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  1. About WRC
  2. Our Team

Our team

Our work

Our impact

Vivienne Hayes, MBE

CEO 

Vivienne has spent over 30 years working in the women’s sector, both delivering and managing services.

Her passion is to support and improve the life experiences of women and their children, and most of her work has focused on this.

Vivienne’s first inspiration comes from her mother, a working-class woman who left school in her early teens to work in a factory, but who impressed upon her children the importance of education and an open mind.

Vivienne was a commissioner for Women’s National Commission, one of the first Trustees of Rosa – the UK Fund for Women, and has advised the Women’s Foundation. Vivienne was awarded the National Diversity Award 2013 for Gender Role Model. WRC won Third Sector 2014 award for Britain’s Most Admired Charity. More recently, Vivienne was made an MBE.

Evelina

Feminist Leadership Training Manager

 Evelina joined WRC in 2016 after completing her BA in Human Rights and her MSc in Gender and International Relations.

Her life-long commitment to feminism, equality, and human rights has run through her management of various projects including the Ascent Project, the Way Ahead, and the Civil Society Roots project.

She is the designer, trainer, and project manager of the Feminist Leadership/Women's Leadership for Social Change programme.

She also delivers training on staff wellbeing.

Sam

Head of Operations

Sam joined the Women’s Resource Centre in 2025. She brings a strategic and solutions focused approach to her work. Her decades long commitment to grassroots activism led to campaigning about women’s representation in Theatre, child abuse by UN peacekeepers, the Nationality and Borders Bill, Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences (IPP), missing and murdered Black women and children in the UK and Sickle Cell Anaemia.

Sam founded Media Diversified (2013-2022) with a mission to challenge the homogeneity of voices in UK news media, through addressing the under-representation of marginalised communities.

Kiran

Head of Policy and Research

Kiran started as a Policy Intern in 2005 when she began her MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation. She became a Policy Officer shortly after, but left to pursue other projects.

She has completed various women's sector reports and freelance research projects over the years and returned to WRC as Head of Policy in 2022.

She has a special interest in commissioning and funding and is leading on the CEDAW Shadow Report. 

Jaiye

Network for Black Women Leaders – Programme Lead

Jaiye previously served as WRC’s Head of E-commerce Marketing and Communications, drawing on two decades of integrated marketing experience to strengthen the organisation’s visibility and impact. During her time in this role, she led the development and launch of the WRC Online Shop, establishing it as a sustainable alternative income stream for Women's Resource Centre. She also provided strategic guidance across WRC’s external communications, shaping messaging that aligned with our feminist, anti-racist values.

Today, Jaiye focuses exclusively on leading the Network for Black Women Leaders, supporting Black women across sectors through leadership development, community-building, and advocacy.

Nour

Project and Partnerships Manager

Nour manages the activities of the  Ascent project’s support services strand which delivers over 30 different types of trainings to organisations working in the sexual and domestic violence sector.

She holds an MSc in Urban Economic Development from UCL and a PhD exploring the relationship between transport accessibility and women’s empowerment.

Nour is passionate about research, writing, women's empowerment and socio-economic equality.

Ipek

Development Assistant

Ipek joined WRC in June 2024 to support the Ascent Support Services to Organisations project.

She brings over 10 years of experience in helping businesses and charities develop impact-driven marketing strategies and strengthen organisational development. While new to the women’s sector, Ipek has a strong background in designing programmes that align with equality and diversity policies.

She is particularly passionate about advancing gender and socio-economic equality through her work.

Shani

London VAWG Consortium Coordinator

Shani is the coordinator of the London Violence Against Women and Girls Consortium.

She has an MA in Digital Media and Society and holds the SFEDI award for Social Enterprise and Small Business Support.

She is especially interested in co-production and new forms of organising and is fascinated by wealth creation potential of blockchain technology.

Assistant Coordinator, London VAWG Consortium

Deborah

Prevention Coordinator, LVAWGC

Deborah is the Prevention coordinator for the LVAWG consortium. She has over 25 years’ experience of working with children and young people.

Deborah worked as a Community youth worker and youth participation worker before moving into the VAWG sector in 2010.

She is a Graduate of Birkbeck University and has led and developed trauma informed services for children and young people experiencing Domestic & Sexual Abuse.

She has worked in service user outreach and now is the Coordinator for the Ascent Prevention strand led by WRC

Niamh

Housing Coordinator, LVAWGC

Niamh is the Housing Coordinator for London Violence Against Women and Girls Consortium.

 

She has over 14 years’ experience of working to improve outcomes for individuals and families affected by VAWG,  in frontline, management, training, policy and system change roles.

 

She currently leads on the Survivors Access to Safe Accommodation (SASA) Collaboration, bringing together leaders across the VAWG sector and local authority housing departments to problem-solve and reduce the barriers women and their children face to accessing safe and suitable accommodation.

Rebecca

Office Manager

Rebecca is the Office Manager at WRC, where she oversees daily operations and social channels. 

Blending organisation with creativity, she streamlines office systems, coordinates events, and strengthens the Centre’s online presence to build community engagement and advance women’s empowerment by promoting programmes, advocacy work, and fundraising initiatives.

Beyond her role at WRC, Rebecca holds a First-Class Honors degree in Media and is the founder of The Scribbled Tile, which informs her approach to digital communication and design.

She has three years worth of experience in the VAWG sector, where she worked as a Support Worker for two separate organisations; delivering trauma-informed support, creative wellbeing workshops, and community events to women overcoming barriers to independence.

Sharon

Acting Chair

Sharon graduated from UCL Birkbeck and is a registered member of the BACP as a qualified Psychodynamic Counsellor, Cognitive Behavioural Therapist and Life Coach. 

Sharon has worked for the past two decades as a VAWG & Mental Health Practitioner supporting survivors of trauma and abuse and mothers experiencing perinatal mental health. 

Sharon has been an active member of the womanist movement in London and currently has a small private practice offering well-being sessions. 

Arlene

Trustee & Treasurer

Helene

Trustee

Helene has always gravitated to roles supporting women. She served for a year as a board member for Lambeth Women's Aid 1996-97.
As a young woman, she worked for 10 years at PAS (Pregnancy Advisory Service) supporting and counselling women making important decisions about their reproductive health.
She has trained to be an Appropriate Adult, supporting vulnerable women in police interviews.
"WRC is unique in supporting women and women's groups that are often marginalised by the mainstream. This is what attracted me to apply for the position of board member."
~ Resigned

Tracey

Trustee

Tracey Ford is a Founding Director of JAGS Foundation, a youth-focused organisation that advocates and campaigns to raise public and political consciousness of rising youth violence at both community and government levels.

Tracey is a regular contributor to local and national television and radio debates. An exceptional speaker whose use of restorative justice principles underpins the work that allows the reflection of the harm and devastation caused within society to be addressed throughout the UK in schools, young offender institutions, prisons, statutory and community organisations.

Tracey is a Winston Churchill Fellow 2012.

~ Resigned 

Rupa

Former Chair

Rupa Sarkar, 23.01.1976 to 25.02.2023, was our visionary Chair of trustees since 2014 and supporter of WRC for two decades.
Read our CEO's tribute here

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Women’s Resource Centre

Registered office:
3rd Floor,
Lion House,
72-75 Red Lion Street,
London,
WC1R 4NA

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