Joan has been involved with the SLP since 1996 first as project worker employed to develop youth worker, then as Head of Youth Projects. She became the Manager of the SLP in 2010 and in 2015 Director and CEO of the organisation. Joan has over 40 years’ experience of working in the statutory and voluntary sector both as a social worker and youth and community development worker, planning. delivering and evaluating numerous projects. Much of her work is aimed at supporting victims and those at risk of offending due to their vulnerabilities. She has over 20 years’ experience of working with NGOs at an International level in running community development projects for women. She has worked in community safety tackling crime prevention as well as working within the youth justice field for over 20 years. In 2010 she received an MBE for services to Youth Justice. Joan has extensive knowledge of work with young people from different cultural backgrounds in the region of mediation, conflict resolution and reparation. Joan teaches at the University of Bedfordshire leading on the youth and community development course. She takes a person-centred approach to her teaching. In 2019 she was awarded the Teacher of the Year.  Her recent work has been around community cohesion, tackling far right attitudes and building cohesive communities. In 2019 Joan was awarded Luton’s Most Outstanding Citizen.