About ImpactEd Group

Jonny is the Founder of ImpactEd, and helps lead the organisation as a Group Director and member of the Executive, holding responsibility for finance, operations and governance. He works with educational leaders on strategy, operating model and sustainability. Before ImpactEd, he co-founded The Brilliant Club, was CEO and Exec Chair of the Peter Jones Foundation, Chief of Staff at BCS Consulting and a Director at Accenture. Jonny is a Trustee of a large MAT in the East Midlands, he chairs the Group's Employee Ownership Trustee Board and is a Trustee and Treasurer of The Young Foundation.

Chris is the former CEO of The Brilliant Club and launched the consulting model which has developed to become ImpactEd Consulting. He is a trustee at the Delta Academies Trust and Get Further.

Elin leads ImpactEd Group as a Group Director and member of the Executive. She directs high-profile, cross sector convening work for our partners, including landmark projects on inclusion, AI and oracy. She brings 20 years' experience in education policy and communications and was previously Managing Director of PLMR. She is a trustee of Inspiration Trust and The Together Project.

Róisín was previously co-CEO at the Centre for Education and Youth and Head of Programmes and Evaluation Challenge Partners. Alongside work, Róisín is also a part-time PhD student at UCL in the IoE.

Jo brings 20+ years of experience in school improvement and professional learning, serving as Executive Director at Delta Academies Trust for nine years. Previously, she was Director of English at OGAT and Senior Examiner for Eduqas. Jo is a trustee of New Collaborative Learning Trust and a member of the EEF's Disadvantage Expert Advisory Group.

Yalinie leads ImpactEd Consulting, helping trusts, schools and charities such as Outwood Grange Academies Trust and the Fair Education Alliance with strategy and organisational improvement. She taught science and maths, became an Assistant Headteacher and holds a Master’s in Teaching. She has since led national programmes that develop teachers and leaders. At Teach First she ran its tutoring programme through Covid, training over 1,000 mentors to reach more than 100,000 pupils, before senior roles at Education Development Trust and Ambition Institute, where she was Executive Director of Programme Delivery.

Tania is a psychologist of education specialising in research, strategy, and evidence-informed practice. Previously, as Head of Evaluation at the Youth Endowment Fund, she led multi-million-pound partnerships between government and charities to improve outcomes for children experiencing disadvantage, including the DfE’s Attendance Mentors Programme and DCMS’s Summer Jobs Programme. She has worked internationally with various Ministries of Education to improve education outcomes, is an accredited coach, and has published academic research on children’s wellbeing at school. Tania is Deputy Chair of the Board for education charity Blue Smile.

Maddy brings experience as Director of Fundraising for Future Frontiers, developing fundraising at The Brilliant Club and as a Trustee for Boxing Futures. She holds a PGCert in Philanthropic Studies.

John Jerrim is Professor of Education and Social Statistics, and is Director of the Quantitative Social Science research centre at IOE

Annette is an experienced research and evaluation professional with 12+ years of expertise in delivering high-impact evaluation projects for education organisations across multiple countries. Having previously worked in academia and international development, she has a proven track record in partnership management, quantitative, experimental and mixed methodologies.

Beth has worked at ImpactEd for five years, leading on our national research projects, Understanding Attendance and Inclusive Environments, and delivering evaluations in a variety of areas including early career learning, phonics and place-based change for organisations such as Careers & Enterprise Company, Little Wandle, St John's Foundation and the Colyton Foundation. Prior to joining ImpactEd, Beth worked at the university access charity The Brilliant Club, and with the Children's Commissioner for Wales conducting research & workshops on Children's Rights.

Chris joins from Teach First where he was Head of Evaluation & Impact. Prior to Teach First he was Head of Geography at Queen Mary's Grammar School.

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Ciara has experience as a French & Spanish teacher & a School Onboarding Manager for Third Space Learning where she delivered Maths interventions to primary children in disadvantaged areas of the UK.

Corina is an economist and MPP from UChicago, passionate about measuring & monitoring policy results to extend their impact, with experience in research, policy, and data analysis.

Deepta is an education specialist with 4 years experience in education research & practice in the 3rd sector. She holds an MSc in Comparative & International Education and an MA in Development Studies

Georgia runs the systems and services ImpactEd Group works on, from the CRM to commercial reporting, outsourced partners and AI, and is the Group’s Data Protection Officer and Designated Safeguarding Lead. She previously ran operations at a modern slavery consultancy, building compliance infrastructure and overhauling IT and cybersecurity. She is a Sutton Trust alumna with a DipHE in Criminology and Law.

Holly has over a decade of experience working across the education and social impact sectors. She began her career as an English teacher before moving into social and economic evaluation and research. At ImpactEd, she works with education and purpose-driven organisations on strategic consultancy, operating model design and evidence-based programme development, and has held interim Director responsibility in the Evaluation practice. Holly holds an MA in Educational Leadership and is also a school governor.

