Meet the team

Amsel is a charity finance and governance specialist working as a consultant in the charity sector. They spend most of their life thinking about charity accounts, financial systems and the best ways to record transactions. They came to Gendered Intelligence as a trans and non-binary person wanting to volunteer for their community and bring their knowledge to a growing organisation looking to change the experience of growing up trans for a new generation. They are now our Chair and Interim Treasurer.

Geoff has been involved with LGBTQ well-being since 1985. He was a founding member of London Lighthouse, the UK’s first residential and support centre for people affected by HIV. He then went on to build the psychological services for the national charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, creating therapy services and emotional health promotion materials for LGBTQ communities. During the 80s and 90s he was a media spokesperson for psychological issues affected LGBTQ people, appearing regularly on UK TV. Geoff has created several counselling projects including: prime a counselling service for older LGBTQ people; the Peace of Life project, a trauma therapy service; here4you, a grief counselling service for young people. He holds a clinical Doctorate on the subject of love in psychotherapy.

Skip grew up with a disabled brother who had learning impairments. This gave Skip an early concept of difference, acceptance and non-acceptance and the impact this had on his brother and other family members. Throughout his working career, Skip has been involved in supporting people who experienced being marginalised by their peers and the wider community.

In his personal life Skip has personal experience of transition as well as supporting other parents whose children were considering their future identity.

He is a qualified and registered Social Worker. Skip has 18 years’ social work experience in the public sector. He has also worked in the private sector running day nurseries and residential care homes. Skip has over 10 experience in the not-for-profit sector with a focus on delivering a range of services for disabled people where he still works as a CEO.

Stone is an Ambassador for a national mental health charity. She is a short-term basis youth worker, having created and delivered workshops for young people, interviewed job candidates, researched and evaluated young people’s mental health, been a consultant for internal and external services, and attended as a representative at multiple conferences.

She is also an Inclusion and Accessibility Specialist for Girlguiding. She reviews and edits policy documents, programme developments, and activities.

Having been at the 2018 Super camp, she then joined online youth groups in early 2020, and the youth board as well in 2021.

Stone is an autistic, trans, non-binary woman.

Jay has been involved in the trans community since 2002. Since then, he’s been passionate about improving the lives of trans and gender questioning people, especially young people. Jay co-founded Gendered Intelligence in 2008 and has since been involved in delivering GI’s work at one time or another, including projects such as ‘What makes your gender? Hacking into the Science Museum’ – a £10,000 Heritage Lottery funded project in partnership with the Science Museum, and ‘GI’s Anatomy: a life drawing project for trans and intersex people’ – a £30,000 project funded by the Wellcome Trust. In recent years he acted as an independent adviser to the Ministry of Justice review into the care and management of transgender offenders, and gave oral evidence to the Trans Inquiry for the Women and Equalities Select Committee. He now sits on the National Transgender Advisory Board for trans prisoners with the Ministry of Justice. He’s very enthusiastic about education and learning; his favourite subject is gender – there’s always more to discover.  In 2013 Jay gained his doctorate and has a range of publications in the area of Trans Studies.

Moya started volunteering for GI in 2016, creating our Annual Report, and joined the team more formally in October 2018. As GI has grown massively since 2015, her role is to ensure appropriate systems and policies are in place so that colleagues can continue to deliver excellent services in a safe and productive environment. Moya is responsible for HR, Finance, Office Management, Compliance and Public Engagement. Prior to GI, Moya worked in the charity sector and Higher Education, in a wide variety of roles including Volunteer Management, Fundraising, Communications and International Business Development. She has been involved in the queer community since the 90s, and was founder and Chair of the LGBTQ & Friends network in her last workplace. 

Moya has been an ally to the trans community for many years, attending GI events since our inception.

Simon is a trans man who transitioned in 1998 and has been active in the trans community ever since. He connected with GI in 2008, and in 2013 formalised the fledgling training function, growing the service rapidly such that by 2023 GI had trained over 40,000 people across more than 2,000 sessions.

