This year’s judges
and sponsors
Judges
Each year, SMK invites a diverse and experienced group of people from across civil society to judge the Awards. They include campaigners, activists, previous award winners, senior charity managers, and leaders. We are grateful for all the hard work that our judging panel put into the selection process.

Jennifer Frame
Campaigner
Jennifer is a campaigner with End Our Cladding Scandal, a national grassroots campaign led by volunteers who are affected by the post-Grenfell building safety crisis that has affected millions of homes across the UK. End Our Cladding Scandal was the winner of the Best Consumer Campaign at the SMK National Campaigner Awards in 2023.
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Tom Baker
Director: Politics, Participation and Campaigns, Save the Children
Tom has led campaigns on global issues for over 20 years, and alongside his work writes a blog on campaigning at thoughtfulcampaigner.org
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Until late 2016, Tom was Head of Campaigns and Engagement at Bond, a network of UK based NGOs working in international development. Before that he worked at Tearfund and Christian Aid, as well as helping to found Campaign Bootcamp.

Zita Holbourne
Campaigner
Zita is a multi-award winning community activist, equality and human rights campaigner, trade union leader, multidisciplinary artist and writer.
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David Graham
Founder, Tenacious Awards
David Graham is the founder of Changing Ideas, Law for Change and the Tenacious Awards.
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Abdi Mohamed
Public Affairs Manager, Scope
Abdi’s interest and expertise is influencing policy makers and mobilising local communities on disability issues and other areas of social justice.
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Dr Alison Green
Educator, University of the Arts London
In her work as an educator, writer, researcher and curator, Alison has a vision for the powerful impact curating can have on bringing issues to public attention and opening up spaces for dialogue.
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Her projects expand understandings of art practice, exhibition histories and curatorial practice, with a focus on feminism and capitalism and their potential to change institutional practices and knowledge production. These are realised through learning and teaching; research on exhibitions and social practice; curating; and network-type projects on emerging forms of curatorial practice, citizenship and community.
Alison has taught curating, writing and research for 20 years at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. She has initiated and mentored dozens of curatorial projects partnering students with galleries, businesses, charities and public bodies. These enable participants to learn through doing, to work with audiences and communities directly and explore how curatorial research and practice can have social impact. This has taken her and students to other parts of the world, such as Japan, Portugal, France, USA and Hong Kong. As Director of Doctoral Training and Development, Alison is newly working with PhD students in University of the Arts’ recently inaugurated Doctoral School.

Clare Farrell
Activist and campaigner, Co-founder of Extinction Rebellion
Clare is an active citizen, devoting her creativity, her energy, and occasionally her personal liberty, to fight against climate collapse and the wider environmental crisis.
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As one of the cofounders of Extinction Rebellion her work to date has included coordinating the creative team that delivered the name, identity, and messaging that the movement set out with in 2018, co-editing the bestselling book, This is Not a Drill, and now works with the UK media team and acts as a spokesperson.
Clare has a professional background in the UK fashion industry, working across the high street, luxury and ethical sectors. She has been educating on fashion, ethics and sustainability for over a decade.

Peter Gilheany
Director, Forster Communications
Forster Communications is a specialist sustainability and social change PR agency. Peter heads all of their strategic communications work for civil society organisations.
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Sami McLaren
Head of Communications and Campaigns, Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT)
Sami led on the public campaigning and communications work for FFT against Part 4 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, as part of the Police Bill Alliance, which won Best Coalition or Collaboration Award Winner at SMK Awards 2023.
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Shaista Aziz
Campaigner and Co-Director of the Three Hijabis
Shaista is an award winning anti-racism and equalities campaigner, journalist and writer.
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Matt Bell
Strategic Communications Director, Heatherwick Studio
Heatherwick Studio, is a global design practice of 250 problem solvers. Matt leads the Humanise campaign www.heatherwick.com. He has previously held leadership roles with international NGOs, public bodies and a FTSE 100 business in the property, design and development sectors.
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David Taylor
Editor, Tortoise Media
David Taylor is an Editor at Tortoise Media. He was deputy editor for Guardian US and before that worked at The Times as Head of News and US Editor.
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Sam Nadel
Associate Researcher – University of Exeter
Sam is conducting research at the University of Exeter and London School of Economics on NGOs, activism and environmental politics.
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Kate Levine
Independent strategic communications and corporate activism consultant
She works for a range of brands, corporates, campaigning organisations and NGOs.
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Callum Pethick
Youth led Change Manager, Blagrave Trust
Callum co-leads the Trust’s strategy for investing in young people to create change.
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Michael Chandler
Chief Executive, Groundswell
Michael has over 20 years’ experience working for social justice organisations.
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Michael was the CEO of Union Chapel, the community social justice charity and cultural events venue in Islington. He was previously Acting CEO / Director of Social Change at Cardboard Citizens, leading their national partnerships and campaigning, and has experience at a range of organisations such as Shelter, as well as exploring arts for social change through ASC Agency.

