Who we are
The Team
We bring expertise, relevant experience, employability knowledge with support flair, and research capability and proficiency.
Dan Whyte
Co-Director
Dan, a Doctoral Student of Criminology, has a proud commitment to challenging and enabling others to achieve great things. He is remarkable in his ability to inspire and motivate people with his enthusiasm and drive and by sharing stories of his own academic success.
Ruth McFarlane
Co-Director
Ruth is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, with a Masters degree in Online and Distance Education. She is all about supporting meaningful education in prison and on release. Considering herself a student as well as a teacher, she is passionate about inclusion. “Education can be liberating”.
Candide Kasa
Student Support Advisor
Candide is our Administrator. She is a graduate of Law with Criminology at the University of Law. She has responsibility for keeping our students informed and supported with their university study.
In her own words, “I decided to reach out and be a part of DWRM, not only for the experience, but mainly because I believe we all deserve an equal chance of achieving greatness”
Myra Whiskar
Release Support Manager
Myra is our Release Support Manager. She has over 30 years experience in the Health & Social Care field, both as a direct practitioner and qualified Learning & Development professional. She has worked for Local Authorities, the NHS and Third Sector organisations – covering homelessness, addiction recovery and mental health, to name a few. Myra is passionate about the value and practice of co-production and has a fierce belief in the resilience and potential of all humans. She is also committed to the delivery of simple, elegant, relevant, engaging and robust training/learning solutions and interventions.
Gill Grimshaw
Evaluation and Insight Consultant
Gill is a retired academic, clinician, mentor and restorative justice practitioner and when she is not bee keeping, is leading on our evaluations and ensuring ethical practice of our delivery and research.
Sam Omokan
Trainer and Student Advisor
Sam is a student on the founding cohort of a new and innovative university called the London Interdisciplinary School (@weareLIS) and is studying Interdisciplinary Problems & Methods. He is also a fellow at The RSA and a Board Fellow at Spark Inside. Sam is passionate about helping people live intentionally and believes in life long learning through pursuing curiosity. He is coordinating our work within the prisons.
Genna Dempsey
Development Consultant
Genna is our Development consultant. She joins us a Fundraiser of 12 years, specialising in securing and managing high worth donations from Trusts and Foundations. Genna has previously worked as the Grants Manager for Advance Charity and has also worked for The Forward Trust and The Salvation Army. Genna is dedicated in championing lived experience solutions, particularly solutions for the active reform of our prisons, and is also a Trustee of another prisoner-led CIC, The Inside Academy.
Board of Non-Executive Directors
We are delighted to introduce our board of non-exec directors who are working with us to provide strategic direction, financial oversight and general support. Board meetings are held quarterly, with each member taking on a different area of responsibility and keeping in contact with the DWRM team.
Femi Laryea - Adekimi
Femi is a former prisoner, who is now the Network Co-ordinator at the Prison Reform Trust, where he engages a network of over 600 serving prisoners. He strongly believes in the power of education to make a difference to prisoners’ lives as he himself benefited from throwing himself into education while in prison.
Derrick Mason
Derrick is a well-being practitioner and a Director at Beyond Recovery where he promotes the Three Principles programme supporting people to access their own resilience and innate resources.
Steve Newton
Steve is a commercially focused senior executive leader commanding over 30 years’ international sales & marketing experience, building board-level strategies that fuel business development both nationally and across the global arena. Working as a consultant and business coach, drawing on his extensive corporate experience primarily within the automotive industry, he is committed to help guide and support companies across a wide spectrum of industries and services.
An inclusive leader / teacher, who believes we can always learn from one another, Steve is passionate about developing and implementing appropriate processes and technology to enhance customer experience. He is looking to draw on his experience and energy to help implement the company’s shared vision.
Alex Killick
Alex is the Founder & Director of Leading Kind, a culture consultancy supporting clients to make work fairer, workplaces kinder and more inclusive, and outcomes better for people and the bottom line.
Previously Alex was Director of People at Glasgow Caledonian University for 8 years where he led an award-winning People Services team. Alex is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, has a Masters in HRM, a Prof M, and holds a Certificate in Company Direction with distinction in strategy. Alex is also currently Vice Chair at Edinburgh College.
Alex’s areas of interest and expertise are in strategy development and implementation, employee voice, employee experience and wellbeing, and reward management.
Samantha Tulloch
Sam has a strong commitment to driving collective transformation through community engagement and support. She has professional experience of working in the London Probation Service, as well as in Counter Fraud and Security Management within the NHS. And she has also worked in a voluntary capacity with Victim Support. She brings board experience as a hospital governor and a trustee for a youth arts charity.
With a strong background in business and digital transformation, and change delivery, Sam brings valuable experience to support DWRM’s initiatives. She has developed expertise in project, programme and change management across various sectors, including public and charities – including improving efficiency of operations, digital tech implementation and behaviour change. She carries a deep commitment to give back to the community and share her expertise to provide strategic direction and support to DWRM.