Heartstone Patron
Sir Derek Jacobi – Actor and Stage Director
Sir Derek Jacobi is Heartstone’s Patron and has performed as a reader in several Haertstone Odyssey stage shows with Sitakumari. He is one of the most iconic actors of British theatre and screen and was knighted in 1994 for his services to the theatre. He is only the second to enjoy the honour of two knighthoods – Danish and English. His passion for drama began in childhood and over the years, he has played some of the most well-known Shakespearean roles on stage and toured worldwide.
Heartstone Advisory Council
Barbara Cleary, UN Women
Barbara is a Human Resources specialist with 20 years’ management and human resources experience at Director level in the public and voluntary sectors, and her own consultancy. She has led and championed diversity issues in the workplace as Director of HR and Equalities and Diversity and as a freelance consultant. Currently Vice Chair for SecurityWomen, an organisation that advocates for more women in the security sector globally. Until September 2017 she was a Trustee for UN Women UK National Committee and led the London Leadership Team from 2009. Until July 2018 she was also Vice Chair for NAWO and represented England on the UK Joint Committee on Women (UKJCW). From June 2016 to June 2018 she was the representative for UKJCW on the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) where she was a member of the Board and was elected to the Executive Committee. In 2018 Barbara was a UK delegate for W20, the women’s forum for the G20 states.
Julie Craik, Film Officer, Tayfilm
After training as a lawyer in Scotland, she worked in offshore finance in the Channel Islands and in media and asset backed finance at Deutsche Bank/Bankers Trust. She worked on projects such as finance for Sky TV and the Oscar winning film, The Last Emperor and the acquisition of J Walter Thompson by advertising conglomerate WPP. At TayScreen she developed the €6million project North Sea Screen Partners that was financed by the European Union. The partnership achieved an Oscar winning film “In A Better World”. She is helping to develop Stonekeeper Ltd and ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ film/tv/transmedia programme.
Dame Louise Ellman, former MP, Liverpool – Riverside
Louise has supported Heartstone since 2000, from her position then as MP for Liverpool, Riverside, and has watched the organisation grow over the years, helping the organisation to secure a national profile, support from the DFE and Home Office and other national funders. She co-sponsored the House of Commons event in 2016 which saw Heartstone Story Circles established in most regions across England.
Wendy Emberson, Physiotherapist
Wendy has supported Heartstone since its founding in 1990. She has brought her professional expertise but also her experience in business to the service of the organisation.
Drew Hendry, MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey
Drew has has supported Heartstone since his time as Leader of Highland Council prior to becoming an MP. He has helped to bring the support to Heartstone’s film/tv/transmedia programme, environmental initiatives and the Story Circle project. Following the House of Commons event in 2016, he provided introductions and support to ensure a Story Circle pilot project took shape across Scotland culminating in the event at the Scottish Parliament in January 2020. This has led to new projects in Scottish authorities to replicate the programme south of the border.
Elena Noel, Vice Chair, Mayor of London’s Anti-Knife Crime Forum
Elena supported the introduction of the first Heartstone project into Southwark in 2015. Following the success of this initiative, she has introduced this to MOPAC, part of the Mayor of London’s Office, co-presented the House of Commons event and introduced the project to the European Forum for Urban Safety reaching local authorities across Europe. She continues to facilitate the project with new introductions and presentations.
Bennett Obong, former Manager for the Hate Crime Forum, Metropolitan Police
Bennett secured the support of the Met for this project to see it initiated across London with a launch event at New Scotland Yard in 2010. He continues to facilitate new projects with introductions to potential venues and partners.
Dr David Rose, former lecturer Roehampton Institute, London University and Member SHAP Working Party on World Religions in Education
has known and supported Heartstone since its foundation in 1990 and its precursor, Natya-Padam, in the latter half of the 1980’s as a small arts/cultural organisation in London. He held a London B.D when he first started teaching Religious Education in ILEA secondary schools in 1971. He covered a range of different Faith traditions with the purpose of bringing an inclusive approach rather than one that ignored and excluded pupils for whom their faith, culture and personal identity were so different. 10 years later, he became linked with The Heartstone Odyssey (THSO) whilst working as Advisory Teacher for the ILEA assisting the implementation of its multi-faith RE syllabus for inner London schools in 1984. The approach adopted used a range of foci that permitted pupil reaction and response that was not prescriptive and limiting on the individual. The story medium, the Heartsone Odyssey with Chandra as the central figure, was essentially aimed at the primary/early secondary stage; with personal expression encouraged via questioning, discussion, performance, art and positive involvement in selected projects. The value of this multi-disciplinary approach became increasingly attractive to those practising teachers doing INSET.
By 1986 he was working at the Roehampton Institute of HE (one of the largest ITE Institutions in the UK at that stage) where he was in charge of the ITE degree course for Primary Education and believed strongly that alongside the developing National Curriculum at the time that students should be aware of the potential of combining inclusively a vital area of concern that the individual pupil might find difficult to articulate and express. He helped to bring the THSO project to Roehampton University (as it became) which was received positively by trainee teachers, both undergraduate and postgraduate.
His Doctoral Studies in the 1990’s, concentrated on the social & cultural aspects of Religious Education legislation and its perception and impact on those involved within a multi-cultural society. He was a member of the SHAP Working Party on world religions in Education for more than 20 years, working to encourage both inter-faith as well as mutual understanding of diversity and integration within society both locally and nationally. He was a member of the Wandsworth SACRE for 18 years as well as Vice-Chair of Governors at a local primary school.