Voluntary Action Fund

Trustees

Ron Daniel OBE, Chair

Ron's working life began in the Public Sector with the Ministry of Defence and the Scottish Office in a variety of technical and managerial posts. He then moved to the Private Sector, initially as a Management Consultant and Trainer, then as a Director of Human Resources before returning to management consultancy until his retirement. Since his late 20's he has served as a volunteer for a wide variety of organisations, including charities for the blind, the long-term unemployed and victims of crime. He was National Chair of Victim Support Scotland between 2003 and 2009. Ron has also been a Councillor and Magistrate.

Dorothy MacLauchlin, Vice Chair

Most of my working life has been spent in the voluntary sector, managing projects covering family support, working with carers, working in faith based organisations to develop church building into a community facility.  This brought me into contact with the Asylum Seeking community.  I also spent some time working in a residential establishment for dementia sufferers.  Currently I am employed as part time Almoner for the Merchant Company of Edinburgh where I visit and support almost 400 beneficiaries and assess new referrals.  My greatest joy is in my new role as a first time Grandmother!

Michael Cunningham, Treasurer

Michael is an Accountant who works for Forward Scotland, a charity that promotes sustainable development. He is also Director of Bancep Ltd; a charity that operates a day centre for older people in his native Lanarkshire and he sits on the management committee of Braveheart, a visionary organisation which helps people cope with cornary heart disease by taking them on supervised walks. Michael also sits on the grants panel of the Scottish Community Foundation, having previously been a volunteer assessor with the foundation. Outwith his commitments, he enjoys cooking and cycling, but not at the same time.

Pam Judson

Pam Judson is a self-employed fundraising consultant and trainer who works with small to medium sized community based voluntary organisations in Scotland and overseas.  She is the author of several publications about fundraising and generation of income from friends and members groups.

 

 

 John McDonald

John has been involved in public service for over 30 years. Before initial training in Community Education at Jordanhill College he started his involvement in the voluntary sector as a volunteer at the age of 15 and has continued to be active in voluntary roles since in both local and national organisations. He is currently an active Board member of a local Council for Voluntary Service.
He has worked in senior professional and managerial roles across varied fields including community development, education, social work, health and well-being and children's services, spending time in local government, new town development, higher education and the private sector. A signifiant part of his career has been involved supporting the development of community / voluntary organisations. Prior to his current role he spent time in the third sector as a chief executive of a national organisation and is currently managing a change programme to support implementation of Getting It Right For Every Child.

Douglas Guest

Douglas has worked for a health board, Local Authority, various local (and one national) voluntary organisations, and in the last five years as the funding and stakeholder development manager at the EHRC in Scotland. These roles have been both local and national and he is currently interested in the areas of funding, stakeholder development, capacity building, rural issues, leadership, evaluation (and more importantly dissemination), religion and belief, social impact measurement, participatory methodologies like Appreciative Inquiry, coaching and intergenerational work.
An experienced speaker, facilitator and trainer, who has a passion for working with people and working on projects that innovate and make a real difference. In his limited spare time, as a father of three small boys, Douglas enjoys the arts and most sports - especially our national game that involves us hitting a small white ball around our beautiful country side (preferably by the coast!).

Caron Hughes

I began my voluntary sector career in 1995, working for a regeneration project in West Fife.  Having studied for a management qualification and a degree in Community Education I began to work in community development.  Since the beginning of my voluntary sector career, I have always been interested in voluntary sector governance, group dynamics, accountability and quality standards.  I now specialise in governance and compliance.  I currently work as Trustee Development Consultant for Home-Start UK with a Scotland wide remit.
I also volunteer in the community of Benarty, where I am Secretary of my local community forum and I'm very active in progressing many of the initiatives the Forum are involved in.
I am passionate, very committed and very optimistic about my work and about life in general.  I believe that we all have something to contribute to making this world a better place for everyone to live and so I'm playing my part!  I believe VAF's vision and mission are consistent with my own values and aspirations and these are what attracted me to trusteeship of VAF.

Shirley Grieve

Shirley is Head of Practice Development at Learning Link Scotland; a dynamic intermediary organisation that supports adult learning in the voluntary sector. She develops programmes and projects aimed at strengthening the skills of people working in this field. She sits on a number of national strategic groups; contributing to policy and practice development.
Building good partnerships across sectors is one of Shirley's strengths; she is keen to support VAF's existing work in this area helping to broker new partnerships and collaborative work. She has worked in the Scottish Refugee Council, Councils for Voluntary Service, Primary education, Higher Education, Adult Education and Community work. She currently volunteers as a workshop leader in a weekly adult learning class. Photo coming soon.

Nasra Bibi

Nasra has worked in a range of settings over the past 20 years, including community development initiatives and national government programmes.
She is an experienced trainer, adviser and facilitator working across the UK voluntary and public sectors, focusing on enabling organisations to address the impact of discrimination. She specialises in developing anti-racist and anti-discriminatory approaches to gender inequality and train multi-agency and single sector staff to respond effectively to violence against women/gender-based abuse.
She is/has also been an adviser to a range of national programmes and community initiatives, including Scottish Government National Violence Against Women Training Strategy, NHS Scotland programme on routine enquiry into gender-based violence, The Banyan Project - pilot groupwork programme for black and minority ethnic children affected by domestic abuse and Childrens Hospice Association Scotland diversity initiative.Photo coming soon.

Gail Edwards

Gail Edwards is the Chief Executive of Heriot-Watt University Student Union and formerly a Director for the National Union of Students. Before working in the student movement she worked in a charitable grant making body as a Grants Officer and volunteer manager. She brings experience of charity law and strategic planning as well as extensive experience of working with the Scottish Parliament.
Gail is interested in promoting sustainable grant making programmes that have a positive impact on grass root community groups and campaigns. She has a particular interest in equality and diversity projects focusing on tackling discrimination in society and access to services. Photo coming soon.

Andrew Marshall-Roberts

Passionate about helping people and organisations achieve their highest potential through knowledge and best practices, Andrew has worked in the area of Corporate Responsibility and Community Investment for almost a decade. With a financial services and customer service background Andrew has held positions including those as Head of Corporate Responsibility for Standard Life plc, and (Interim) Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Skills Council.
Andrew has considerable experience of aligning and integrating corporate strategy and community investment programmes to deliver sustainable partnerships. Currently working for Scottish Business in the Community he is driving growth through sustainable leadership and business practices in SMEs across Scotland.
From Edinburgh originally, Andrew has over 20 years experience of being involved in the local and wider community and has been involved with several charities including the Samaritans, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Pregnancy Support Centre and has been a Director of several charitable foundations (local and international). He is currently a Non Executive Director of Waverley Care and member of the Scottish Development Board Advisory Group at Place2Be.

Bridgid Corr

Photo & bio coming soon.

Andy Crichton

Photo & bio coming soon