Details of our staff members can be found below;
Dr Kate Braithwaite MBE- Director, Rural Programme
Kate is the Director of the Carnegie Rural Programme, leading on Commission and the Rural Action Research Programme.Kate was previously Chief Executive of Voluntary Action Cumbria – the Rural Community Council for the County. With a staff of over 60, she was responsible for the delivery of innovative rural development programmes including Rural Women’s Network, Enterprising Communities (social enterprise support), hosting a LEADER+ programme and work with hill farming communities. Kate chaired Carlisle and Eden Local Strategic Partnership and the Voluntary Sector North West – the regional voluntary and community sector network. She was also a member of Rural Regeneration Cumbria Board with responsibility for socio-economic programmes. Kate has achieved a PhD at Newcastle University – Centre for Rural Economy which was about rural women's networks (Ireland, Sweden and UK.) She has also been awarded a MBE in Millennium Honours for services to rural communities.
Kirsty Tait- Co-ordinator, Rural Programme
Kirsty co-ordinates the work of the Carnegie Rural Programme including the Rural Action Research Programme and the Community of Practice. She studied History at Edinburgh University and has worked in event and corporate video/TV production and co-ordination before joining Carnegie in May 2005. Her interest in rural development stems from her upbringing in rural Perthshire where her family still manage a farm. She is currently studying part-time for an MSc in Managing Sustainable Rural Development with the UHI Millennium Institute.
Nick Wilding - Facilitator, Rural Community of Practice
Nick facilitates the rural Community of Practice - an informal network of practitioners who are actively involved in building the resilient rural communities of the future. Nick has ten years' experience as a specialist in action research, transformational learning and group facilitation. He has developed several community leadership programmes with partners from public, private and NGO sectors, as well as co-leading a Masters degree in Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde. Nick joins us fresh from directing a year-long Rural Leadership Programme with Falkland Centre for Stewardship, Fife (see the RLP report and more about Nick at http://www.community.nickwilding.com
Geoff Brown- Facilitator, Rural Community of Practice
Geoff works as Project Manager for the Community of Practice. He began his career working in adult education for the WEA and later at Nottingham University. He has spent the last 25 years working in Cumbria where has been involved in hill farming as well as in rural develpment. He has been succesively a rural community development worker with Voluntary Action Cumbria; project development manager for West Cumbria Groundwork Trust and rural policy manager for Cumbria Training and Enterprise Council. More recently he has managed the LEADER II and LEADER + programmes in the Cumbria Fells and Dales area. The Fells and Dales LEADER + programme was one of the biggest in the UK. It concentrated on adding value to local products and taking forward the local food agenda especially in the hill farming sector.
In his role within the rural team he hopes to be working with communities taking action to reduce their carbon footprint and involving himself in network development across the UK