Who are we anyway?
This project exists thanks to the hard work and dedication of our many wonderful volunteers, small team of tireless staff, and one very well-worn rhyming dictionary.
Our staff
Volunteers
Board of directors
Our patron
Staff team
Liz McDowell, Project Director
Originally hailing from the rainy west coast of Canada, Liz has since left for the even rainier shores of London, where she moved to start up Otesha UK. Liz has worked in environmental education and advocacy for the past six years in a diversity of roles. Before starting up Otesha UK, she worked with community-based groups at the Post Carbon Institute in Vancouver and played with the bigwigs during a climate change fellowship at the UN Institute for Training and Research in Geneva. Prior to this, she studied management and international development at McGill University in Montreal, where she coordinated a student-driven sustainability assessment. A self-confessed climate action junkie, Liz helped to found the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, served on the executive committee of the Sierra Youth Coalition, a youth-led social and environmental justice organisation, and attended UN Climate Negotiations in Montreal, Bali, Poland and Copenhagen as a youth delegate. Most recently, she's been involved with organising events with YTFN - the Youth Funding Network and has been named a Future 100 social entrepreneur. On cycle tours, you can most often find her searching for a lost water bottle, or torch, or bike gloves, or tupperware...
Jo Clarke, Programmes Manager - Change Projects, Outreach and Communications
Alongside working at The Otesha Project, Jo sometimes makes short films and keeps herself busy acquiring skills for a post-oil world, such as permaculture design, bodging (green woodwork), bread-making and knitting. Since graduating from Manchester University in 2004 (after studying Architecture), she has, amongst other things, led an after-school art club with a sustainable ethos at a primary school and taught environmental education workshops to all ages in schools and at community events. She believes that if we’re going to get through this mess (that whole climate change thing), we all need to start thinking of ourselves as artists and act accordingly, thinking critically about our lives and responding creatively to the problems we see around us. She can often be found raiding other people's rubbish for 'art supplies'.
Hanna Thomas, Programmes Manager - Cycle Tours
After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in Classics, Hanna worked as an actress, and in the media and publishing industries. She then did an abrupt about-turn and launched herself into all things sustainable. She co-founded and ran Escape London from 2007-9, a low-carbon travel website. In 2008, Hanna was given a Fulbright-Hayes award by the US Embassy to visit and exchange learnings with environmental organizations in Colorado and she delivered the first ever Youth Intervention speech to the UN Climate Change Conference plenary in Poznan. Last year, she went to the UN again as part of the UK Youth Climate Coalition delegation to the Copenhagen conference and she's looking forward to working with UKYCC as Diversity and Inclusivty coordinator through 2010. In her spare time, she likes to follow celebrity gossip, and has been named a budding eco-celeb herself. While on tour, Hanna doesn't like cycling up hills, but she does like incorporating her bicycle into dance routines.
Edd Bell, Development and Outreach Intern
For a handful of years, and since his degree in 'Design for Sustainability', Edward has been involved with numerous aspects of events and festivals, mainly in the field of performing arts and music. His activities have ranged from walk-about entertainer to creating fun interactive installations, through to roles such as project coordinator and production manager in larger projects. Edward is highly inspired by the notion of 'Place-Making' via social design, interaction and reaction, exchange and development. After spending the summer as a tour liason on the East Coast cycle tour Edd moved down to London to find out what all the fuss is about. He's joined the Otesha team to work with Change Projects and 10 day cycle tours, and is blogging about this experiences on the Vodafone World of Difference site.
Mohamed AbdulKadir, Research and Knowledge Management Intern
Having recently graduated as a Biomedical Scientist, Mohamed has been discovering the world post student life and thinks "It's a scary world out there!". But that aside there's lots of good things in the world like the Otesha Project. He is really looking forward to be part of a great organization and exploring social sustainability. Mohamed is also a fundraiser when he's not at Otesha and has previously volunteered in a school as a teachers assistant to help childeren with learning difficulties. He is trying to find his role in life and has recently discovered writing in third person, which he thinks is Awesome!
Our volunteers
We are incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful team of volunteers and advisors. Each and every one of them works in different ways to make sure that the Otesha dream comes to life in the UK in the most effective, impactful and fun way possible.
Carla Jones, Intern - Alumni Support Artiste
After having great fun liaising on the Caledonian Road tour I just couldn’t get enough of that Otesha vibe… so I’m back, fully recustomised as an artiste of all things supporting alumni! Mainly I will be helping out with developing a fabulous programme of training and development for our alumni, helping them to go off and continue to pioneer wild and fun things. I’ll also be facilitating at workshops and training events. I’ve just graduated from a Geography degree at the University of Cambridge and I enjoy dancing, playing silly games and singing, preferably all whilst on a bike!