An experienced consultant and qualified professional trainer, he has over 30 years’ training and consultancy experience, drawing on broad based community knowledge to ensure GI provides authentic, knowledgeable, effective support and thought leadership. As well as working for GI, he has a background of 12 years in commercial manufacturing as a qualified engineer, another 12 as a not-for-profit governance specialist and is an internationally exhibited practising artist.

In his current role as Director of Professional and Educational Services, Simon is responsible for all GI’s training and consultancy work, along with the Therapists and Counsellors Network.

biff is a Senior Youth Work Practitioner who joined GI in December 2023. Their main focus is work based in Leeds, the Youth Board and Youth Voice. Before becoming a youth worker, biff was a theatre and performance art producer. They are passionate about radical queer joy and creating spaces with, for and by young people to be their authentic selves. When not watching TV shows, they spend lots of their time walking, swimming, doing graphic design and flying kites.

Blu is a Sessional Youth Worker for the Leeds Group, North Swimming, Leeds U12s and the Youth Board. Outside of GI, Blu designs and facilitates Queer centered RSHE workshops in Sheffield and supports other members of the wider community to do so too.

Outside of work and community organising, Blu loves to play video games and study birds.

Fox became involved with the GI team for Supercamp in 2018, and volunteered for several years before joining the Youth Work team as a sessional youth worker in 2022. When not with GI, they work in education policy and love to knit and crochet.

Jake became involved with GI in 2009 as a participant in the ‘Brief Encounters’ theatre in education programme. In the years after, he co-delivered some training sessions for GI in schools, presented at conferences and even facilitated the youth groups for a while in 2012. In 2011 he volunteered on the second GI camp and has been back every year since– fitting camp around his work in schools as pastoral support. He began his current role with GI in May 2018. Outside of his work with GI, Jake is lead youth worker for an LGBTQI+ youth group.

Jodi primarily runs the Transfemme group online but also helps at the Leeds 12-21s, swimming, Under 12s and Community Saturday groups. They became involved in GI as a volunteer in 2018 and as a Sessional Youth Worker in 2022. They also deliver gender diversity inclusion trainings as a freelancer and work as a music tutor and project coordinator at Girls Rock London. Jodi previously worked as a recording/gigging/teaching musician and has performed in venues from Scotland to Italy to Japan and Indonesia! They currently spend their spare time reading about social justice issues, playing Xbox and immersing themselves in Star Wars lore.

Matty joined GI in 2022, where their role sees them managing our adult wellbeing work including the Support Line Service. Matty has launched two new groups at GI for adults one being Waiting List Warriors for those on the GIC waiting list and another for trans women over 50. Prior to working at GI Matty ran the Befriending Service for over 50 LGBTQ+ people at Opening Doors and started their national telefriending service. They are passionate about older people, health injustice and building community. They want to support people to have strong networks and live fulfilling lives. Outside of GI they volunteer at their local trans liberation group and community farm, they also enjoy cycling and foraging.

Orange Ibreck is a Sessional Youth Worker at the Leeds groups for 8-12s, swimming, and community Saturdays. Orange is dedicated to supporting the Trans community and to considering intersectionality within their youth work practice. Outside of their work with Gendered Intelligence Orange spends a lot of time with their cat.

Skye joined GI in 2024 as an Adult Wellbeing Coordinator. She provides support to trans people, their friends, family, and health professionals through the Support Line Service. They also co-facilitate the Waiting List Warriors group and the Over 50s Transfem group. Before working at GI, Skye was a Peer Support Worker at TransPlus and a Peer Mentor at Spectra.

She is passionate about building community and celebrating the multiple ways of being trans. Outside of GI, Skye likes to play piano and video games and immerse themselves in nature.

Cathy joined GI in February 2018 as Administrator for the Professional Services Team, working to provide admin support across our training and consultancy services. Prior to joining GI, she worked as an administrator at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, and at International Planned Parenthood Federation.  She has also been a volunteer for Switchboard, the UK’s oldest LGBT+ helpline.

