Meet the Team

Adam joined the Birmingham LGBT Team in April 2016 as Wellbeing Events Coordinator (part-time) and took up the role of SHOUT Development Officer in August 2016 (part-time)

Adam has over 3 years’ experience working in events management, having previously organized conferences and events for Royal Holloway, University of London, working on academic conferences and large scale international events.

Adam studied theatre and performance at Royal Holloway, University of London and subsequently at the University of Birmingham with a focus on masculinity in queer arts, performance and theory. He has worked for numerous arts organisations and venues across the midlands and is also a freelance director, designer, and theatre-maker. He runs a theatre company based in the city centre and is an associate artist of the Old Joint Stock Theatre.

Adam is committed to equality and accessibility for everyone.

Alexus worked for many years at HMRC. Leaving in 2008, she has worked in a variety of different settings including young homeless, adults with learning difficulties, mentoring young persons in the social care system, and with adults experiencing poor mental health. Since 2012, she has primarily worked in Sexual Health promotion, covering Public Sex Environments, Sex and Relationships Education within schools and colleges, GBT prisoner support groups and Trans* support via group or one to one sessions.

Chris has six years experience of working in health care setting.
For two years he worked in mental health rehabilitation before moving to an acute health care setting specialising in a long term condition offering support and counselling for people newly diagnosed and people living with kidney failure.
Before this he has worked in many public settings including working with Birmingham City Council with children and young adults from underprivileged areas.
Chris has always been passionate about the LBGT community and has volunteered and fund raised over the years with events such as Birmingham and Leicester Pride.

Dan has worked as part time sexual health outreach worker since January 2000, formerly with Healthy Gay Life (HGL). His main duties involved sexual health promotion on the commercial gay scene, in public sex environments and sex on the premises venues in Birmingham.

During his time at HGL Dan also coordinated World AIDS Day in 2007/8 which he says “was an enriching experience working with the HIV sector and working with people affected by HIV”.

Whilst at HGL Dan also offered one to one sexual health support sessions for clients and one to one support sessions to men of South Asian origin. Dan also facilitated the Married Men's Group for over 5 years, which has now become an independent group that meets at the Birmingham LGBT Centre.

In 2013 Dan was involved in a pilot scheme from HIV Prevention England called 'dried blood spot testing', testing clients for HIV, Hep B and Hep C in various LGBT community settings.

Dan’s current role for Birmingham LGBT and Umbrella Sexual Health services is to focus on ‘men who have sex with men’ from South Asian and Middle Eastern communities.

Jake previously worked for 5 years as a health promotion officer for a leading HIV charity. His role involved outreach working with Gay and Bisexual men. He then spent 7 years working in Smoking Cessation Services. During this period he gained experience of one to one client work, running groups, and supporting people with behavioural change.

Jamie has worked within sexual health outreach and sexual health promotion within the LGBT community for a number of years.

He has experience of providing face-to-face sexual health support sessions including sexual health testing, offering a variety of support including the facilitation of a married men’s group, which has now become an independent group.

Jamie has previously supported LGBT youth projects with a variety of needs, which also included cooking skills, building self-confidence, group discussions and various group trips.

Jamie has a passion for baking and photography.

James is new to Birmingham having recently moved from London to take up the role of Health and Wellbeing Manager. James’s background ranges military, media, marketing and PR. His most recent role before moving to Birmingham LGBT was as Communications Manager at LGBT Insurer Emerald Life.

In addition to his working life, James has been a campaigner for a number of causes he holds close to his heart. This has included LGBT equality in the armed forces, equal marriage in England and Wales, tackling school based homophobia, the right and welfare of veterans and most recently, the preservation of war gravesites overseas.

In his spare time James likes to write, enjoys the cinema, and is an avid follower of Formula One motor racing.

John is a sexual health promotion worker for Birmingham LGBT, and also facilitates the MSM married Men’s Group, which he joined in 2012.
John got involved in sexual health promotions work in 2014 when he started doing voluntary work for Healthy Gay Life. Supporting the outreach team with the dried blood spot testing at scene venues and at Birmingham Pride. John has worked in the computing industry for 25 years, and has coached athletes for some 20 years.

Lisa is a sexual health outreach worker at Birmingham LGBT. Lisa has a wealth of experience of working in the LGBT community in variety of voluntary roles, including supporting the development of Trans Central, delivering make up classes and previously supporting Healthy Gay Life’s Outreach team.

Lisa is a qualified makeup artist, Reiki master and also volunteers at Beacon Blind Centre.

