Women Creating Change

Vivienne Hayes

Vivienne is the Chief Executive of the Women's Resource Centre (WRC). WRC is the national umbrella body for the women's voluntary and community sector, providing capacity building services to member organisations working to improve the lives of women, and consulting on and responding to government policy affecting the sector. She studied sociology at Warwick University, Women's History at Essex University and more recently Management at Westminster University. 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 has spent the last 20 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. Having grown up during a time when feminism and equalities issues were firmly on the agenda, Vivienne recognises the need to continue to raise these issues at a time when things seem to be slipping back in terms of progress for women and the whole equalities debate.

Vivienne is a Trustee of Rosa, the UK women's fund and has recently been appointed a commissioner of the Women's National Commission. She is also Chair of HEAR, London's regional equalities and human rights VCS network.

Helen Donahoe

Helen is currently Head of Campaigning Effectiveness at NCVO where she was previously the Head of Campaigns and Communications. She has spent many years working across the voluntary and community sector in a variety of roles focussed on policy and campaigns. At Mencap she led local advocacy initiatives and at the National Asthma Campaign (now Asthma UK) she was Head of Policy leading work on the campaign for a ban on smoking in public places. She has worked at an EU level on alcohol policy and at the Women's Sports Foundation she spearheaded the campaign for increased media coverage of women's sport. While freelance she has worked with Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Alcohol Concern, The Royal Society, Department of Health and The Health Foundation. She studied politics and government at the University of Manchester and holds an MSc in British Politics from the LSE. A former Citizen's Advice Bureaux and Lesbian and Gay Switchboard volunteer, she is currently a Board member of the YWCA. She is a Fellow of the RSA, an Arsenal FC season ticket holder, author of World Issues Today: Terrorism and a mother of two daughters.

Lindsay Mackie

Lindsay is a Trustee of the Foundation and a journalist and education consultant, specialising in immigration, race and social exclusion. She has co-authored a book on the obstacles to women's achievement, but also the ways in which women were forcing the pace to greater equality of pay and conditions. As director of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Award for Young People she established an Award which now has 15,000 young holders. Lindsay currently works with local campaign groups fighting the standardisation of their High Streets and the loss of public outlets like banks, independent shops, post offices and pubs.