Did you enjoy school?
For the most part, yes. I particularly enjoyed English – reading and writing. I moved to the UK when I was 16, so I got to experience both US and UK education systems, which probably sparked my interest in how different systems and cultures work and communicate.
What qualifications do you have?
I have a BA in English Textual Studies and Political Science from Syracuse University. That mix of language, critical thinking and an understanding of how policy and power work has shaped how I approach digital transformation today.
Has your career path been a smooth transition, a rocky road or a combination of both?
A combination of both. I graduated in 1997 and moved back to the UK knowing I wanted to work in a creative, communications‑focused industry, but “digital” didn’t really exist as a clear career path unless you were very technical and focused on coding.
I joined my first employer at exactly the right time: an advertising and marketing agency starting to explore whether clients needed websites. I was young and new, helping to run workshops and scope out some of the first sites those clients ever launched. From there I spent a decade touching almost every aspect of digital: the evolution of web design and build, the rise of social media and user‑generated content – before moving into user‑centred design, accessibility and, ultimately, public sector digital services.
Over more than 20 years I’ve moved through a number of roles, each step has meant learning to navigate change, ambiguity and new technology while staying focused on people and outcomes. It hasn’t been linear, but it’s given me a broad perspective on how to make digital work in complex organisations.
What specific challenges do you see women facing in the industry?
One of my own challenges was even defining myself as a woman in STEM/digital. I started in the “creative industry” at a time when technology and creativity were merging. It took time for that convergence to be recognised, and that fed into the imposter syndrome I felt in my mid‑career. I was often surrounded by colleagues with deep technical backgrounds and had to work on my confidence to trust my own expertise in strategy, client services and user‑centred delivery.
Like many women, I also hit a plateau when I had children and moved to part‑time working. There were very few female peers at the same life stage in similar roles, and balancing a young family with two working parents in a fast‑changing industry was difficult. Even now, despite real progress in policy and workplace culture, there are still structural and societal pressures that mean women often pause or step back from their careers.
I’ve had the privilege of working with fantastic female leaders and peers, but I still find leadership spaces where women – and especially women in digital and data leadership roles – are under‑represented. Part of what motivates me now, especially in my work with public sector organisations, is being visible, sharing my experience and modelling the kind of leadership I want the next generation to see.
What is the best career advice you can give to others?
First: you don’t need a traditional STEM background to build a meaningful career in digital. My own route came via a Humanities degree, small creative agencies and client services. Digital products and services now touch every aspect of life, so we need people who understand language, policy, behaviour, service delivery and communities, as well as technology.
Second: be curious and stay close to real users. Whether I’ve been creating a client’s first website or digital campaign, leading client accounts or now shaping government service transformation, my best decisions have come from listening to users and teams, not from assumptions. And finally: don’t underestimate the value of your experience. It’s easy to feel like everyone else is more “technical” or “expert”, but your perspective and judgement are exactly what you’re being paid for – own that.
If you had to pick one mentor that had the biggest influence on you, who would it be?
I’ve never had a single, formal mentor, but a few managers and peers have had a huge impact at key points. Recently, I was greatly influenced by Fizz Yazdi, a senior colleague showed me that you can be both commercial and deeply human‑centred both in the work we do with clients, but also how we shape the organisation and colleagues that we lead. Over the last 15 years working alongside senior public sector digital leaders has challenged and inspired me to think bigger about system‑level change, policy and trust in government services.
From where do you draw inspiration?
I draw a lot of inspiration from the people I work with – I work best in a collaborative space and I love it when I’m challenged or introduced to ideas and perspectives I’ve never thought of. I’ve been inspired by my work in the public sector, I’m surrounded by people trying to deliver better outcomes in complex systems, often under pressure and with limited resources. Events like Think Women in Digital always remind me how much passion and creativity there is across the sector.
I’m also inspired by users themselves – especially those who struggle most with the services we design: people with access needs, people navigating difficult life events or complex journeys. Their experiences are a constant reminder that trust, accessibility and clarity are not “nice‑to‑haves”; they’re fundamental.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced to date?
One of the biggest challenges has been balancing long‑term career ambition with real‑life complexity: raising a family, working part‑time at times, and later stepping into senior leadership roles in consulting and at GAIN. There were moments when it felt like I’d missed the “straight line” to leadership, but those experiences have actually made me better at understanding the realities my teams and clients live with.
Another challenge, particularly in public sector work, is bridging the gap between policy ambition and service reality. You can see what “good” could look like, but you’re working within tight constraints. That’s where patience, persistence and a truly user‑centred mindset matter most.
What qualities do you feel make a good leader?
Empathy, clarity and consistency. Good leaders listen carefully, especially to people who don’t always have a voice in the room – frontline staff, users, under‑represented groups. They provide direction without pretending to have all the answers, and they create psychological safety so teams can experiment, challenge and learn.
In digital and government services, I think good leaders also need a strong sense of purpose: understanding that we’re not just delivering “projects”, we’re affecting people’s lives. For me, that means being relentlessly focused on outcomes, accessibility and trust, not just technology.
From a work viewpoint, what have the last 12 months been like?
The last 12 months have been intense and exciting. I’ve stepped into new leadership roles at GAIN, including government services director and client success & strategy director, which has meant balancing hands‑on programme delivery with shaping our wider strategy. GAIN itself only launched 12 months ago, and is an organisation going through many changes as it brings together 11 different legacy agencies together and has given me some really exciting and complex challenges, including organisational design, ways of working and company culture.
I’ve led and supported public sector clients through complex transformation work, spoken at events like Think Digital Government and wider digital government conferences, and spent a lot of time with teams exploring how to keep trust, accessibility and human‑centred design at the heart of AI and digital change. There’s a real appetite in government to do things differently, and being part of that conversation has been energising.
What would you say are the biggest tech‑based challenges we face today?
One major challenge is keeping people at the centre while technology moves faster than organisations and policy can comfortably keep up. AI, data and automation create huge opportunities for better services, but they also risk deepening inequalities if we don’t design with – and test with – the people who most rely on public services.
In government, there’s also the ongoing challenge of joining up services across departments and systems. We heard this repeatedly at Think Digital Government in November: if we want joined‑up experiences for users, we need joined‑up ways of working, funding and decision‑making behind the scenes. That is as much a cultural and structural challenge as it is a technical one.
What can be done to encourage more women into the industry?
We need to make the full range of digital roles visible and accessible, not just the technical ones. My own path has involved client services, strategy, UX and accessibility – all of which sit firmly in “digital”, but don’t always fit narrow stereotypes of STEM careers. Showing girls and women that there is space for their skills – whether that’s research, writing, service design, data or leadership – is crucial.
We also need workplaces that genuinely support flexible working, career breaks and non‑linear paths to leadership. That includes visible female role models in senior digital roles, mentoring, sponsorship and cultures where women’s expertise is recognised and paid fairly. Representation isn’t cosmetic; it changes what gets built and whose needs are prioritised.