Maria is the Ageing Better Network Enabler. Maria has previously worked in information, outreach, community capacity building, training and awareness-raising for a variety of charities, including Birmingham & Solihull Women’s Aid and Birmingham Settlement. Maria has also been involved with the music business and community arts, trade union activism, and has a specialist interest in monitoring and evaluation.

I have 16 years experience working for a national HIV charity in a variety of roles from Gay Men's Health Promotion and developing national HIV prevention and sexual health campaigns, to managing a range of health promotion, support and volunteer services for people living with HIV and at risk communities. For the last six years I have worked in the HIV outpatients department at QEHB supporting the health and treatment needs of people living with HIV as well as delivering courses on managing long term conditions and a monthly social group for patients. I was selected as one of 24 healthcare workers as an LGBT role model in the NHS by the Health Service Journal inaugural list in 2014.

I've always been passionate about working in the areas of equality, sexual health and health inequalities as well as improving patient experience. I'm also a keen gardener, lover of foreign & independent films and can speak conversational French. I have been living with HIV for 20 years and am always keen to support those coming to terms with their diagnosis. I'm really looking forward to meeting the existing volunteers over the next few weeks and developing the peer mentoring project so I am very keen to hear the views of volunteers about their experiences and skills and supporting them in their roles in the future.

Matt has almost over 20 years of working experience in a variety of health and social care settings in both frontline service delivery and management roles.

He first became interested in the area of sexual health whilst volunteering at Birmingham based HIV charity AB Plus in the early 2000's as a holistic therapist, from where he went on to further this interest and gain more experience in subsequent employed positions.

His previous position was with a Black Country based charity where he worked as a MSM Sexual Health Outreach Worker and Project Worker for people living with and affected by HIV. Matt's experience includes delivering community based sexual health outreach and HIV/STI testing clinics, delivering training and facilitating peer support programmes around Sexual Health, HIV and LGBT issues before moving into a management role.

Matt is passionate about empowering individuals and developing quality and accessible sexual health and well-being services to LGBT communities and tackling the barriers and inequalities that can often be faced.

Sarah joined the Birmingham LGBT Team in July 2017 to work on the Activate programme (sport and fitness).

Her previous work includes web, project, programme and change management: now she is following and sharing her passion for sport and exercise.

Sarah has degrees in history and IT as well as sport and fitness coaching and teaching qualifications. She loves the gym and is a keen runner, terrible triathlete and (when winter comes) crazy skier.

Birmingham LGBT’s mission is to build a vibrant, diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community in Birmingham in which individuals can realise their full potential and have equal access to all the city has to offer.

In the four years she has been involved with the organisation it has grown from a small charity with a £10,000 a year turnover to an organisation with a turnover of over £250,000 a year. Birmingham LGBT delivers a variety of services and events including SHOUT: Birmingham’s festival of Queer Culture, and has recently opened the first LGBT Health & Wellbeing centre in England and Wales in Birmingham city centre. Steph and her co-worker Dave Viney were included in the Independent on Sunday’s influential Pink list in 2013 for their contributions to the LGBT community in Birmingham. Steph has skills in not-for-profits, change management, strategic planning and income generation.

Steph a social science graduate has worked in the third sector for twenty years, beginning her career as in the field of substance misuse and going on to work in a variety of areas including mental health, capacity building, social enterprises, and women’s issues.

Before moving to Birmingham she was a key player in Gloucestershire’s community coordinated response to domestic violence where, as the CEO of a domestic violence charity, she developed a network of survivors’ groups, women’s safety work, a 24-hour crisis advocacy service and a service for BME women.

Steph is passionately committed to human rights and social justice and has always worked to create a better and more equal society for all. She has never moved very far from her background in, and commitment to, grassroots community activism.

Stuart has over eight years experience of work within social care. He started his career working for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council delivering front line care to adults with learning disabilities.

Stuart developed an interest for providing support for young LGBT people in the Dudley area after noticing a gap in provision of appropriate services while volunteering for a local HIV charity. Stuart moved on to work with Dudley Youth Services, Connexions and the voluntary sector to set up a support service for young LGBT people in the Dudley area – Project Vogue, which gained funding from the Big Lottery to deliver work in schools to tackle homophobic bullying and awareness of LGBT issues for young people as well as a support group and information website.

Stuart also worked for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council as a Senior Youth Worker and has worked on a sessional basis for a number of sexual health services delivering outreach interventions to young people and MSM communities.

Sue is the Financial Administrator for Birmingham LGBT. She has a finance back ground having worked for British Telecom, the Local Authority and in accountancy private practice. She holds a Diploma in Integrative counselling and worked in sexual health in Solihull for the Terrence Higgins Trust.