Lee joined Gendered Intelligence (GI) in 2013. As Senior Trainer Consultant he is responsible for developing GI’s training within the Professional Services team. He is also involved in delivering training and consultation across a wide range of sectors. Lee is a qualified trainer and has extensive experience of training and group facilitation honed through work within trans communities since 1999. When they’re not at GI, Lee loves to read fantasy books and does community work with TransBareAll. As well as training, grass roots work is their passion and has given them a valued insight into the issues and experiences trans people face. GI is a trans-led organisation and Lee is trans himself – starting transition in 1999. Being visible in the work they do for GI and in their life is important to their sense of self and they are proud of their trans identity and experience.

Rahil has been working at GI since 2019 primarily as a Trainer delivering training to a variety of organisations. Having began their transition in 2015 as part of their journey to live as their authentic self, they value the importance of Trans led services.

They bring their own experience of being an Asian non-binary person into their work and our passionate about developing support for the LGBTQIAP+ and POC communities.

Alongside working at GI they are Trans Counselling Lead at Spectra where they work with individuals who are trans/non-binary or are exploring their gender identity, as well as supporting LGBTQ+ young people as a youth worker.

Georgie has been the general administrator at Gendered Intelligence since early 2019. At GI, they are a first point of contact for any general enquiries coming into the organisation and are a key contact for external clients and other stakeholders, building relationships via email, phone and web enquiries. They also administer other aspects of the organisation, such as GI’s mentoring programme in schools, the Therapists and Counsellors Network, the Resources Working Group, and IT development throughout GI.

Outside of GI, Georgie spends most of their spare time writing and performing music. In 2021, they released their debut book, ‘Tiny Grassland’, a collection of texts about music’s relationship to nature and technology.

Hag has been an administrator at GI since early 2021, moving from a part time to full time position at the end of that year. They started their time at GI as a volunteer back in 2018, helping out in the office with the hard duty work of lamination and filing.

Part of their role at GI is planning events and parties. So if you’ve enjoyed a GI celebration there’s a good chance they had a hand in it!

Hag lives in Edinburgh with their girlfriend and their cat. When not working, they enjoy curling up with a book, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and watching horror movies.

Hattie has been at GI since 2021 working as part of the Central Support Services team who provide financial, administrative, IT, and HR support to the other teams here at GI. She is a part-qualified accountant with a strong background in charity finance, mainly for London’s theatres. Hattie has supported GI during their first 3 financial audits as a charity and through the process of becoming VAT registered with all the joys that partial exemption brings. She is a cis queer Jewish woman who outside of work enjoys baking, wild swimming, crafternoons, and cheesy Hallmark films where the main character goes to a small town to learn about the true meaning of the holidays.

Heather joined GI in 2024 as our first Fundraising Manager to help us raise money to fund our vital work. She has a strong background in fundraising for charities across the international development, mental health and human rights sectors.

Heather is a cis queer woman of colour, who lives by the sea in Brighton. Outside of work, her passions are buying books and reading books (two very different hobbies), indulging in terrible reality tv, sea swims, cats, and queer theatre, art and poetry.

Cleo joined Gendered Intelligence in the new role of Communications Officer in November 2021, becoming Communications Coordinator in 2023 and Head of Public Engagement in 2024. She manages press, social media, policy, and research, and acts as a spokesperson for GI.

She has a PhD in queer historiography and teaches at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, where she lives with her wife and their elderly cat.

She likes dancing, languages, and cooking; she isn’t very good at any of them.

Hil Aked is a writer, investigative researcher and activist with a background in political sociology whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Independent, Sky News and Al Jazeera, as well as volumes from Pluto Press and Zed Books/Bloomsbury. Their first book Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity was published by Verso in April 2023. They have been working as Research and Policy Manager at Medact - an organisation supporting health workers to campaign on the political and economic factors shaping our health - for four and a half years.

Zoë joined Gendered Intelligence in late 2024 as Communications Coordinator. She coordinates our external and internal communications, including social media and media responses.

She has a strong background in communicating for change across international and UK charities with a focus on women and girls, as well as being an experienced safeguarding investigator.

Zoë lives in rural Scotland, with her partner and two cats. She is a lesbian, abortion activist and feminist, and outside of work enjoys hiking, wild swimming (well dipping), camping and horror movies (not at the same time).