Building a Better Workplace: Good Employment Week 2024

Joanna was born and raised in Sheffield and moved to Manchester to study a Social Science degree at Manchester Polytechnic. Initially she worked for Manchester City Council Homelessness teams. After completing a PGCE she then worked as a Psychology tutor for 20 years in a sixth form college (including 10 years as Head of Department).

She was elected to the council in May 2012 as member for Chorlton Park.

As an Assistant Executive Joanna worked in health and then housing. As lead member for Mental Health for several years, Joanna worked hard to ensure that mental health issues were raised across the council to create greater awareness and reduce stigma, she has been Chair of the Manchester Suicide Prevention Partnership for 5 years overseeing the development and implementation of the local suicide prevention plan.

Joanna became Executive Member for Health and Care in May 2021 and was appointed Deputy Leader in December 2021. Her portfolio includes Homelessness, Domestic Abuse and promoting the Safety of Women and Girls, Asylum Seekers and Refugees, the Voluntary and Community Sector, Anti-Poverty work and tackling Inequalities. Joanna is co-chair of the Making Manchester Fairer Programme Board.

She is involved in many local community groups and is currently a Trustee of Chorlton and Didsbury Foodbank, Chair of Barlow Moor Community Association based on the Merseybank estate and a school governor at Chorlton Park Primary School.

I’m Tamsin Danby, I lead the Community Impact team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.  I am a passionate sustainability professional with over ten years’ leadership experience in the law, finance and consultancy sectors.  Within my current role, my focus is on promoting access to opportunity, particularly through social mobility and racial equity.  This is achieved in the UK through two flagship access to opportunity programmes, Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme and Freshfields Aspiring Professionals Programme.  I am the Chair of the social mobility group within the pro-manchester EDI committee and sit on the social mobility network within Freshfields where I’ve had the privilege to put together events with leading thinkers in social mobility such as Professor Lee Elliott Major and Professor Sam Friedman.

Jan is Chair of Smart Works Greater Manchester, an independent charity that supports, inspires and empowers unemployed women living in socially disadvantaged and minority communities to succeed at their upcoming job interviews, securing a route towards financial independence. At Smart Works we believe in the ethos of #fashionasaforceforgood, the transformative experience our clients undergo in the wardrobe where the finding the right interview outfit instills a sense of confidence and empowerment, and followed with the power of focussed interview training to build skills and professional competencies.

Aside from Smart Works, Jan supports entrepreneurial SaaS platform businesses as an Investor/NED. Her whole career was in business development with 10 years large corporate IT, 10 years BPO in UK and North America, then almost 10 years running her own consultancy / interim business supporting private equity owned companies. In 2015, Jan went “back on the payroll” for 2 years joining Utiligroup, a fast growing, highly entrepreneurial SaaS provider to independent UK energy suppliers backed by North Edge Capital (PE). In April ’17, Jan and her board colleagues were recognised by the BVCA (Private Equity) as Best Management Team of the Year (Mid Market).

Sonia Watson-Fowler (she/her) is a consultant, coach, writer and performer. Founder of Inclusive Communication Consultancy (ICC), she provides a range of executive, creative and education Equitable Practice and People Centred Leadership workshops, mentoring, conflict mediation services and coaching, as well as creative writing sessions to UK and international clients.
She is currently Factory International’s Equity & Representation Manager and a Relationship Manager at Black Lives in Music. Sonia has worked extensively with a range of educational, arts establishments and businesses focused on addressing issues of inclusiveness and equitable practice. Her initial primary focus was on anti-racism following the 2020 resurgence of the BLM movement. Sonia is a Trustee of Bird College Conservatoire for Dance and Musical Theatre and was Director of Culture & Creativity at ALRA – Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, prior to its sudden closure.