Barbara holds two non-executive roles on the boards of the Youth Hostel Association and the Foyer Federation. She has a degree in Politics from Queen Mary University and a Masters in International Public Policy from University College London.
Barbara is currently Chief Executive of award winning social enterprise Elevation Networks and a respected equalities campaigner, working on the participation, employment and leadership of young people and women. She has worked extensively with government departments, NGOs and various youth initiatives across Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
Barbara has worked in the youth sector for over ten years and specialises in providing consultancy services to employers from Barclays to the Civil Service Fast Stream and other stakeholders on how to engage and attract young people, women and people of colour to their talent pipelines and governance structures. She also runs Visible Women, a campaign to match young women and girls with female role models and mentors in male dominated industries. On Twitter alone the #IamVisible hashtag reached 259,290 unique users and as a result VW was featured in The Independent as one of the top campaigns ‘tweeting for equality’. Barbara is also an RSA fellow.