Your reps

Representatives are a vital link between the MA and its members and are champions of the organisation and our policies and values.

Jump to the MA reps for your area:

• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• Wales
• England: North
• England: Midlands
• England: South East
• England: London
• England: South West

Northern Ireland

Get updates from your reps and contact other members in your area by joining the JISC email list.

Roisin is a former archaeologist with over 27 years of experience working in the museum and heritage sector. She joined Derry City and Strabane District Council as head of the heritage and museum service in 2004 where she had responsibility for strategy, governance, museum collections, staff and programmes. In her current role as curator, she manages a curatorial team and is responsible for collections management, interpretation and programming.

Roisin is also an independent museum and heritage consultant and a member of the Northern Ireland Regional Curators Group, National Churches Trust Grants Committee, and is an assessor for the Heritage Council of Ireland Museum Standards Programme. She serves as a UK Museum Accreditation mentor and was a board member of the Northern Ireland Museums Council from 2012-18 and 2022-24.

Her interests include governance and leadership within museums, art and the transformative power of museum collections for health and wellbeing.

Email: roisin.doherty@derrystrabane.com
LinkedIn: Roisin Doherty
Bluesky: @rd71a.bsky.social

Victoria has worked in the museum sector for over 15 years. She joined National Museums NI as a project manager for the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project in 2018 before becoming a senior curator of history in 2019.

In this role she manages a team of curators responsible for the research, management and development of collections held at the Ulster Folk Museum and the Ulster American Folk Park, supporting collections access and interpretation in the process.

Victoria has previously held positions with the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Down County Museum, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Limavady Borough Council and National Museums Liverpool. She currently sits on the committee of the Rural Museums Network and is a former trustee of the Social History Curators Group.

Email: victoria.millar@nationalmuseumsni.org
Bluesky: @vmillar.bsky.social

Scotland

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Gillian moved back to Scotland in 2023 to work as the exhibitions and community engagement manager for OnFife. She is passionate about lifelong learning in museums, making exhibitions and programmes relevant and accessible, working with communities and partners, and using our amazing collections in our work.

She achieved her AMA in 2017 while working at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, where she worked for 15 years as a curator, manager and leader. She has a background in interpretation, programming and engagement alongside industrial history and decorative arts.

Email: gillian.crumpton@onfife.com

Tom started his museum career in 1997 and has worked in a wide range of roles including archaeologist, curator, front-of-house and learning officer. He has worked in independent museums, a national museum and several local authority museums.

Tom moved to Scotland in 2018 and assumed his current post in 2021. He is also a wellbeing champion within his organisation and aims to improve wellbeing in the communities he works with. He achieved his AMA in 2023 and is now a mentor for candidates and keen advocate of the scheme.

In his spare time, he volunteers with small independent museums and heritage groups, sharing living history, traditional music and storytelling.

Email: historytolife@aol.com
Bluesky: @tomtelltale.bsky.social

Gill has a diverse background spanning libraries, digital inclusion, design and teaching. In 2017, she transitioned into museums as a visual arts lead, where she was inspired by museums’ socially engaged practice and potential for meaningful connection. Throughout her career, creativity and inclusive support have been central to her approach, ensuring people feel valued in a non-judgmental space.

As a disabled, working class, third generation immigrant, Gill’s lived experience aligns with the MA’s campaigns for socially engaged museums and a representative workforce. She actively explores museum practice to create connections and space for others.

Currently undertaking the AMA, Gill is focusing on access for neurodivergent audiences, leadership, co-curation, co-design, community engagement and social change. She is also exploring visual note-taking as a tool to capture her AMA journey, using simple illustrations and graphics to make complex ideas more accessible and engaging.

Email: gill.ross-fc@onfife.com
LinkedIn: Gill Ross

Wales

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Alice is currently programme manager for Tir Canol, a landscape partnership in Mid Wales delivering artist residency programmes and working on projects supporting climate action, coastal adaptation initiatives and nature recovery with a blue print co-designed by the community and funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Alice freelances as a socially engaged practice artist and curator, and is a mentor for the Camau Creadigol Arts Council of Wales Scheme. She was previously head of art at Amgueddfa Cymru, and assistant curator at Ceredigion Museum. 

Alice has twenty five years’ experience working in museums, heritage and the arts as a curator, but also as an arts and health coordinator and practitioner with a particular focus on older people and dementia sufferers.

Email: celf@alicebriggs.co.uk

Caitlin has worked in the museum sector in Wales for over 18 years, working in a wide variety of roles. She is currently an independent museum and heritage consultant, specialising in projects funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This includes knowledge of grants and fundraising, development of business planning, audience and activity planning, and interpretation planning. She completed her AMA in 2025.

Caitlin began her career at Tredegar House, Newport where she gained experience in collections care, event and activity planning, learning and more. Since then, Caitlin has worked in roles such as front of house, volunteer coordination, site management and strategy development, supporting differing organisations from local authority to volunteer-led and independent museums. This has provided her with a deep and wide-ranging knowledge of the sector in Wales.

