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Our people

We understand how a changing climate will impact people, places and organisations. Meet our team.

We are committed to working in ways that are informed, fair and collaborative and bring a lot of energy and creativity to our approach.

Our Board of Trustees Trustees is responsible for Verture’s governance and strategy and for making sure that the charity is administered effectively.

Jo has chin length dark hair and is wearing a white top and hooped earrings. She is looking directly at the camera and smiling. Behind her is a brick wall.

Jo Kerr

Chief Executive Officer

Jo has dedicated her career to social justice and impact.

Jo Kerr

Chief Executive Officer

Jo is passionate about climate justice and centering the most marginalised. Her focuses include strategy, engagement, income generation, and people and culture. Prior to joining Sniffer/Verture in 2024, Jo was a director at Turn2us, working on financial insecurity. She is a fellow of the Intersticia Foundation and a trustee of 360Giving.
A headshot of a woman outside. Behind her is green grass. She has short bobbed hair and is looking at the camera. She is wearing an orange scarf and grey top.

Jess Barrett

Head of Communications

Jess is passionate about the power of communications to connect with people and inspire action.

Jess Barrett

Head of Communications

Jess has over a decade of experience working in communication roles for charities, public bodies, and businesses, mostly recently in nature conservation. She is passionate about the power of communications to connect with people and inspire action, and how this can help bring positive change for communities and the environment.

Jonny Casey

Head of Programmes & Partnerships

Jonny has over 10 years’ experience working in climate adaptation and resilience policies and initiatives.

Jonny Casey

Head of Programmes & Partnerships

Jonny has supported communities, businesses, and governments to implement climate adaptation and resilience policies and initiatives in the UK and globally. He’s worked with rural communities through to international institutions, with particular expertise in the agriculture sector, creating innovative partnerships for locally-led adaptation.
Verture Logo

Craig Lawson

Head of Finance

Craig is the Head of Finance for Verture.

Bridesdale Kanu-Okoro

Bridesdale Kanu-Okoro

Business Support Manager

Bridesdale specialises in implementing strategies to enhance operational efficiencies.

Bridesdale Kanu-Okoro

Business Support Manager

For the past 19 years, Bridesdale has focused on developing and delivering operational strategies that enhance organisational efficiency and impact. She strengthens governance structures, promotes sustainable resource use, and drives operational excellence across organisations. Drawing on her expertise in strategic operations and project management, she leads digital transformation to streamline operations and enhance project delivery.
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Andrew Williams

Local Programme Manager

Andrew works on the Creative Climate Futures project.

Andrew Williams

Local Programme Manager

Andrew is a sustainability professional with experience working in marketing, communications, and project management around environmental and social justice issues. The Creative Climate Futures project he works on at Verture is building climate resilience across Glasgow. Andrew has a particular interest in how community climate action can allow under-represented groups to have their voices heard.
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Alex Cameron-Smith

Project Lead

Alex has spent almost 20 years working with non-profits around the world.

Alex Cameron-Smith

Project Lead

Alex specialises in collaborative project development, relationship building, people-centred engagement and third sector income generation. She is dedicated to leveraging systemic change and works on innovating Verture’s community projects to integrate climate justice at their core. Alex holds the Professional Certificate of Mediation from the University of St Andrew’s.
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Eleanor Pratt

Project Lead

Eleanor has a background in environmental policy, regulation and accreditation.

Eleanor Pratt

Project Lead

Eleanor is a natural collaborator and enjoys bringing organisations and people together to find solutions to environmental and social challenges. She loves working with a wide variety of people to help develop participative, creative processes which build trust, and find solutions which are owned by those involved in delivering them.
An image of a woman standing outside. She is looking at the camera and smiling. Behind her is green grass, a birch tree, and the windows of a building. She has shoulder length brown hair, and is wearing a white top and dark coloured cardigan.

Ness Wright

Regional Programme Manager / Project Lead

Ness specialises in collaboration, systems change and place-based adaptation.

Ness Wright

Regional Programme Manager / Project Lead

Ness is a designer working to make the changes needed in response to the climate crisis real, by co-designing them with real people in real world contexts. She brings 15 years of experience in innovation and sustainability across the public, private and third sectors.
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Linda McConaghie​​​​

Project Lead

Linda is passionate about tacking environmental and social injustice.

Linda McConaghie​​​​

Project Lead

Linda has worked in the environmental sector for over 25 years exclusively for charities and not-for-profit organisations.  She specialises in fostering partnership and community-led action, programme development and co-ordination and project delivery.  With an academic background in environmental management, she is interested in the use of nature-based solutions to tackle biodiversity loss and the impacts of climate change.
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Cat Payne

Regional Programme Manager / Project Lead

Cat is a committed science communicator.

Cat Payne

Regional Programme Manager / Project Lead

Cat is an unabashed climate science anorak. She has spent over 20 years working in the private, public and third sector translating climate science into meaningful messages to inspire local action. She is passionate about challenging the status quo, transformational adaptation and showcasing the multiple co-benefits that climate resilience can bring.
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Harper Loonsk

Project Lead

Harper is the Project Lead for Highland Adapts.

