Our Team

Jo Jamieson - Head of Planning

Jo is head of planning at Unitas. She began her career as a lecturer in higher education, but moved into prison education as a result of her interest in the criminal justice system. Following a number of years spent in a range of secure environments, including roles as education manager at an adult prison and also a young offender institution, she moved out of custody into the community where she continued to work within the broad field of education with socially excluded groups. These included young people and adults who had offended. More recently she has been using her experience of the criminal justice system, the education system and the challenges faced by those at risk of social exclusion, to contribute to a range of research and evaluation projects.

Martin Stephenson - Executive Director

Martin is the executive director of Unitas. With extensive experience in education, youth justice and social care, and having been involved in policy, management and practice, Martin has spent his career working with socially excluded groups. A founder member of the Youth Justice Board from 1998 to 2002, he was formerly chief executive of the charity Include. He was also the senior policy adviser involved with the design of the Connexions Strategy for the Department for Education and Skills and was previously a trustee at Nacro and a non-executive director of Norfolk Primary Care Trust. As director of social inclusion strategy at Nottingham Trent University he was responsible for a series of influential reports on youth justice and education for the Youth Justice Board and Arts Council. Publications include ‘Young People and Offending’ (the first generic text examining all the evidence on the relationship between education and offending) and ‘Effective Practice in Youth Justice’ which is the main textbook for all Open University courses on youth justice.

Pip Labithiotis - Head of Programmes

Pip is head of programmes at Unitas. Pip’s career started with Nacro in 1996 where she worked with unemployed adults. As a training organiser she was responsible for the delivery of E2E programmes as well as the basic skills strand in Greater London which involved the roll-out of arts enrichment programmes and the delivery of the Arts Award. In 2006, Pip began working as a programme manager for Summer Arts Colleges, and has since worked on a variety of Unitas projects including TextNow as well as the Short Intensive Basic Skills courses in Wales. Pip is currently working towards the foundation degree in youth justice through the Open University

Jane Dixon - National Development Programme Manager (Wales)

Jane is the development adviser for the National Development Programme (NDP) for Young People in Wales.  Her role involves supporting practitioners in establishing learning programmes to motivate and engage young people. Before joining Unitas she worked in Monmouthshire, teaching literacy and numeracy to adults and took on a further role as a development worker, organising family learning programmes. Jane also coordinated a basic skills project for young people, providing one-to-one support for young people who were not attending school.

Find out more about the National Development Programme in Wales.

Rebecca Hughes - Programme Manager

Rebecca started her career as a lecturer in further education. Then, from 2004, she worked as a training adviser with E2E in Leeds gaining a qualification as a subject learning coach (SLC). As a subject learning coach she was instrumental in organising continuing professional development for staff to improve teaching and learning across the team and was also a member of the teaching and learning observation team. In 2006, Rebecca project managed the Arts Champions programme in Leeds and helped young people achieve the newly introduced Arts Award. In 2009 Rebecca joined Unitas as a programme manager.

Paul Martin - Business Manager

Paul is Business Manager at Unitas and has over 10 years’ experience of large and small scale budgetary management. Paul has been working on projects with children and young people in both England and the USA for over twenty years. He has worked with local authorities overseeing both the devolution of county-wide budgets to local teams and the development of an information tracking system to monitor the careers of young people who have offended. 

Simon Ruding - Quality Auditor

Simon has spent over twenty years developing arts-based projects with a wide range of marginalised and excluded community groups throughout the British Isles. Internationally, he has worked on projects in Romania, Ireland, the United States and South Africa. As director of TiPP (the Theatre in Prisons and Probation Centre) he coordinates undergraduate and post-graduate courses in applied theatre at the University of Manchester and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Simon also sits on the boards of three arts organisations; The Blue Room, Aqueous Humour and Bury Met. He was previously executive director of the Midlands based Geese Theatre Company. Simon collaborated with the University of Manchester’s Jenny Hughes on the chapter ‘Made to Measure?’ in the recently published Applied Theatre Reader.

Sally Brookes - Quality Auditor

Sally has worked as a consultant, trainer and group work facilitator within the criminal justice system and related settings since 1992.  A former director of Geese Theatre UK Sally has extensive experience in the development and delivery of arts-based programmes in prisons and probation.  She also has a particular interest in the training and development of artists who work with socially marginalised adults and young people. Sally is co-author and co-editor of The Geese Theatre Handbook (2002) Waterside Press. She is currently training as a psychodrama psychotherapist.

Nikki Crane - Quality Auditor

Nikki has over twenty years’ experience working in the arts and cultural sectors, particularly in the field of the arts and social inclusion. Nikki spent seven years at Arts Council England where she established partnerships and programmes across the arts and non-arts sector and produced the first Arts and Youth Justice Strategy in 2005. In a freelance capacity, Nikki has worked on projects involving the Metropolitan Police, YOTs and custodial institutions and has undertaken consultancy for local authorities on creating cultural strategies. Her current portfolio includes working with the British Council on developing arts projects for young people at risk internationally and as an arts consultant for Unitas and Dance United. Nikki is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Kim Labithiotis - Programme Support Manager

Kim has worked as a freelance photographer for the last 14 years. She has built up a successful business and has a wide client base. Kim joined Unitas in August 2009 as a research assistant and from March 2010 she has taken on the role of Programme Support Manager. This year she has also started the foundation degree in youth justice through the Open University.

Tamanda Walker - Project Development Manager

Tamanda has been involved in running the Summer Arts Colleges since 2008. In 2009 Tamanda managed delivery of four simultaneous Summer Arts Colleges for Peterborough, Bromley, Hillingdon and West Sussex YOTs on behalf of RollingSound, a London based arts organisation. She has joined Unitas as Project Development Manager and has responsibility for overseeing the development of our key areas of work, including the extension of activities related to projects, resources and training. As an artist, Tamanda is passionate about developing international projects and increasing collaboration between young people through the arts.

Jenny Brain - Website Development Manager

Jenny is the Website Development Manager at Unitas. She has worked in a variety of marketing and website-based roles across the not-for-profit sector, in both the UK and Australia. Jenny’s role at Unitas involves overseeing the development of the Unitas and Unitas Cymru websites.

Phil Clapp

Phil joined the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association in October 2007 from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) where he had been deputy director responsible for government policy on the creative industries, including film, music, computer games, fashion and design. Previous to this, Phil had led on arts policy within the DCMS, before which he had worked at the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit, reporting to the Prime Minister on social policy issues such as reoffending, young people at risk and deprived neighbourhoods.

Nicola Lowit

Nicola started her career working with offenders and people at risk of offending, and has a background in education and training.  She worked in the third, public and academic sectors before joining the Prison Service in 1999 as an education adviser.  Since then she has held various senior roles in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, including working with the Youth Justice Board on juveniles in custody, setting up a commissioning system for the National Offender Management Service, and leading on the strategy for vulnerable women in the criminal justice system. Nicola currently leads on national strategy for the prison and probation estates.

Gillian Beasley, OBE

Gillian has been chief executive of Peterborough City Council for over six years. Commencing her career in local government in 1983 as a trainee solicitor for Leeds City Council, She worked as a lawyer in a number of local authorities before becoming director of law and administration for Peterborough City Council in 1997. Recognised as a national expert in children’s law, Gillian previously worked for a number of government departments in bringing forth guidance for the Children Act 1989. She also worked for a number of national bodies in the health, social care and children arena and also lectured nationally for the Law Society on children’s law. Gillian received an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for services to local government.

Erica Crump - Advisor to the Trustees