Her interests include interpretation and storytelling through collections, the use of museum collections for health and wellbeing and learning. In her spare time, Caitlin is an avid writer, amongst caring for her two young children.

Email: caitlin@cgheritage.co.uk

Esther currently works as Museums & Arts Manager at Cyngor Gwynedd. Having previously worked as a Senior Manager at Oriel Môn, as well as Project Manager of large capital programmes, and in curatorial roles for over twenty years.

A Welsh speaker with lots of experience in local authorities in north Wales, she has also taken on some freelance work, including supporting the Spotlight 2024 report. She has always been active in advocating for the sector, including stints as Hon Secretary for the Welsh Museums Federation.

She is looking forward to advocating for the Welsh Museums Sector through her role as MA Wales Rep, alongside Alice & Caitlin.

Email: estherelin@hotmail.com

England: North

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Ogechi has worked in the education sector since graduating from university and is currently programme assistant in the School of Arts and Media at the University of Salford. Alongside her full-time job, she is part of a creative production group called the Tees Valley Young Producers. She works with like-minded young people, planning exhibitions and programming events that engage a diverse range of young people in the museum and heritage sectors.

She has a keen interest in telling untold stories and decolonising museums, believing in the importance of fostering an inclusive atmosphere in the museum sector and the power of transformative educational experiences. She is an individual board member of the Tees Valley Museums Consortium and volunteers with the Whitworth Art Gallery.

Email: ogechi_anucha@hotmail.co.uk
LinkedIn: Ogechi Anucha

Meg is a learning and community engagement professional, passionate about providing quality learning experiences for all ages and audiences. She joined Doncaster Council as learning and community development manager in 2024 and manages two teams delivering the learning and community outreach programmes across a combined museum and library service.

Meg has worked in museums for over ten years, beginning her career with a Norfolk Museum Service Teaching Museum traineeship specialising in learning and engagement. Her subsequent experience includes learning and engagement roles across public museums, private heritage organisations and university museums primarily in East Anglia, before moving to Yorkshire to manage the award-winning community engagement programme Archaeology on Prescription for York Archaeology.

Meg is also a freelance writer for The Early Years Educator and has contributed to Current Archaeology and British Archaeology.

LinkedIn: Meg Barclay

Hannah is cultural participation and community curator for Tees Valley Museums. She has over 8 years of experience working in both collections and front-of-house museum roles and is passionate about connecting communities to heritage and creating safe and welcoming spaces for people to enjoy.

In her current role Hannah advocates for the health and wellbeing benefits of cultural spaces, as well as museums as places for healing. She believes that true value comes from community participation and the building of sustainable relationships over one-off projects.

She supports many museum and heritage networks across the North of England.

Email: hannah.mather@stockton.gov.uk
Instagram: @hannah.museums
X: @Hannah_Museums
Bluesky: @hannah-museums.bsky.social
LinkedIn: Hannah Mather

England: Midlands

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Abibat is a visual artist specialising in landscape and nature paintings, and currently works as an art and heritage volunteer at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. In this role, she supports the Care, Create, Conserve project, engaging the public with healthcare heritage exhibits and assisting with events and workshops.

Her work as an artist explores the emotional and cultural significance of landscapes, capturing themes of memory, solitude and connection to nature. Abibat is passionate about the intersection of art, heritage and community engagement, believing that museums and cultural spaces play a vital role in storytelling and preserving identity.

Email: artbybonuola@gmail.com
Instagram: @bonu_arts

Julie has worked in the museum sector for over 16 years and has been based in Nottinghamshire for the majority of that time, but began her museum career in West Yorkshire. She is currently the museum officer and only staff member for the Salvation Army’s William Booth Birthplace Museum, Nottingham, where she leads a small team of volunteers to run the museum, lead tours and events, deliver school sessions and lead guided walks.

She previously worked for Kirklees Council as a collections access assistant at the Tolson Museum, Huddersfield, and as museum manager for the Peace Museum in Bradford. She also served as treasurer and then chair of the Nottinghamshire Heritage Forum from 2019 to 2023. Her career has spanned delivering family support for the United States Air Force to teaching basic literacy at a non-profit school for adult learners in Alaska.

Julie is passionate about bringing history to life through interpretation and the powerful role museums play in helping people explore identity, meaning and connection. Julie values wellbeing in museums and the impact it can have on communities as well as within the museum sector. She currently supports students by offering mentoring and feedback as a Nottingham Trent University Industry Fellow.

Email: julie.obermeyer@salvationarmy.org.uk
LinkedIn: Julie Obermeyer
X: @JulieObermeyer

England: South East

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Sarah is the creative programme manager at the National Horseracing Museum in Suffolk. Her work connects people through community co-production, programming, education and volunteering.

