Welcome to WISH South East

Melissa Woodall is the Chair of the South East WISH network. She has worked within Social Housing for over 11 years and brings strength and depth to the role, building on her commercial expertise gained working in numerous sales and business development roles across the sector.
Currently working for Wates Living Space as a Client Relationship Director, Melissa’s enthusiasm and passion for social housing is infectious and she is a firm believer in creating a plentiful supply of quality social housing to enable communities to flourish.
Her ambition through WISH is to enable other women in the sector to benefit from her extensive experience and to help lead and inspire others to excel in their roles. Melissa is supported in her role as Chair of WISH South East by seven other influential leaders across the sector.

'Being able to be a part of such a positive and influential networking group is so important to me and the SE board; we understand the importance of sharing ideas, experience and providing support for tomorrows leaders.' 

Victoria is currently an Account Director at Cobb PR - an award-winning PR & Marketing agency based in Sussex. Victoria’s experience working across international brands including FedEx and Tyrrells has given her a very creative approach to PR as well as a broad understanding of the media landscape. Victoria works across a wide range of public and private sector clients and has experience working with local councils, housing associations and regional regeneration projects. Having previously spoken at the National Housing Federation's annual communications event, Victoria is adept at offering crisis communication, marketing and PR advice to a wide range of stakeholders. 

"It's fantastic to be a part of WISH South East and to further champion the brilliant work women across the sector are involved in. I'm particularly passionate about supporting people through their careers from an early stage, something I'm hugely grateful my own employer did and so it's great to be part of an organisation supporting that in the housing sector."

Lauren is as an ambitious professional with a strong determination, her sales experience enabled her to become familiar with working in a pressured and competitive environment. Lauren is Head of New Business for Guildmore Ltd, Guildmore is an active developer and construction company within the housing industry. Lauren’s approach to accumulating a high success rate is led by working collaboratively both internally and externally and champions working as a team in every aspect of her role. Lauren has a passion for the social housing sector and really feels she has an opportunity to make a difference in tackling the housing crisis. Her passion for social housing is coupled with a passion for championing women. Someone with this enthusiasm and respect of her fellow colleagues shows her ambition to further support like minded professionals and is using WISH as a platform to help them achieve their goals.

"Shirley is Head of Membership with The Housing Forum, which is the only cross-sector, industry-wide organisation that represents the entire housing supply chain - primary purpose is to encourage collaborative solutions that increase the supply and delivery of quality homes through partnership.
In her role, Shirley is responsible for membership management and engagement, ensuring sector issues are raised and addressed through seminar & networking events, consultations and proposals to Government.
She joined The Housing Forum in March 2020, having previously worked for GL Hearn as Associate Director for housing and development, and Rentplus as Partnerships Manager for London and Southeast.
Shirley has held senior roles in affordable housing and development across public and private sectors, with a number of Housing Associations, Local Authority and building contractor.
Shirley says;

"The WISH organisation has long been recognized as a positive presence in the sector, providing a forum and support for women in housing, whatever stage in their careers. I’m thrilled to be part of it, and really proud of the quality of events we hold, and the inspiring speakers and members who have joined the Southeast branch of WISH."

A dynamic energetic and enthusiastic professional who achieves excellent results. Sandra is a conscientious and driven senior housing professional with a passionate sense of purpose, and a tremendous appetite for customer excellence and continuous improvement.  
As a CIH Charter Member, she is a trusted professional with extensive housing experience and a commitment to ethical standards.
She has a combination of sound commercial acumen with core social values that have allowed her to lead and navigate successfully through some of the most challenging strategic environments, whilst keeping customer-centric values at heart.  
 There is an increasing awareness of the housing crisis, with a need to grow talent who can respond to the rapidly changing social, financial and political landscape.
Sandra is keen to raise the profile on how a career in housing is not only rewarding but also one that can make a real difference in people’s lives. She’s keen to highlight that each and every day is different, where you can go from grappling with significant societal issues, to sharing the first moment someone walks into their new home.

Rebecca has worked at Ashford Borough Council for 18 years. Having started out as a lettings officer in the housing service, Rebecca has a holistic background in housing, which is of fundamental importance when planning the delivery of our affordable housing programme. Rebecca is ‘twin-hatted’ – overseeing the development of new-build affordable homes, as well as the council’s ambitious street purchase programme and enabling work with registered providers. But she also oversees the neighbourhood services team, which is responsible for sustaining tenancies, independent living and rent collection, which then funds planned maintenance and repair work within the council’s Housing Revenue Account, as well as its new-build programme. She is also the council’s safeguarding lead.

Rebecca is a strong advocate for the council’s work, but her colleagues are a strong advocate for her too. She brings a wealth of experience, expertise and enthusiasm to the authority. She manages complex matters with care and professionalism. She displays incredible compassion to her team and inspires them to deliver first-class affordable housing services against the never-ending challenge of demand exceeding supply.

Sarah is a CIMA qualified Treasury Analyst and has worked for over ten years in the manufacturing industry before she joined Golding Homes, a profit for purpose housing association which provides homes for more than 20,000 people across Kent. As well as being a full time working Mum, juggling family life with work and other commitments Sarah is a member of a school PTA, Captain of a netball team and enjoys caravanning weekends with her family.