Our trustees
Alice Casey, chair
Alice currently works for the National Endowment for Science Technology and Arts designing and delivering projects that test new models for supporting and scaling social innovation. Previous work includes the Big Green Challenge - NESTA's £1m prize fund to incentivise and support community-led innovation in response to climate change. The challenge prize, which is one of the first for the not-for-profit sector, encouraged new community-led responses to climate change, exploring the conditions needed to support these approaches. She previously worked in the not-for-profit sector at the policy research charity Involve.org.uk looking at how people are engaged in the decisions that affect their lives and how better public involvement can improve society, policy making and public services. She has acted as an advisor to a variety of organisations including central and local government, NHS, Ofsted and the BBC. She specialises in mass engagement and culture change combining online and offline methods. She also writes about public participation at http://cased.wordpress.com .
Andy Cawdell
Andy Cawdell is a trustee of Otesha, having been involved in starting it up three years ago. Andy is also the present Chair and founder member of the London Cycling Campaign. Andy makes his living as the Director of Dovetail Management Consultancy and cycles on his Brompton or his Roberts Hybrid to most client assignments.
Erica Crump, secretary
Erica has been involved with Otesha UK right from the beginning. She was instrumental in setting the organisation up as a charity and continues to be an invaluable legal beagle. Erica works at the charity law firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite, also sits on the board of a community opera trustee, and has an allotment in East London.
Andy Hix
I was on the 2009 Wild West Otesha tour and got so much out of it that I felt I had to stay involved. It's a very unique charity that creates visible, immediate and long-tern change in the people it touches. I heard about the tour while I was the Sustainability Officer at Royal Holloway University, and I now work for a company called Student Switch Off, which encourages students to save energy in universities. As a trustee I want to use my experience of being on a tour and of working with students to help the charity grow in its scope and its impact.
Pete Georgallou
Pete took part in the 2008 Wild West tour and joined the board of trustees in February 2009. Since becoming a 1st class BA holder, he aims to add many more letters to his name, for example MA RA and PhD. In the meantime, he is working as an artist, builder of tall bikes, art director of opera and full-time grower of organic free range facial hair. Since his Otesha tour, Pete has cut down on meat consumption, and is living more sustainably in general and learning more all the time. He aspires to be a tour liaison on a future tour. He also enjoys writing in the third person.
Tom Lafford, deputy chair
Tom did an Otesha internship in the summer of 2009 but couldn't get enough of the Otesha office life, so he still stops by to help develop our upcoming 10-day tours and joined the board of trustees in November 2009. A few days after handing in his final piece of work for a degree in English Literature Tom set off on the Wild West tour, during which he changed his views on sustainability and gained some dodgy tan lines. Now he's getting ready to dive into a year of charity work and an MA in ‘green’ politics. Tom wants to ride his bicycle! bicycle! bicycle!
Sara MacLennan
I first heard about Otesha when studying in Canada - I was so inspired by the message and energy of the people I met that I felt I had to get involved in setting up the UK version. Every time I meet a tour group I'm still blown away by hope that positive change is taking place. I love cycling, in a practical way around the city, as well as more epic adventures - I'm just back from cycling to Morocco and I'm planning the next long distance trip already... I've been involved in environmental education for a number of years, through University and working for the Woodcraft Folk, running the 'Powerpod', a climate change peer education project. In a rapid career move, I'm now starting a job with the Government Economic Service working on Climate Change Mitigation within Defra.
Sankalp Malhotra, treasurer
Sankalp was part of the initial advisory group that set Otesha UK up and then became a Trustee. He has since taken on the role of Treasurer with a particular focus on ensuring Otesha has the cash flow it requires to meet its goals. Sankalp is ACMA qualified with CIMA and has a BSc in Systems and Information Engineering from the University of Virginia. Sankalp grew up in Switzerland and has a great passion for the outdoors. In university he was vice president for business of the Solar Car Team (built racing cars running entirely on solar energy) and is particularly interested in sustainable development and cradle to cradle design.
Dave Miller
Matt Wicks
Since Matt gained an Environmental Science degree at UEA (and re-aquainted himself with the humble bicycle) he has been very keen to promote the ideals of a low carbon lifestyle. He currently works for the Energy Saving Trust advice centre Anglia, based in Norfolk, providing advice to householders and support to local authorities. Matt first's taste of Otesha was when he joined the Wild West Tour in 2008. He enjoyed the bicycle goodness so much that he became a trustee!
Our patron
Josie Long, comedian
Josie Long is our super cool patron. As well as enjoying knitting, making zines, recycling, turning off her computer and all those hundreds of small things that make a better world, she makes us laugh until our bellies ache. Other people agree – check out her accomplishments – she’s an If.Comedy Award Winner and BBC Comedy Award Winner. She’s been on BBC2’s Buzzcocks, C4’s Skins and Charlie Brooker's You Have Been Watching, AND she’s been on Radio 4 with her own acclaimed series and Just A Minute. Blimey.
She also loves our Otesha handbook and has her very own copy! Download yours here .
We also have a pretty fantastic advisory group:
- Michael Norton, OBE
- Jason Loughlin
- Cyndi Rhoades
- Luciana Edwards
Lastly, we're grateful to our past volunteers Frankie, Cress, Doudou, Denise, Isabelle, Veronique, Steve, Irene, Sophie, Olly, Joe, Petronella, Julia, Anna C, Canden, Perrine, Rosie, Anna F, Mike and Tom for lending us their time and skills.