Leigh joined Collaborate in June 2022, bringing interdisciplinary experience spanning design, facilitation, research and project management to the Head of Practice role. Their current focus areas are our system leadership programmes, learning and evaluation projects, and the design of cross-sector spaces supporting strategy and action on complex issues.
They lead our work on the National Evaluation and Learning Partnership (NELP) working with Sport England to understand how whole systems and placed-based approaches can address inequalities in physical activity, having previously been a learning partner to the Cornerstone Fund, which explored collaborative systems change in London.
Leigh has built systems thinking capabilities and equipped local government leaders to mobilise change through the London Leadership Programme, and designed and facilitated processes for place-based collaboration such as the Local Area Retrofit Accelerator, Cambridgeshire Net Zero Financing Framework for Whole System Change’ (CANFFUND) and Locally Determined Contributions project supporting local authorities to take local action in alignment with national decarbonisation ambitions.
Prior to joining Collaborate, Leigh held a number of roles including as backbone support for the New York City Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative, one of the largest American municipal efforts to address inequality through worker ownership. They also helped launch Best for NYC, a partnership between local government and civil society organisations for guiding local businesses to improve job quality and community impact. In a freelance capacity, they have contributed to arts-based projects involving the production of public artworks and creation of community archives.
In their own words:
I’m coming to know myself as a host and facilitator of transformation, bringing queerness and transness to the table in the form of comfort with the work of realising and embodying change. I’m happiest when our projects present openings for shifts in relations and power, denaturalising and recomposing what we’re stuck in, doing away with domination and separation and building worlds of care and connection. I bring a commitment to radical imagination and collective action for greater equity and collective liberation.