I am an experienced conservation social scientist and Director of Freestater CIC, a Community Interest Company which I set up with my husband, Peter Richardson, in February 2024. Freestater is a values-driven business with trust, fairness, kindness, inclusion and the pursuit of a more just and sustainable future at its heart.
We set it up to support individuals, businesses, organisations & communities to engage with and seek solutions to the key challenges of our times. I seek out work that focuses on achieving transformative change by facilitating creative, collaborative and values-based approaches. I have over 30 years of experience in the eNGO sector.
Most recently, I led the social research elements of coastal and marine projects for a leading marine conservation charity where I worked with a small team in partnership with local regulators and communities to enable more holistic consideration of the diverse values realised in marine and coastal settings. Peter and I have pioneered use of the film-based engagement and deliberation approach, the Community Voice Method, in the UK through projects which have supported decision-making around various challenges including Marine Protected Area management measures in the UK and community led fisheries legislation reform overseas. In these projects I have combined social research and film making to increase engagement and transparency in deliberative processes.
I am interested in the potential of transdiciplinarity in addressing sustainability challenges and have recently begun working on UKRI funded collaborative research projects that bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines. I contributed to the Sustainable Management of Marine Resources (SMMR) Diverse Marine Values Project and currently lead a work package on the Transformative Research Actions for Resilient Coastal Communities (TRACC) project. Both projects include an exploration of arts-based approaches alongside natural sciences and humanities.
I prize positive, constructive and collaborative working that explicitly acknowledges the diverse values realised in relationships between people and nature – prioritising inclusion and encouraging conversations about people and the more than human world that transcend traditional disciplinary or sectoral boundaries. I’m also particularly interested in working alongside young people and early career practitioners in relationships of mutual learning. My ambition is to develop an ‘Associate’ programme as part of Freestater which will create opportunities for emergent practitioners to gain paid experience.
I completed my PhD entitled ‘Enabling more holistic consideration of value in social-ecological relationships: a well-being centred approach’ in 2023.
