An interview with Natasha - Our New Head of Operations

Natasha, would you like to introduce yourself?

Hi everyone, I am joining as Head of Ops and will be supporting the delivery of the Social Change Hive and I’ll be looking after the general ops side of things whilst Priya goes on her maternity leave.

Can you tell us a bit about your background? 

For the last decade I have been working on local community projects, such as saving shops in the local parade, saving our library from closure by the local authority and putting on local events for our community. Most recently I saved our local community centre from closing down and turned it back into a community asset, setting up a charity with the purpose of supporting local families living with food insecurity during the corona virus outbreak and beyond.

Wow, that’s some very impressive local action! So you’ve got plenty of experience working as part of a grassroots group as well as with the decision making process and admin of becoming a registered charity?

Yes, I was the founding member of a local charity so I dealt with all the administrative side of  things.  I have been both a Trustee and an executive director so I have experience in dealing with all the finance, operations and governance of running a charity, as well as the rewarding parts in project delivery and meeting charitable aims.

What are you most looking forward to whilst working at The Social Change Nest?

I am really looking forward to getting to know the team and our lovely clients.  I am also keen to help deliver The Social Change Hive, as well as seeing what else we can achieve in the next 12 months.  It’s a really exciting time to be joining as The Social Change Nest is really growing.

Now for some non-work questions, just to get to know you a little better… If you were to describe yourself as 3 emojis, which ones would you pick? 

Definitely the Chef emoji, I really enjoy cooking and experimenting with flavours.  I have so many different cookbooks from all over the world, and I really enjoy learning all  the different cuisines. My next emoji would be the swimmer in the pool as my son competitively swims and I spend all my free time being a pool side mum. Lastly, I do love a beach holiday so it would have to be the beach and parasol!

What’s your favourite dish to make/cuisine to cook? 

Anything with cheese in!

Pretty please can we meet your dog? 

This is Ruka! You can find her on Instagram @ruka_cockerspaniel (this is what you get for having teenage children!) & if you don’t, here she is: