Samantha is a strategic partnership professional with over 20 years of experience designing and delivering a range of welfare-to-work social inclusion projects to engage marginalised communities and groups.

She is the Director of Communities at the YMCA Thames Gateway Group where she leads on the formation of purposeful partnerships across internal and external stakeholders in order to achieve the best outcomes for communities.

She was previously the Voluntary and Community Sector Partnership Manager at the London Borough of Newham and previously held senior roles in Team London at the Greater London Authority, the BBC and in the Housing sector. In addition, she has held a number of non executive roles including the Ekaya Housing Association, the International Centre of Excellence of Community Schools (ICECS) and Lewisham Speaking Up.