Steering Committee – Legacy of Kindness

Stefan Dickers

Stef is the Special Collections and Archives Manager at Bishopsgate Institute and has been responsible for the development of the Institute’s collections on the history of London, protest and activism, and LGBTQ+ Britain. He qualified as an archivist in 2001 and started at Bishopsgate in 2005.

Previous to this, Stef worked in the archives of the London School of Economics and Senate House Library. He will talk at extraordinary length about the collections whenever asked and regularly entertains groups of students, groups and family/local history societies on the wonders they can find in the Special Collections and Archives at the Institute.

E-J Scott (he/they)

E-J Scott was awarded the UK’s Museum Activist Award, 2020/21. His curatorial work ranges from founding the Museum of Transology in 2014, to establishing the British Digital Art Network in 2022 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art/ACE/Yale/Tate).

His wider queer heritage curatorial projects include DUCKIE, West Yorkshire Queer Stories and Queer & Now (Tate). E-J’s the Stage 2 and 3 Leader of the BA (Hons) Culture, Curation & Criticism at Central St Martins, UAL.

museumoftransology.com

Verusca Calabria (she/her)

Dr Verusca Calabria is an oral historian and a trustee of the Oral History Society, a national organisation that promotes best practises in the collection and preservation of ordinary people’s oral histories. Calabria is an Early Career Research Fellow in the Department of Social Work, Care and Community, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University.

Her PhD research combined participatory action research with oral history to explore the transition from institutional to community care practices. Her research interests include the history of mental health care in the UK, personal and public involvement in health and social care.

www.mentalhealthcarememories.co.uk

Paul Roberts OBE (he/him)

Paul became Chief Executive for Consortium in April 2011 and has over 18 years’ experience working in the LGBT+ voluntary sector. Paul leads on the strategic direction of the organisation working with the staff team, board and Members to ensure Consortium stays community focussed and LGBT+ issues are listened to by a range of stakeholders, including Government and the wider voluntary sector.

Consortium is the national umbrella body for LGBT+ voluntary and community organisations across the UK, with approx. 525 member organisations. We also help coordinate the Trans Organisations Network (TON), a trans-led network of around 55 organisations.

www.consortium.lgbt

Sue Sanders (she/her)

Sue Sanders is Chair of Schools OUT UK. LGBT+ History Month was co founded by her and Paul Patrick in 2004.She trained as a drama teacher and has taught in schools and universities in the UK and Australia.

Sue has been the recipient of many awards over the years, In February 2015 she received an Emeritus Professorship from the Harvey Milk School, and in 2019 she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement awards from the Rainbow Honours Board.

www.schools-out.org.uk
lgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk

Lee Lester (he/him)

Lee is a Youth Rights Advocate Manager at Mermaids. Mermaids has been supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families since 1995. Back at the start, we were a small group of concerned parents sitting around the kitchen table, coming together to share experiences, find answers and look for ways to keep our children safe and happy.

Today, Mermaids has evolved into one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ charities, empowering thousands of people with its secure online communities, local community groups, helpline services, web resources, events and residential weekends. We also seek to educate and inform wider society on gender identity by helping professionals accommodate and reassure gender-diverse young people.

Professor Geraldine Brady (she/her)

Department of Social Work, Care and Community
Departmental Research Co-ordinator/ML MA Social Work Research
School of Social Sciences Nottingham Trent University

Geraldine Brady | Nottingham Trent University

Lucia Scazzocchio Founder Social Broadcasts

As a sound artist, radio producer, community facilitator and educator, Lucia Scazzocchio has been nurturing and curating hyper-local contexts, distilling diverse and disparate stories and conversations that weave individual personal stories to illustrate and explore wider social narratives.

She calls this ‘Social Broadcasting’. Driven by creating engaging participatory radio and audio experiences that she ‘audioscapes’ into imaginative on and off-line broadcast initiatives and formats, Social Broadcasting represents the versatility of audio as an evolving social and artistic medium.

www.socialbroadcasts.co.uk

Coran Foddering (she/her)

I was with the BBC for 28 years in engineering design moving on to software and website design in my later years. This has given me a wealth of knowledge to bring to this project.

I have recorded and edited both audio and video and understand the importance of preparation and planning for recording of material. My inbuilt sense of empathy will help many of the interviewees to calm nerves so bring out the best from within.