WEVAW Steering Group 2024

For our 2024 Write to End Violence Against Women Awards we are delighted to have the following people on our steering group.

Sarah Berry-Valentine, Press Manager, Refuge 

Sarah heads up Refuge’s multi-award winning small but mighty media team, which received the PR Team of The Year Award at the 2023 Charity Times Awards and was also shortlisted for The Third Sector Awards Comms Team of the year.

She trained in Broadcast Journalism and has been working in public relations for 12 years. Sarah led on the media relations for Refuge’s ‘Remove the Rot’ rotten apples policing campaign, which achieved global media coverage and their ‘Marked as Unsafe’ campaign to improve women’s safety online within the Online Safety Act. Sarah is the day-to-day contact for all journalists looking to work with Refuge and raise awareness of domestic abuse. Refuge operates a strict informed consent policy to empower survivors to speak about their lived experience in the media with the respect and safeguarding they deserve, helping bust myths and perceptions about violence against women and girls. 

Anna Burnside, co-chair of Women in Journalism Scotland

Anna Burnside has worked in newspapers for 35 years. From the Gorgie Dalry Gazette to the Sunday Times, she has been a reporter, editor, sub editor, feature writer. Her last job was as chief writer at the Daily Record. She is now working freelance as a writer and commentator. She is also a humanist celebrant and co-chair of Women in Journalism Scotland. 

Sharon Holland is the Communications and Engagement Officer for the Equal Media and Culture Centre (EMCC)

 The EMCC envisions a Scotland where our media and culture reflect the rich diversity of society and promote equal opportunities for all. The EMCC launched in 2023, it takes an intersectional, inclusive approach to this work. 

Sharon has over 10 years of experience in the arts, media and cultural sectors. She was previously an Associate Producer for the LEGO Group in Denmark, creating multiple animated television series. Sharon also worked as the Marketing Manager for National Theatre Live, the theatre’s ground-breaking work to broadcast theatre performances live to cinemas, and in Digital Communications for London College of Fashion. 

Dr Margaret Hughes, Senior Lecturer - Journalism/Sports Journalism, University of the West of Scotland & Chair, World Journalism Education Council and Executive Committee Member, Association for Journalism Education UK 

Margaret has taught journalism for 25 years and currently leads the journalism and sports journalism degrees at the University of the West of Scotland, preceded by more than a decade as a journalist working predominantly in the magazine sector, as well as on newspapers and in corporate communication and public relations. 

In her research Margaret has explored a range of issues from the role of journalism in society, how the news media influence elections to the role of journalism education. She is very keen to raise issues of diversity and equality in her teaching. In her role as chair of the Association for Journalism Education (www.ajeuk.org) she led the roll out of the BBC 50:50 equality and diversity initiative across UK universities that teach journalism. Margaret now chairs the World Journalism Education Council (www.wjec.net). 

Karen Jardine, Campaigns and Coimmunications Manager, Nottinghamshire Sexual Violence Support Services (Notts SVSS)  

Karen has been working and volunteering in the domestic and sexual violence sector for 11 years, and is currently employed as a Campaigns and Communications Manager for Nottinghamshire Sexual Violence Support Services (Notts SVSS). She completed Media Studies at A Level and holds an MA in Creative Writing. 

During her work at Notts SVSS she has set up the both the No More Rape Myths and Support After TV campaigns. She is particularly interested in the relationship between the media and the public, how they inform each other and how this can be used to bring about positive change. 

Rasheda Malcolm is an author and the co-founder and CEO of The WILDE Foundation

WILDE is an acronym for Women In Literature Development Empowerment and it is a women’s and girls’ charity that evolves victims and survivors into INFLUENCERS by providing a creative space that enables and empowers women to express themselves by scribing their stories, poems and spoken words that one day could become another woman’s survival guide.

Nick McGowan-Lowe, National Organiser for Scotland for the National Union of Journalists

Nick is responsibile for the union’s 2,000 members in Scotland. He has worked in the Scottish media for almost 30 years, having previously been an editorial photographer. 

Jasmine Mohammad , Director, Safety 4 Sisters

Jasmine Mohammad is the Director of Safety4Sisters, a specialist Black and minoritised by and for women’s organisation based in Manchester. Safety4Sisters is dedicated to upholding the rights of Black and minoritised migrant women with no resource to public funds, who have experienced a spectrum of gendered violence and face multiple forms of oppression and discrimination. Prior to this role, Jasmine worked as the VAWG Services Manager at the Angelou Centre, a specialist by and for service in Newcastle. Jasmine is the chair and co-chair of two specialist by and for northern women’s organisations: Ubuntu Women’s Shelter and Humraaz. Jasmine is committed to highlighting the regional differences that Black and minoritised women and children experience in the North and retains a critical eye on the intersecting oppression that Black and minoritised women face at personal, community and institutional levels. Jasmine also works nationally to influence policy change, ensuring that the safety, representation, and voices of migrant women are considered.

