Kiran began her career in inner-city London, as an English teacher in schools serving the most deprived postcodes in the country. After five years on the frontline, Kiran left to work in education policy, searching for solutions to the rising number of vulnerable children who fall through the gaps. Kiran was working at Social Mobility Commission when she conceived the idea for The Difference. She has led its work full-time since January 2017.

Kiran is driven by her own family experiences. Growing up with two adopted sisters, Kiran witnessed the long-term effects of childhood trauma and the lack of support for young people with complex needs. This insight is what keeps Kiran striving for the most vulnerable children to get the education they deserve.

In 2017 Kiran co-authored the IPPR report Making The Difference: Breaking the link between school exclusion and social exclusion. Find out more about IPPR’s work on The Difference in this article in The Times.

Siân Lewis is Head of Parent Participation at Parentkind, the network of PTA fundraisers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Parentkind represent parent voice and champion the role of parents in education, working with schools, parents and policy makers to support every child to thrive and reach their potential. Siân’s focus, through a suite of training, tools, information, advice, surveys, partnerships and resources, is to support schools to embed effective parental participation and parents to be involved and engaged in education and school life.

Siân’s previous roles include leading on the delivery of a skills and careers focused mentoring programme for young people across London and working as a freelance television Producer. Siân believes passionately in harnessing parent voice and participation in education and supporting better outcomes for children, schools and communities.

Amy Husband is the Head of School Academic at Academy21, bringing 14 years of senior leadership experience. With extensive expertise in alternative provision and SEND, Amy is committed to creating a supportive and inclusive environment where pupils can build confidence, self-belief, and achieve academic success. Her leadership roles have spanned both primary and secondary education, focusing on safeguarding, inclusion, and school improvement.

In 2020, Amy was awarded ‘Evidence Lead in Education (ELE)’ status, enabling her to consult for the Department for Education and the Education Endowment Foundation. At Academy21, she leads the academic team, ensuring a rigorous and personalised curriculum that caters to the unique needs of every student.

Charlotte is Coalition Lead at the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition. Charlotte leads on the Coalition’s work, including their policy and public affairs work. Prior to this, Charlotte worked as Policy Officer for Mental Health and Wellbeing at The Children’s Society where she was responsible for the charity’s policy work in this area. Charlotte also previously worked for her Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, where she played a role in performance monitoring.

Martha Evans (BA Hons FRSA) is Director of the Anti-Bullying Alliance, supporting its 230 members in all aspects of bullying across policy, campaigns and practice improvement. She coordinates the national Anti-Bullying Week campaign reaching 7.5 million children and young people. Martha sat on the Royal Cyberbullying Taskforce, led by the Duke of Cambridge, and currently sits on the UK Safer Internet Centre Advisory Board and the Internet Matters Expert Group.

Martha has project managed significant anti-bullying programmes including United Against bullying and has developed a series of CPD reaching tens of thousands of children’s practitioners each year and resources covering discriminatory bullying, online bullying and supporting children who bully.

Catherine Gladwell is Refugee Education UK’s founder and Chief Executive. REUK works across the country equipping refugee children and young people to build more hopeful futures through education. Each year they work alongside around 700 young people through their own education support and advice programmes, support several hundred schools, further education colleges and universities, conduct research and influence policy.

Alongside her work at REUK, she is a director and research advisor for Jigsaw Education, where she specialises in international refugee education. Catherine has led and consulted on refugee education research and programmes for international agencies including Unicef, UNHCR, Save the Children and many others. She holds degrees from Oxford University and the University of London, is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Winchester and an Honorary Associate Professor of Refugee Education at the University of Nottingham.