Who we are

Daniel is an English and Media Studies teacher who has worked in school leadership. He came out to his students for the first time in 2017 and, since then, he has used his profile as a campaigner and a speaker in order to increase LGBT+ visibility in schools. His passion is ensuring that no young person has to endure the same traumatic experiences he had at when growing up LGBT+ at school.

Having been a teacher for fifteen years, he has demonstrated that being visible and authentic at work is motivating and empowering for teachers and makes a significant difference to the lives of LGBT+ young people. He is the designer of the Proud Leadership and LGBTed Leadership programmes and editor of the book
Big Gay Adventures in Education: Supporting LGBT+ Visibility and Inclusion in Schools, published through Routledge.

Catherine is a PE teacher and SENCO by background, with over 25 years teaching experience in both in inner city Liverpool and rural Suffolk. She is currently Deputy Dean for Education in the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care at Anglia Ruskin University. Catherine is also a National Teaching Fellow and Professor of Inclusive Education and Leadership. She has published extensively on the theme of LGBTQ+ teachers in schools and her research has created national and international impact.

In 2016, drawing on her research and funded by the DfE, Catherine worked with schools in the Eastern region to set up Courageous Leaders, a leadership development programme specifically for LGBTQ+ teachers. The programme has worked with over 100 teachers to date and has been nominated for numerous national diversity awards. In 2019, Catherine was recognised for work with LGBTQ+ teachers by being included in the UK’s Pride Power List as one of the top 100 most influential LGBT people in the UK.

Catherine has a number of books and articles about LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools.

Alan has been a supporter of LGBTed since the early days, and was responsible for organising our first-ever online event that launched the book Big Gay Adventures in Education.
He took up the role of Director in October 2021, with the brief to support LGBTed on all things governance and organisational.

He has volunteered in the LGBTQ+ sector for over 15 years in a number of organisations. He is currently Chair of LGBT HERO, national health and wellbeing charity supporting over 100,000 LGBTQ+ people a month though providing online information and advice.

Professionally, Alan works in education policy and governance for over 15 years and though not a teacher, brings to LGBTed an understanding of the broader education environment.

Hannah is committed to driving social change by helping organisations become more inclusive. Her passion is in supporting individuals, businesses, and organisations to embrace diversity and inclusion, with a key focus on intersectionality. In 2018, Hannah co-founded LGBTed, in order to drive meaningful and sustainable social change through enabling greater LGBTQ+ visibility in the education system. She is a published academic author and her work on the career experiences of gay women in the UK has been featured in an international research handbook exploring diversity and careers. Hannah is also the lead coach for the Leeds Beckett national LGBTQ inclusion in education award, a member of the Pankhurst Centre’s women’s aid LGBTQ+ inclusion advisory panel and a coach for Pankhurst Centre’s ‘some women coach’ programme.

Hannah is a Business Psychologist and the Director of Engaging for Success, an organisation that works cross-sector delivers solutions to support organisations to implement real, sustainable behaviour change when becoming more inclusive.

Rich has been a teacher for over 20 years and school leader for 8. In 2018 he was elected to the Association of School and College leaders governing council and has served on its executive for the last 4 years.

Rich has represented ASCL at the DFE and Westminster, delivered workshops at their national conference and since 2020 has chaired ASCL’s LGBT+ leaders’ network, a place where school leaders can be their authentic selves. In addition, he is a trustee for The British Schools Museum and an Independent Remuneration Panel member for Welwyn/Hatfield council.