Harper Loonsk

Project Lead

Building on her academic background in ethnic studies, migration, and environmental sustainability, Harper is passionate about climate resilience and environmental justice. In addition to working in the environment sector, Harper also has experience in refugee and asylum law. She has particular interest in partnership building, climate data democratisation, and nature-based resilience.
A woman wearing a blue jacket with long hair and glasses smiles at the camera, standing on a road next to a grassy bank.

Emilie Wadsworth

Leadership Programme Manager

Emilie has worked in the environmental sector in Scotland for approaching 20 years.

Emilie Wadsworth

Leadership Programme Manager

Emilie began her career in research climate change and then entering into ecology. She has a particular interest in blue-green infrastructure, nature-based solutions and biodiversity.
Dr Emma Yule

Emma Yule

Project Lead

Emma is a Project Lead for Verture.

Emma Yule

Project Lead

Dr Emma Yule is a climate adaptation researcher. Her work is focused on climate impacts and how organisations and communities can adapt and build resilience. Emma is co-chair of the ECCI Adaptation Community of Practice and of the SSN Adaptation sub-committee focused on how the public sector are adapting to climate change impacts. She is also a director at SCCAN, trustee at SCA and board vice chair of 2050 Climate Group. Emma enjoys running and is preparing for her first marathon this year.
Image of a woman in a blue top standing outside. She has glasses and is smiling. Behind her are some plants.

Kirsty Lewin

Project Lead

Kirsty specialises in multi-partner programmes.

Kirsty Lewin

Project Lead

Kirsty has worked in the environmental and sustainability sector for most of her career, starting in New Zealand before returning to the UK. She has experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors, and a particular interest in the relationship between local community aspirations and national policy. She has a strong understanding of community activities that are led and delivered by volunteers.
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Ruth Wolstenholme

Project Lead

Ruth trained as a natural and social scientist and has a Masters degrees in both.

Ruth Wolstenholme

Project Lead

Ruth is a passionate enthusiast for collaborative working, with a keen ear for a good idea. She stepped down as Managing Director in 2024 having been at the helm since the inception Verture (then Sniffer) in 1994. As well as building on a science and policy evidence base, Ruth is an advocate of weaving in local knowledge, climate justice and the role of creative practice in changemaking.
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Alison Macdonald

Chair of the Board of Trustees

Alison Macdonald

Chair of the Board of Trustees

Alison is a Chartered Banker and senior risk professional, with experience of Governance & Risk, Resilience and Strategic Transformation.  As a Bank of Scotland Foundation Trustee, she shaped grant programmes to support charities address poverty and social exclusion, through multi-year, unrestricted funding. 
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Sophie Beier

Trustee

Sophie Beier

Trustee

Sophie has over a decade of experience in knowledge exchange and impact, stakeholder and community engagement and fundraising in the third, public and private sector. She has worked in various countries, within various sectors and stakeholders. Sophie is passionate about transformational change. She now works for the NHS where she leads on the ACHSCP’s climate change programme and evaluates transformation projects.
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Anne Marte Bergseng

Trustee

Anne Marte Bergseng

Trustee

Anne Marte is a climate change adaptation specialist and knowledge exchange expert with experience in research management, stakeholder engagement and corporate communications. She sits on the Steering Group for the National Centre for Resilience and is a trustee for The Green Team and Climate for Culture Scotland. She works for ClimateXChange, managing a programme of research to inform Scottish Government climate action.
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Richard Dryburgh

Trustee

Richard Dryburgh

Trustee

Richard is a civil servant who currently works for the Scottish Government on education and skills reform. Previously he was on the board of the 2050 Climate Group, helping to establish them as a formal charity before taking over as Chair for two years. In this time he oversaw the Young Leaders Development Programme and the launch of the Malawi Climate Leaders Project. He has experience in stakeholder engagement, governance and public policy.
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Rachel Freeman

Trustee

Rachel Freeman

Trustee

Rachel has 18 years of experience in agile tech SaaS environments with a focus on soft AI. She is interested in conservation, culture and environmental projects; her University of Edinburgh MLitt thesis focused on the Making of Place. She currently serves as a trustee for The Edinburgh and Lothian Green Space Trust and as a NED for Prop Tech sustainable start-up Grand Bequest. She is a special advisor with the ESG Foundation.
A man with brown hair and beard wearing glasses smiles at the camera. He is inside a glasshouse full of big green leaves.

Will Humpington

Trustee

Will Humpington

Trustee

Will is an environmentalist with various roles over 15 years in the public, private and third sector in the UK and abroad. He has an MSc in Climate Change and Risk Management and a BSc in Geography with Earth System Science. He brings experience of corporate and institutional fundraising, grant management, board and corporate reporting, and project delivery within multi million, multi-year, bilateral and multilateral climate finance initiatives. 

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