I came to academia very late - in my 50s - to build on decades of community development work.

Before that I worked as a chef (London and Paris) and a writer and editor before training as a community mediator in the 1990s. That training was the start of 25 years of working with conflict as a mediator, coach, facilitator and founder of Community Resolve - an influential Bristol-based NGO with an unusually diverse and highly trained staff team from across age, faith, gender, ethnicity and other backgrounds. That project foregrounded local knowledge and skillsets as essential ingredients in successful community development work, moving away from the dominance of 'expertise' and encouraging collaborative working across organisations and spheres.

My ESRC funded PhD explored the dynamics and challenges of community development projects that I experienced during that time, and focussed on Conflict, power and collaboration in community-facing projects. A suprising outcome from the PhD was the visualisation of energy shifts in groups, a linking of technology and peacebuilding interests that have led directly to my current work with peacetech.