Katherine has 15+ years in education, teaching in London and Mexico. National roles include leading conferences at The Brilliant Club, ITT programmes at Teach First, and DfE ECF and NPQ contracts at EDT. She holds an MA in Public Policy from KCL.

Kristy has over 10 years experience across the education and impact sectors, starting at ImpactEd in 2020. She previously worked as a teacher in Singapore, a researcher for an educational publisher and a consultant in research impact.

Lauren leads complex evaluation partnerships at ImpactEd Evaluation, designing mixed-method evaluations for charities, funders, trusts and schools, with particular expertise in health, wellbeing and early years. Partners include the Thrive Approach, Barnardo’s and the Royal Horticultural Society. She spent eight years as a primary teacher, Early Years Curriculum Leader and phonics specialist, and is Safeguarding Governor at a special school.

Lucy has 10 years' experience in school partnerships, edtech and evaluating school programmes through working in widening participation and as Programme Director at Learning with Parents.

Mayowa has 8 years experience in the children’s tuition industry, supporting students from early years to GCSE level. She has worked in various education delivery roles and more recently within people and operations management.

Nina is an education specialist with experience in research and evaluation design for national research projects. Before joining ImpactEd, she worked in academia, assessing the effectiveness and feasibility of psycho-educational interventions in schools.

Olia has been working in finance for over 7 years. The majority of her experience has been linked to the education sector - specifically within an education trust and adult education. Olia has supported these organisations with meeting their financial goals through budgeting, financial planning, and decision making.

Tabitha has worked as a Project Worker for a children’s rights organisation, striving to improve the quality of children's and young people’s lives while ensuring they are seen and heard.

Tom has over 10 years experience using data to inform & inspire those who work to make a difference to young people. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and a Winston Churchill Fellowship.

Sonia Thompson is Headteacher and Director at St Matthew’s Research School in Nechells, Birmingham. She has written widely on curriculum and pedagogy, contributing to numerous publications including WALKTHRUs 3, Reading Teachers, and a chapter in The ResearchED Guide to the Curriculum. Sonia is the author of An Ethic of Excellence In Action, part of Tom Sherrington’s In Action series. She serves on councils and trusts; such as the Education Endowment Foundation, CofE National Education Society, Classics for All, and Voice 21. Sonia has advised the DfE on writing frameworks, sits on the NPQ review panel, and was a Commissioner for the Oracy Commission.

Dr Sonia Ilie's research explores education inequality, looking at the socio-economic factors which shape children's and young people's access to, and outcomes from, education. She focuses particularly on fair access and equitable participation in higher education and how earlier educational experiences affect this. Sonia investigates these issues primarily in relation to the English education system, and also at a macro scale in low- and lower-middle income contexts. Sonia has substantial experience leading large-scale research in education, exploring the effectiveness of established interventions to improve student learning and narrow socio-economic attainment gaps, using experimental and quasi-experimental designs.

Dr Robert de Vries is Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Sociology and Deputy Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Kent. His research focuses on inequality, social mobility, and public attitudes towards welfare and social policy. He has led and contributed to research projects funded by UKRI, the Leverhulme Trust, and the European Research Council. Robert teaches quantitative methods and data analysis and has published widely in leading sociology and social policy journals. He is also the author of Critical Statistics and contributes to public discussions on evidence-based policy and the interpretation of social data.

Professor Neil Humphrey is the Professor of Psychology of Education at the Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, UK. His research focuses on what we mean by wellbeing, why wellbeing matters, what matters for wellbeing, and what works for wellbeing, in children and young people. Neil’s research has been funded by NIHR, ESRC, TNLCF, DfE and others. When he is not working at the University, Neil moonlights as an unpaid taxi driver for his three daughters.

Matt Jones OBE has served as Principal of Ark Globe Academy since May 2012. Globe Academy is a mixed all-through school for students aged 4–18 in Elephant and Castle, with a Sixth Form that launched in September 2014.

Matt serves nationally as a RISE Advisor for the Department for Education and senior education advisor and member of the Premier League’s Education Advisory Board.  

He founded The Elephant Group in 2018 to improve fair access to top universities and now chairs its board. Since 2015, Matt has chaired the Southwark Association of Secondary Headteachers, collaborating with local leaders on key education issues.

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Jane was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Northern Education Trust in April 2025, overseeing 30 academies in disadvantaged communities. Her leadership is defined by a sustained track record of success in school improvement. As Deputy CEO (2018–2025), she partnered with the executive team to drive a transformation resulting in every academy being rated 'good' or 'outstanding', with outcomes consistently exceeding national averages. Her expertise spans her time as a Head Teacher, Executive Head Teacher, National Leader of Education, and Deputy Director for the Regional Schools Commissioner, consistently delivering rigorous improvement and exceptional results.  

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