Meet the Team

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.

Since 2004, Jake has worked exclusively in helping and support roles spending 5 years as a health promotion officer for a leading HIV charity and 9 years in the field of smoking cessation, progressing to a middle management position within the NHS. Jake is experienced in supporting people with multiple and complex needs such as addiction and mental health issues. He has experience of leading and supervising a team of sessional staff, as well as planning and delivering a range of training to healthcare and medical providers.
He is also a student member of BACP and a volunteer counsellor with a counselling service in Birmingham operating within a person centered approach. He also holds a Ba hons in Applied Social sciences. Prior to taking up his Post here as Team Leader, Jake was employed in the Wellbeing support worker role for 3 years.

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.

Matt has 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.

Ocean has 3 years experience as a youth worker specifically working with LGBTQ+ youth groups. They have recently completed the Disabled Young Campaigners Programme with Stonewall.

Ocean is currently leading on the work to introduce Bromsgrove's first ever Pride event. When they're not working, Ocean enjoys reading and photography.

Robyn has previously worked and volunteered with organisations in the co-operative sector, now joining Birmingham LGBT as part of the trans inclusion project to develop and deliver trans awareness training packages and policy support.

Siân had a successful 10 year sales career before changing paths into the teaching and the voluntary sector. In 2006 she gained a TESOL qualification and has taught ESOL, Intensive English, Creative Writing, A-level Citizenship and Education & National Development at Matthew Bolton College, Aston University, Joseph Chamberlain College, The College for International Citizenship and a variety of grass roots community organisations in Birmingham and London. Whilst studying psychology in London, Siân gained a passion for volunteering at Toynbee Hall giving her time and skills to several community engagement projects, which kick started her career in the voluntary sector. Since 2012 she has worked on a variety of volunteer led programmes. Which has seen her recruit, train and support 100s of volunteers. Empowering them to gain skills and experience in breaking down cultural barriers and build social capital across communities in East London and the West Midlands. Siân is currently studying for her MSc in Humanitarianism, Conflict and Development distance learning through University of Bath. Human rights and Equality is at the heart of her work.

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 ten 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 £500,000 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.

In my day job I’m Deputy Director in at Ikon Gallery in Brindleyplace Birmingham where I’ve been since summer 2016. My role at Ikon covers everything back of house such as operations, strategic planning, relationship management, financial management and HR.
In addition, I work across a number of festivals in the UK including Boardmasters Festival and NASS Festival where I run their event control and emergency liaison teams. I’ve previously worked for Manchester International Festival, Contact Theatre in Manchester and the London Olympics in 2012 amongst other organisations. I’m also on the board of Culture Central, which is the collective voice of the culture sector in the West Midlands.
Prior to working in events and the cultural sector, I worked for property developers Urban Splash, and when previously living in Manchester, I was an elected Councillor for Manchester City Council working on strategic operations across Finance and HR, Children’s Services and Neighbourhood Services.

I'm Simon Hale an Associated of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). I currently work as a Senior Finance Manager for Sanctuary Care and have over 20 years of financial experience working over a wide range of industries from Construction, Property Management, Hospitality & Leisure and more recently for the last three years the Adult Social Care sector.
I have been Treasure and a Trustee for Birmingham LGBT since August 2016.
When I’m not working, I enjoy spending time with my partner John and going on long walks with my two crazy cockapoos Harry & Hector!

Jules Bellingham is a Director of Bellbourn Consulting which specializes in providing learning & development and coaching support.
Jules originally came from a commercial background, working for Bass Leisure Retail for nearly ten years in Retail Operations, Strategy and Business Development. After tiring of the free beer samples, she found a more worthwhile role working in corporate fundraising at Action For Children becoming their Deputy Director of Fundraising & Marketing, with responsibility for fundraising projects, HR, Finance, Database and Supporter Care.
Before setting up her own small business, Jules joined The Management Centre (=mc). =mc is a consultancy working with non-profit organisations in 2006, and it was here that she realized that her real passion lay in teaching and coaching. Jules now specializes in communication & influence skills, leadership and personal impact coaching.
In her spare time, when not on a train commuting from Birmingham, Jules is an active Trustee of Moor Pool Heritage Trust – a small Birmingham community-based heritage charity. She and her partner Sal are also passionate “Vee Dubbers” (apparently that’s a VW enthusiast for the uninitiated!).

I'm Rita Tappia a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD. I currently work as National Resourcing Manager at Tarmac and have over 25 years of experience working in private, public and third sector organisations in talent acquisition, HR and equality and diversity. My roles have included establishing Centres of Excellence as well as delivering transformational change programmes to challenging deadlines. I have enjoyed being part of many successful organisations and am committed to ensuring that my role as a Trustee ensures Birmingham LGBT supports the needs of our diverse and vibrant community. When I’m not working, I enjoy travelling and reading autobiographies and am currently learning German.

Neil is Director of External Affairs at the Black Country Chamber of Commerce and heads the policy, campaigning, marketing, communications and events teams. Throughout his career, Neil has worked across the private, publicly funded and not-for-profit sectors with roles at Cadbury Plc, Cadbury World, The Public and Millennium Point. Neil has also been a freelance consultant supporting a range of businesses in the West Midlands and beyond.
Over the last twenty years, Neil has been an active volunteer and champion for traditionally marginalised, disenfranchised and underrepresented groups and has been a trustee at Fircroft College, Full Potential Arts, a founding board member of OpenLand and Chair of the Midland LGBT Employee Network. Alongside his role with Birmingham LGBT, Neil is the Chair of Chamber LGBTQ.

Gareth has been a trustee at Birmingham LGBT since 2016 and is currently Company Secretary and Chair of the Operations Sub-Group. Gareth is also a councillor at Birmingham City Council, representing Erdington Ward for the Conservative Party since 2011, and has used his role on the Council to champion important LGBT causes. This includes tackling inequality, the need to improve community safety, supporting Birmingham Pride, No Outsiders and services around domestic abuse. Gareth has also supported campaigns to protect Birmingham's Gay Village from increasing residential development and its impact on the night-time economy.
In addition to his involvement with Birmingham LGBT, Gareth is a trustee of several other charities such as Citizens Advice Birmingham and Sir Josiah Mason Trust - where he is their LGBT champion as part of the HouseProud pledge.