Jemima Olchawski is the CEO of the Fawcett Society. 

She is a social policy expert with 15 years’ experience working on issues around social justice and women’s rights. Her career has spanned national charities, local government and a think tank, working to tackle inequalities and improve life chances. Jemima was previously CEO for Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk. There she led campaigns on supporting survivors of abuse, gendered responses to women’s mental health and the connections between violence against women and girls and contact with the criminal justice system. She was previously Head of Policy and Insight at the Fawcett Society where she led projects such as Sex and Power, Strategies for Success and work on Gender Pay Gap reporting. She has also held roles at the London Borough of Newham and the Fabian Society. 

Teresa Parker is Head of Media, Brand & Relationships at national domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid.

She has worked at the charity for 22 years, with a background in journalism and PR. She has developed a number of public awareness campaigns for Women’s Aid including Football United, He’s Coming Home, Come Together To End Domestic Abuse and ACT until women and children are safe, and oversees all aspects of media, PR, brand and social media.

Teresa has led on the organisation’s work to improve media reporting on domestic abuse, and has written guidelines for journalists to use, runs workshops on implementing them in a newsroom, and has worked closely with IPSO to support their guidance for journalists and to promote best practice in reporting. She is currently working with Sheffield University to incorporate this work into their MA Journalism course, and has spoken about this work at a WAVE (Women Against Violence Europe) online event for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. 

Briana Pegado, FRSA is an award-winning social entrepreneur and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

‘Briana Pegado FRSA is an award-winning social entrepreneur and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts with nearly a decade’s experience as a senior manager in the creative industries in Scotland. In 2010, she helped set up the University of Edinburgh first ever Black History Month. She was elected Edinburgh University Students Association’s (EUSA) first black woman President in the union’s 130-year history in 2014. In 2017, she was named one of Scotland’s 30 Under 30 Inspiring Young Women. 
 
She was co-director of We Are Here Scotland CIC, an organisation that supports Black and POC creatives into the creative industries in Scotland from 2021-2023. She was creative director of Fringe of Colour Films in 2021 and then became interim CEO of YWCA Scotland - the Young Women’s Movement, an intersectional, feminist charity that supports young women’s leadership, offers consent-based sexual education, and provides women from marginalised communities with work opportunities. She was the community engagement producer for the short film OMOS, a project that explored the hidden black history of Stirling Castle. She worked as a consultant and member of The Collective Scotland from 2021-2023, a feminist social policy and research collective that specialises in consultation, policy reviews, and training.  
 
She is a governance and anti-racism specialist who has worked with the Scottish Policy and Research Exchange (SPRE), the Universities Policy Exchange Network (UPEN), Africa in Motion Festival (AiM), Be United, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow International Festival, Glasgow Life, Stellar Quines Theatre Company, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Craft Scotland. She also works as an intersectional funding evaluator for three of Creative Scotland’s funding programmes and provides intersectional equity workshops for organisations working to take an anti-oppression approach to their work. She is currently the coach and mentor for the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC). She is also the Chair of the Scottish Government’s Culture Fair Work Taskforce. Briana recently published her book Make Good Trouble: A Guide to the Energetics of Disruption this April.’ 

Juliana da Penha, founding editor of Migrant Women Press 

Juliana is a journalist from Brazil based in Scotland with experience working with migrant and ethnically diverse communities. She has a BSc in Cultural Studies and Communication, an MSc in Human Rights and International Politics, an NCTJ Diploma in Journalism, and is studying a post-degree Program in Journalism Innovation and Leadership. 

She is the founder of Migrant Women Press, a migrant women-led independent media outlet connecting women from diverse backgrounds navigating life in a new country through journalism. 

Migrant Women Press place the diverse voices of migrant women at the centre of its reporting and opinion pieces, providing an intersectional perspective on migration discussions, confronting the misrepresentation of migrant communities and the systemic lack of diversity in the media landscape. 

Claire Thomson, Communications Manager - Rape Crisis Scotland

Claire Thomson is Communications Manager at Rape Crisis Scotland. She manages the organisation’s campaigns, media relations, digital, and participation work. She sits on the Advisory Group of the Equal Media & Culture Centre for Scotland. Previously, she worked in the communications team at Scottish Refugee Council and has a strong interest in migrant and refugee rights. She has also worked as a local newspaper reporter. She is a volunteer leader with Girl Guiding and holds degrees in English Literature and Art History where her specialisms were feminist literature and magazine culture.