Katrina Ffrench
Founding Director UNJUST UK
UNJUST UK is a not-for-profit organisation established in 2021 to address discrimination, particularly that of a racial nature, in the culture, practices and policies of Policing and the Criminal Legal System. UNJUST UK won the Best Use of Law Awards at the 2023 National Campaigner Awards.
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Faustine Petron
Campaigner, student and winner of SMK’s 2023 Young Campaigner Award
Faustine is a final-year Human, Social, and Political Sciences student at the University of Cambridge specialising in Sociology, with an interest in gendered violence and feminist resistance/ organising in the Maghreb and South Asia.
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As an award-winning campaigner, her petition to reform Relationships and Sex Education in Britain garnered over 95,000 signatures and cross-party political support, earning commendation in the House of Commons by MP Layla Moran. Faustine has worked with the government, celebrities and charities in using education as a tool to prevent gender-based violence among children and young people. In 2023, she partnered with BBC Panorama to highlight the prevalence of coercive control among under-25s. In 2023, her advocacy prompted Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee to formally recommend her campaign to the government, marking a significant milestone in the fight against gender-based violence. Faustine’s work has been featured in prominent media outlets not limited to, The Independent, HuffPost, Sky, Cosmopolitan, and BBC 1.

Naomi Browne
Head of Campaigns, Which?
Naomi leads Which?’s campaigns team, securing changes on the big issues affecting UK consumers to make their lives fairer, simpler and safer.
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Prior to Which? she worked at the Financial Ombudsman Service, supporting consumers in getting better outcomes when they’ve been treated unfairly and driving improvements across financial services.

Tania Nadarajah
Paralympian
Tania is a Paralympic athlete who represented Great Britain in archery at the 2016 Paralympic Games.
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Since retiring from international competition, Tania uses her platform to advocate for inclusion in all spheres, breaking barriers and reshaping perceptions of people with disabilities. She is also the communications lead for a disability charity.

Kim Megson
Head of Content and Engagement, Heatherwick Studio
Kim works for the global design practice Heatherwick Studio, helping to communicate its work through film, photography, and digital platforms. As a contributor to the burgeoning Humanise campaign, he has creatively supported a drive for our cities to become more joyful and engaging through the design of buildings.
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Suhan Rajkumar
Senior Associate, Charity & Social Enterprise Department, Bates Wells
Suhan advises charities, not-for-profits, and businesses seeking to have a positive social impact.
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Anna Yearley
Joint Executive Director, Reprieve
Reprieve is a legal action non-governmental organisation. Anna manages all aspects of Reprieve’s work with co-director Maya Foa.
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Before joining Reprieve in January 2016 Anna worked for the former Leader of the Labour Party, Rt hon Ed Miliband MP as his Director of Political Relations and prior to this she worked as the Assistant Political Secretary to the former Prime Minister, Rt hon Gordon Brown, in No 10 Downing Street.
Anna was Head of Campaigns for the Parliamentary Labour Party in the House of Commons, she worked for two backbench MPs and started her career in 2000 working for the pro-European campaign group Britain in Europe.
In 2016 Anna was awarded the New Executive Fellowship from the Open Society Foundation and has overseen a significant growth in Reprieve’s income and reach during her tenure.
Anna has a first class degree in Politics from the University of Liverpool. In the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List of 2021, Anna was awarded an OBE for services to human rights.
Sponsors
Once again, we are very fortunate to have a committed group of partners and sponsors for the SMK National Campaigner Awards. We’re especially lucky to have, Bates Wells, the leading legal advisers to civil society, helping campaigning organisations go further, as title sponsor. Find out about our media partner, Tortoise, and their unique ‘slow news’ approach. If you would like to know how to become a sponsor please contact us here.

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