Meet the board

Chris graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne with a degree in Social Studies. She is a Registered General Nurse and a Registered Mental Nurse and has extensive clinical and senior management experience across health and social care, in both statutory and non-statutory sectors. Her last post was CEO for The Edward Lloyd Trust which provided support to adults, children and young people with a learning disability. Chris is now retired from full time work. She is married with 4 children and lives in Northumberland with her husband and two beagles.

Jenny's day job is an executive director for Thera Trust where she shares her Quality and Involvement role with Matthew Smith, who brings his lived experience of learning disability to the role alongside his work in advocacy. Jenny was born and brought up in Angus, Scotland and qualified as a nurse (RNLD) in Dundee the mid 1980s. Since then, she has worked in both health and social care. Throughout her career, Jenny has focussed on working with people to developed their opportunities and move on from institutional care

Frances has lived experience of having a learning disability and co-worked as a project co-ordinator for CHANGE, a leading campaigning rights organisation, for 14 years. She researched and wrote 2 Easy Read books on how to be a good parent. She has also developed resources and training for employers, police and other front line services. Frances is an experienced Train the Trainer facilitator and has worked with Thera North to make their training more inclusive for the people they support.

Craig is passionate about empowering people to have an ordinary life and for them to be in control of how and where they live and the support that they receive. Craig started his career as a support worker in 2002, working his way up to Director of Development after roles in operations and person centred planning. In 2015 he moved to a major health and welfare charity as Head of Operations and was responsible for a range of services across the Northwest and Midlands. Craig joined Thera North in 2017 and is looking forward to working with the local teams to continue providing excellent support.

Andrew has over 25 years’ experience working to promote advocacy and rights. As a person with lived experience of having a learning disability, Andrew's role is to act as a leader of the company to ensure that the voices of people we support are heard and represented. He supports the Managing Director and Board of Directors in ensuring that people get the best and most empowering support