Deborah Alsina Deborah Alsina MBE joined Independent Age as Chief Executive in October 2019 and brings extensive experience of voluntary sector strategic leadership. Deborah began her career in publishing and has subsequently worked in the voluntary sector for over 25 years. She has worked with a broad range of organisations from academic think tanks to charities working on international refugee and human rights issues. Prior to joining Independent Age, Deborah worked for Bowel Cancer UK for eleven years including ten as the Chief Executive. In 2017 Deborah played a leading role in merging Bowel Cancer UK and Beating Bowel Cancer, becoming Chief Executive of the new merged charity on the 1st January 2018. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours list 2016, in recognition of her service to bowel cancer patients and was named Charity Chief Executive of the Year at the Third Sector Excellence Awards 2017 and Charity Principal of the Year in the Charity Times Awards 2018. TWITTER USERNAME @DeborahAlsina Simon-Hewett Avison Simon Hewett-Avison is Director of Services. Simon has spent the last 10 years in the charity sector working at Teenage Cancer Trust and Shine and before that worked across both private and public sectors. He has experience across health, education and social care and has particular interest in mental health, social isolation and loneliness. Simon has been a trustee of several charities including the Voluntary Youth Service in Devon and is currently a trustee with Daybreak who provide unique social and therapeutic respite days for people living with dementia, helping couples stay together at home and delaying or avoiding residential care. TWITTER USERNAME @SimonAvison 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. Across her career she has campaigned to improve policy and legislation on health and social care, employment, benefits and accessibility. She has worked for numerous high profile charities including Age UK, RNIB, Parkinson’s UK, Which? and Versus Arthritis. She is an active member of several coalitions and has Chaired 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. Anna Davies Anna joined Independent Age in 2015 having previously held research roles at the Young Foundation in London and Institute for the Future in California. At Independent Age her work has focused on health and social care, loneliness, and family relationships. Anna has a particular interest in residential care and led a pilot with Healthwatch Camden to explore what older people and their families want from care homes. She is author of the report, We need to talk about caring: dealing with difficult conversations. 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.