She is passionate about connecting communities with their heritage through museum collections and has worked in both independent and local authority museums in a range of roles across the east of England. Her work has spanned from documenting collections and co-curating exhibitions with community groups, to supporting young people in developing new skills and conducting research around digital collections engagement in lockdown.

Sarah is currently working towards her AMA, editing a volume bringing together research from a project she ran at Wisbech & Fenland Museum focused on a collection of African material culture. She supports many museum and heritage networks across the east and nationally including MEG, Engage, the Early Textiles Research Group, and South East Museums Federation. She is currently chair of Heritage Network Norfolk.

Email: scoleman@nhrm.co.uk

Sheila has had a varied career in the heritage and museums sector since 2003. She learned the potential to bring history to life in unique ways through early curatorial roles at the Black Country Living Museum and Birmingham’s community museums.

She went on to lead Cressing Temple Barns in Essex and Milestones Living History Museum in Hampshire, project managing major experiences to appeal to the widest audiences. In her current role, she works on volunteer engagement for The MERL and Reading Museum. She co-develops innovative roles that target community need and are accessible, rewarding and fun.

Sheila founded the EDI working group for the university museums and contributes to University of Reading’s EDI working groups. She has also chaired the BOBVol Volunteer Managers network since 2021 and now co-chairs the Heritage Volunteering Group East & Southeast to ensure volunteer engagement excellence is shared across the wider region.

Email: sheila.fisher@reading.ac.uk 
LinkedIn: Sheila Fisher
Bluesky: @sheilafisheruk.bsky.social

Emily is community programme manager (job share) at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. She manages the gallery’s pioneering community programme alongside developing new partnerships with local organisations. She currently works closely with social prescribers, mental health groups and a local charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers.

Emily is passionate about ensuring that museums and galleries are inclusive spaces and accessible for all, and is a committed advocate for the benefits of creative health and its impact on wellbeing. She has an MA in museum studies from University of Leicester and recently completed her AMA.

Email: e.robson@pallant.org.uk

England: London

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Sanaa is an arts professional with a background spanning the art, business and finance sectors. Formerly operations director at Pictorum Art Group, she led strategic growth initiatives and helped shape new ventures – a contemporary art gallery, an art logistics business, and an art-tech platform within the organisation. She now works in the mass transit and public mobility sector, while continuing to engage with the arts through consulting, mentoring and advisory work.

As an independent art advisor, Sanaa collaborates with galleries in the UK and India to foster cross-cultural representation. She also mentors emerging artists, supporting them in navigating the commercial landscape. In addition, she works with university students to broaden awareness of career opportunities in the arts beyond curatorial and gallery management roles.

A member of the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA), Sanaa is passionate about equity, innovation and access in the cultural sector. She is particularly interested in supporting and deepening her understanding of the museum landscape while exploring how art impacts mental health, neuroscience and productivity within corporate settings.

Email: sanaa.sachdev@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Sanaa Sachdev

Rachel is a director at Barker Langham, a global cultural practice. She leads the company’s interpretive, curatorial and research portfolio – working in partnership with client teams in museums, government and cultural organisations in the UK and internationally to deliver meaningful visitor experiences.

She is a mentor for the Museums Association’s Mentoring for All programme and an advisory board member for the Sensational Museum. Rachel is an active researcher in the field of museum studies and completed her PhD on collaborative writing in museums with the University of Leicester in 2023. Through all her work, she seeks to create connections across and beyond the sector and to support the next generation of cultural practitioners.

Email: rachel.teskey@barkerlangham.com

England: South West

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Jo has worked in the museum sector for over 15 years and has been based in the south west of England throughout that time. She is a museum development officer with Museum Development South West, providing professional advice and support to 47 Accredited museums across the county of Devon. She also acts as a trustee of the Museum of Dartmoor Life, her local museum.

She previously spent a large part of her career working with the National Trust in property, regional and central teams as a researcher, collections engagement officer and collections registrar. She also held roles at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery (now The Box) and Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park, Cornwall. She completed her AMA in 2012.

Jo is particularly passionate about supporting workforce wellbeing in the museum sector as well as the role museums can play in improving wellbeing among their communities.

Email: joanna.cairns@bristol.gov.uk

Julie Taylor Kent is museum development officer at Museum Development South West, supporting over 23 museums across Gloucestershire and many more through forums, peer networks and collaborative initiatives. Her career spans freelance illustration, adult and university-level teaching in art and art history, museum visitor experience and operations, and sector-wide support.

Notable projects include her work on the Museum Association’s workforce campaign including the Front-of-House Charter for Change, and the Colston Statue consultation display and exhibition at M Shed, Bristol, with focus on supporting visitor experience, team wellbeing, and delivery of visitor engagement within the museum.

Email: julie_tk@icloud.com
LinkedIn: Julie Taylor Kent
Bluesky: @julietkart.bsky.social