John Palmer John leads our policy research, campaigning, profile-raising, digital, media and marketing activities. John has held several senior director-level communications, marketing and fundraising roles at major charities, including Oxfam, The Scout Association, the National Centre for Social Research, the MS Society, Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City. Before joining Independent Age, John was the Interim Director of Philanthropy and Deputy CEO at the Milton Keynes Community Foundation. John has commercial experience, including time as a director of a leading communications consultancy in the City of London, where he led consultancy teams on a range of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives and public awareness campaigns. Additionally, John has secondment and interim experience in several Whitehall Government Departments. John was Chair of Trustees at Loughborough SU, a Trustee of an award-winning addiction rehabilitation charity and is Governor of a school near his home in central Oxford. Recently, John has led the development of our new strategy, which focuses our work on supporting older people in financial hardship through our policy change campaigning, information and advice, community reconnection and funding local organisations. Twitter username@johngpalmer Morgan Vine Morgan Vine is the Head of Policy and Influencing. After supporting a relative to navigate the broken social care system, she became passionate about making change happen at a systematic level to improve life for people as they age. The work of her department tackles key issues such as improving access to treatment, the social care system, bereavement support, and ensuring people in later life can access the benefits they need to live with dignity, choice and purpose. Across her career Morgan has improved policy and legislation on health and social care, employment, benefits and accessibility. She has worked for multiple high profile charities including Age UK, RNIB, Parkinson’s UK and Versus Arthritis. Morgan is an active member of several coalitions and is a former Chair of the Continuing Healthcare Alliance and the Prescription Charges Coalition. Morgan is also currently a Trustee for Age UK Bromley and Greenwich. Twitter username@MorganVine_ Phil Mawhinney Phil Mawhinney joined Independent Age in December 2018. He is a Policy Manager, overseeing our work on emotional wellbeing, including mental health issues affecting older people. He has wide experience working in the charity sector on issues like poverty, consumer affairs, fraud/scams, racism, financial inclusion and the voluntary sector. His previous roles were at Age UK, the Runnymede Trust, Toynbee Hall and Community Action Southwark. Shelley Hopkinson Shelley Hopkinson joined Independent Age in November 2018 from the New Zealand Government where she was involved in a schools’ policy project at the Ministry of Education. She has previously worked as a Public Affairs Manager for the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission and for Action for Children where she successfully influenced policy and legislation on a range of issue. She also has experience working for members of Parliament in Westminster. Shelley is focussed on building Independent Age’s relationships across national and local government, Parliament and Whitehall and is passionate about ensuring that the issues affecting older people’s lives are high on the political agenda.
