the heart of what they do. My role as a Board member at WISH is to continue to support the conversation to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in our region and sector and to strive to level the playing field on gender equality.  

Outside of work I am a proud mam and wife and have recently added two mischievous but adorable beagles to the family. I’m a keen amateur photographer and I love taking actions shots of my boys on the rugby pitch.  I’m also a parish councillor working to improve our local community and develop cohesion.”

I am currently the Head of Service Delivery for Home Group, covering Teesside, Sunderland and Durham. I am responsible for over 7000 rented and leasehold homes and over 50 supported services, including homelessness and mental health services in both local authority and health settings which provide support to over 2000 people per year. With a team of 400 colleagues I am passionate about delivering a culture that enables colleagues to grow and develop.

In addition I lead nationally on all things voids and allocations within Home Group and I love looking at how we can drive performance and make improvements to ensure that the customers within our 55,000 homes get the best possible customer service from us from the start.

I am proud to be part of a team which provides excellent services to help support vulnerable people across the region and see communities thrive and proud to work in a sector that can have such a positive impact.

I have had a fantastic career across children’s and adults' social care and 13 years within the social housing sector. I am excited to join the WISH NE board and give something back to the sector as there have been a lot of inspirational women who have supported me to get where I am.

Outside of work I am Mam to a little girl who is developing a lot of sass and personality (she’s two) and a little dog who rules the house and has 3k followers on instagram!

I am Housing Strategy Manager at Sunderland City Council and lead on the delivery of the strategic housing function for the Council and manage Empty Homes and Private Rented Sector teams.

I have worked in housing since 2017 – first at Durham County Council and now Sunderland, however my passion for housing started at around 18 years old. During my degree in Drama and Scriptwriting at Northumbria University I decided to focus on how drama and performance could empower individuals experiencing homelessness.

I worked with Salvation Army, Moving On and Crisis Skylight and developed three scripts and a dissertation examining empowerment through forum theatre and then in 2012 I had my first play produced by Live Theatre in Newcastle, “Lion”.

I am inspired by WISH and the great work that has already been done to provide a much-needed network to women in social housing. Both professionally and personally I am grateful for the opportunity to strengthen my relationship with the network by being a board member and hope to increase engagement across the Local Authority Housing Sector.

Outside of work I am a mam to Sofia and enjoy weekends away exploring with her and my partner Craig.

Originally from Manchester, Siobhan moved to Newcastle in 1991. Graduating with a Masters Degree, she set out on her career starting at Newcastle City Council. She now has over 25 years experience of managing and leading change in local government, policing and more recently within social housing. 

She is an advocate of joining up the dots through collaborative approaches to problem solving, data sharing and exploiting evolving technologies to improve the customer experience and to deliver better community outcomes. 

Siobhan joined the WISH NE Board in April 2023 with the desire to strengthen the role and influence of women in social housing. She believes that through collective strength and action we can improve social housing for all. 

I currently work as the Head of Programme Management Office & Service Improvement at Thirteen. My role is to lead the teams to ensure strategic projects are delivered on time, to budget, with benefits achieved, and learning captured. I’m also responsible for Service Improvement & Innovation, which involves using a variety of techniques to identify areas for improvement, as well as harnessing new ideas and insights, to create a culture of continuous improvement. I do love my role and the people I work with, particularly the variety it brings. No two projects are the same, and it gives me the opportunity to work with so many different colleagues across the business.

I’ve worked in social housing for over 10 years – starting off as a part time Performance Admin whilst completing an English degree at Teesside University. Working in housing wasn’t really on my radar at the time but I soon realised how rewarding it was working in a sector that can really make a positive difference to people’s lives. I then worked within Service Improvement, as a Business Analyst and as a Projects Business Partner before moving into my current role.

WISH is my first experience of being on a Board. I’m really thrilled to be part of a group with such brilliant women, who I’m sure to learn a lot from! Being part of the Board I hope to expand my networking and collaborate with others outside of my organisation, whilst being able to deliver practical and effective experiences to empower women within the sector.

I am a Solicitor at Ward Hadaway LLP working in the Housing Management Team specialising in Social Housing Litigation.  I work with a variety of clients, most of which are WISH members, including local authorities and social housing providers and mainly deal with housing disrepair; possessions and Anti-Social behaviour.  I spend a lot of time attending Court and undertaking my own advocacy on behalf of clients which is something I really enjoy.

I qualified as a Solicitor in September 2020 and joined the housing sector in March 2021 working for an international firm in Newcastle working in Real Estate for social housing providers before joining Ward Hadaway LLP in December 2021. 

Part of my role at Ward Hadaway LLP is to help grow our presence in the social housing sector in the North East having already become established in the Yorkshire area from work carried out in our Leeds office.

I am passionate about not only empowering women in the workplace but also living and working in the North East and I am grateful to WISH for encompassing all of these ideals.

I am really excited to be joining the WISH board and I am looking forward to developing my social housing network in the North East.   

Karen is an assurance and internal audit professional who has worked in the housing sector for more than 20 years.   She began her career qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, then became Head of Internal Audit at Sunderland Housing Group (which later became Gentoo Group).  Karen progressed to become an Assistant Director at Gentoo before moving to Places for People to become their Director of Assurance. Karen’s career has given her extensive experience in all aspects of assurance, risk management, governance and internal control in various sectors including development; real estate; finance and manufacturing as well as social housing.  Karen works at Executive and Board level, having both reported to Boards and Committees but also having been appointed as a Non-Executive Director, chairing the Audit Committee, then subsequently appointed as Chair of the Board at Derwentside Homes which later became part of Karbon Group.  Karen was also Chair of the Housing Internal Audit Forum (HIAF) for a number of years.  HIAF sought to share best practice in assurance and internal audit across the housing sector.

Currently operating as  Business Director for Hays Plc, I started working in recruitment for Hays in 1999, My role has involved meeting hundreds, possibly thousands, of people to support and advise them on their careers. My passion is to work with clients to understand what they need for their teams in order to provide the perfect match both culturally and professionally. In the last few years my inherent need for fairness and justice has seen me become the regional representative for Hays national steering group for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working across our offices in the north east & Yorkshire. I am also a founding member and leader of our employee disability network, and work closely with Hays Leading Women – our  external network for women in leadership. I am the Public Services and Not for Profit Lead for the North East and Yorkshire, working alongside all of our consultants to develop our consulting and advisory service offering to clients, with a focus on quality and service. I’m passionate about providing opportunities, and sharing insights. Social housing is a sector that I really enjoy working with, and it has taken a lead in terms of developing my expertise as a recruitment partner. I work with multiple social housing providers across the north east and nationally, so the opportunity to volunteer for WISH is really exciting for me. I am passionate about supporting the sector and particularly using my knowledge and experience to empower women to achieve their goals for their careers in social housing.

Fun Fact: I’m a very keen figure skater, training on and off the ice several times a week (mainly early mornings!) and I take part in national and international competitions regularly. I’ve been to Canada, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Estonia and France in the last few years competing for Team GB in Adult skating competitions.