Trustees

The Trust is managed by a board of Trustees, appointed in accordance with its constitution. The Trustees meet four times a year in addition to an away day with staff.

Suzy Dymond-White, chair of Trustees, was until 2023 a senior manager at His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and formerly Governing Governor at HMP Eastwood Park

Jo Child is a yoga teacher and runs a series of high-quality yoga workshops with guest teachers in Oxford. She is a former staff member of the PPT.

Shola Arewa provides health and wellbeing training internationally.  She has been supporting prisons as a yoga teacher and psychologist since the 1990s.

Nicholas Colloff OBE was Oxfam’s Director of Strategy and Innovation and is now Executive Director of the Ardigius Foundation. He is a PPT co-founder.

Claira Fernandez has a deep commitment to wellbeing, running her own practice.  She has supported the healing of recovering addicts.

Rev’d Doug Heming is an Anglican priest and restorative justice facilitator. He has served as a prison chaplain in a number of adult and young offender facilities across the UK.

Olivia Vickers is a proponent of good mental health. Working in investment banking she values good governance.

Joyce Borgs, vice-chair of Trustees, helps charities harness the power of digital technology, designing tools and platforms to support their work.

Judith Unwin, vice-chair of Trustees, brings experience of fund-raising, profile-raising and financial strategy. 

Liz Wheen has a background in prisoner education and is Head of Future Models for Prisoner Education at His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

Richard Dunkerley, Treasurer, is a certified accountant, co-director of the Alternatives events programme at St James’s Church, Piccadilly and Treasurer of the Cowley St John parish in East Oxford.

Stefan Lerche is a business psychologist and executive coach working in the IT sector. Helping people to grow is his lifelong passion.

 

Patrons

We are deeply grateful to our Patrons who support and publicise our work and offer us encouragement:

Dr Kiran Bedi, former Inspector General of Prisons, Tihar Jail, and former Deputy Chief of Police in India

Dr Sheila Cassidy, doctor and former nun, who drew attention to human rights abuses in Chile by publishing her own history as a torture survivor

Sandy Chubb is Zen Teacher at the Oxford Zendo and former Director of the PPT. She has been involved with the PPT since its inception and taught yoga and meditation in prisons for over 20 years.

Father Laurence Freeman OSB, Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation

Jeremy Irons, Golden Globe, Tony and Academy Award-winning film and stage actor

Sir Mark Tully, acclaimed broadcaster and journalist and former Bureau Chief of BBC, Delhi

 

Former Patrons

Dr Benjamin Zephaniah, best-selling poet, broadcaster and human rights activist

Sr Elaine MacInnes, Catholic nun and Zen master, former director of The Prison Phoenix Trust

Erwin James, Guardian journalist, Editor in Chief of Inside Time and former prisoner

 

Consultants

We are indebted to these consultants for their help and advice:

Dr Jamie Bennett is a former prison governor, now a Deputy Director leading operational security for HMPPS

Rev’d George Coppen, Anglican priest and former prison psychotherapist at HMP Grendon

Imam Monawar Hussain DL, MBE, founder of The Oxford Foundation and member of Oxford University Hospitals chaplaincy team

Prof. Alison Liebling, Director, Cambridge Institute of Criminology Prisons Research Centre

Martin O’Neill, Governor of Mountjoy Campus, Dublin.