Hannah Acido is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day financial administration, human resources policies and general operation of the Centre including managing and developing relationships. She also organises the internal and corporate events, and prior to working at the Centre, Hannah worked in property administration, event planning and as a private PA.
hacido@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3036 2884 |
As Director, Phil Bowen sets and leads the work and overall strategy of the organisation. Prior to being Director, Phil spent the majority of his career in the British civil service. He worked for the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, before working at HM Treasury and Cabinet Office as a delivery adviser to the Prime Minister on criminal justice reform. During his time in the civil service, he spent 14 months on secondment to the Center for Court Innovation in New York, working at Bronx Community Solutions.
pbowen@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3036 2885 | Twitter:@PhillipBowen45
Danny supports and advises new and existing Family Drug and Alcohol Court programmes. His background is in social work with children and families, the commissioning of preventative family support initiatives and community development programmes. He was previously the Senior Commissioning Manager for Children’s Social Care at Milton Keynes Council.
Claire Ely is in charge of our innovative practice work. This includes working with practitioners to understand problems they face, supporting them to develop, test and embed new or improved ways of working, and identifying and sharing lessons from the implementation of new projects. Claire has extensive frontline experience of the criminal justice system from her time as a probation officer, most recently as Serious Group Offending (Gangs) lead in Southwark.
cely@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3735 9437
Phillippa holds a Degree in Social Work (BSc) and is a registered social worker. She has considerable experience of working with children and young people with social, emotional and mental health complexities and additional needs in both educational and voluntary sector settings. She also has experience of working in the family courts advocating the voice of the child.
Hannah works across a number of the Centre’s research projects. Her role has a particular focus on developing and evaluating the existing evidence base for the FDAC model and specialist court approaches for domestic abuse. In her previous role, Hannah contributed to research design and analysis, and conducted fieldwork across research which explored issues relating to knife crime, immigration, domestic abuse and public attitudes to the police and sentencing. Hannah has an MSc in Psychology of Mental Health from the University of Edinburgh.
As Innovative Practice Officer, Bami works collaboratively with practitioners to support and enhance innovations currently taking place within the Criminal Justice System, particularly within youth and adult diversion. This includes supporting practitioners in the development and implementation of new schemes, facilitating multi-agency workshops and providing a range of practical tools to assist practitioners. Bami has frontline experience working as a police officer for the Metropolitan Police and as a caseworker for a gangs and violence prevention charity.
bjolaoso@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3735 9431
Clare supports the Family Justice Manager and the rest of the team to deliver the Centre's Family Justice programme. Clare has considerable experience working for various organisations in the voluntary sector, more recently in the healthcare field.
Jason strengthens partnerships across the criminal justice system, bringing together key stakeholders, including people with lived experience to develop quality diversionary practice. Using his knowledge and experience from a former career in Policing, Jason brings a unique blend of practical and evidence based experience gained from innovating policy design and its implementation throughout the UK.
Carolyn is a Family Justice Fellow, funded by Yale's Gruber Fellowship in Global Justice. Her fellowship is focused on expanding and improving on aspects of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court model. Since graduating from Yale Law School in 2018, Carolyn has worked as a Staff Attorney in the Family Defense and Education Practices at Brooklyn Defender Services, an interdisciplinary public defender's office. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in History.
Duncan heads up the Centre's policy, public affairs and comms work. Duncan has previously worked in health and early education policy.
dlugton@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3036 2882
Michelle manages Community Advice, a service based within Highbury Corner Magistrates Court which provides a range of advice, information and support to court users. Michelle holds a BSc in Social Work and has experience in the social work field.
mmcguire@justiceinnovation.org | 07941510242
As the Deputy Director, Vicki Morris oversees the project management of the Centre's practice and research work. This currently involves areas of focus such as: youth diversion, problem solving courts, adult diversion, community advice services and Family Drug and Alcohol Courts. Vicki has considerable knowledge and experience of operations and practice in the criminal justice sector through her previous role as a senior education leader in a young offender institution and her degree in Youth Justice.
vmorris@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3735 9435
Aisha is responsible for research input on a number of the Centre’s projects. She previously worked on a large scale longitudinal research study and has experience working with young people in mental health and social care services. Aisha holds an MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences, a PGCert in Enhanced Evidence Based Practice and a BSc in Psychology.
Carmen Robin-D’Cruz works to research, develop and test new approaches to justice system practice, particularly in the youth justice system. She is responsible for identifying evidence of effective practice and producing practical evidence-led recommendations for service delivery that can be implemented and evaluated. Carmen has previously worked as Research Advisor at the University of Edinburgh and Research Assistant at Reading University’s School of Law. She studied Law at University College London and has a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford.
cdcruz@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3735 9436
Lucy works on a number of projects at the Centre, and helps to develop the thinking on how to make a fairer and more effective justice system. Lucy also oversees the Centre’s communications channels, which ensure that everyone from civil servants to frontline practitioners are aware of the work that the Centre is doing - and the system change that we want to see.
She has previous experience working in European public policy, running events on EU integration and combining her passion for cycling and policy at the European Cyclist Federation. She has a Master’s degree in Human Rights from UCL, and a Bachelor’s degree in History and Politics from the University of Manchester.
lslade@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3735 9431
Suzanne is part of the Innovative Practice team, working directly with frontline practitioners and supporting them to develop and implement new and improved ways of working, as well as identifying and sharing best practice. She supports the Centre with its work in criminal problem solving court practice and in expanding the use of community advice services as a method of early intervention for low level offenders. Previously, Suzanne worked as a frontline practitioner having worked in both the male and female prison estates and in youth justice, working with young people involved in or at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system.
ssmith@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3735 9431
Stephen Whitehead oversees the Centre’s research work, heading up our work to develop the evidence base around innovative practice in the justice system. His work focusses particularly on sentencing decisions, the use of community sentences and problem-solving courts. In his previous role, he established the New Economics Foundation’s criminal justice reform programme which explored the role that diversion and specialist courts could play in the UK. He holds an MRes from Birkbeck College in public policy.
swhitehead@justiceinnovation.org | 020 3735 9437 | Twitter:@Stephenoncrime