Our Team

Former Head Teacher, Willie Slavin is Chair of Trustees, and a Trustee of Howgill Family Centre. He is also engaged in a number of community initiatives in support of families in need of support. He Chairs the West Cumbria Child Poverty Action Group and is also Chair of Governors of St Benedict’s Catholic High School.

Russell was Chief Executive of Howgill Family Centre from 2000 to 2012, building the organisation to become a provider of Ofsted Outstanding services with a strong local identity and a National reputation for innovation and quality. During this period developed the idea for the re-development of the Foyer site with the Howgill Trustees. A partnership emerged with funders, statutory bodies and Impact Housing Association, which was to carry the project forward. Engagement at local level was complimented by membership of Cumbria’s Children’s Trust Board.
After three years leading NHS children’s service across the County from 2013 Russell is now employed by University Hospital of Morecambe Bay as Associate Director of Operations for Core Clinical Services in South Cumbria and North Lancashire. He has been involved in the dream of ‘The Foyer’ from the start, securing the initial purchase investment, and continues to value his role as Trustee/Director.

Judy was born and raised in the south west of the county and was delighted to move back to West Cumbria following retirement a few years ago. As a chartered accountant she gained extensive experience of working in and with a wide variety of organisations in both the commercial and charity sectors. Never one to sit back in retirement, she is always ready to offer advice and practical help should the need arise and is committed to the success of our venture. Judy joined the Board in February 2017, and is also a Trustee of Howgill Family Centre.

Originally from West Cumbria, Catherine has worked in Reading, London and Newcastle in number of marketing and HR roles before focusing on organisational and personal learning and development. She has 15 years training experience including leadership and team development and coaching. She is now Executive Director at The Centre for Leadership Performance in Cockermouth.
The Centre supports and encourages the development of leadership capability in education, employment and the community. Living and working back in Cumbria she is delighted to be able to support the development of Cumbria’s leaders of today and tomorrow, “It is a real privilege to do more of the work I love in Cumbria, the place I grew up, where my friends and family work and my own children are starting out on their own careers.Supporting The Whitehaven Foyer as a trustee is an honour and I intend to put my knowledge of local learning and development opportunities to good use.”

As Managing Director of Impact Housing, Andrea is leading the organisation through the integration process with Riverside Group.
Andrea has over 30 years’ experience in the social housing sector and 12 years’ experience in senior leadership roles with operational leadership experience of customer contact services, income management, housing management, neighbourhood management, repairs & maintenance, regeneration, community development, leasehold and supported housing.
As well as extensive experience of partnership working, Andrea also has experience of leading all business support functions to ensure integrated systems and processes that deliver high quality services to customers.

Lee is the Director of Operations for Riverside’s Care & Support function, including their homelessness services, older people’s services, care and extra care, services for veterans and managed agents. He has worked in supported housing for over 20 years, specialising predominantly in homelessness. Prior to this he worked within the NHS delivering support to people with HIV/Aids, and before this spent six years in the British Army from the age of 16.

He has a vast range of experience in housing and homelessness, but areas of particular interest for Lee include; rental income management, customer involvement, co-production and ensuring that the vice of lived experience is heard, Equality Inclusion & Diversity, Organisational Development and culture, the use of positive psychological approaches both in customer engagement and in leadership practices, and Housing First and its application to a UK context.

In his current role, he is responsible for the strategic development and delivery of all of Riverside’s Care and Support services, including Housing Management. This includes; 10,000 units of accommodation, 13,500 customers, 1,200 colleagues, and a turnover of £110,000,000.

As well as his role as Director of Operations, Lee is the Group Veteran’s Lead and is active in the national discussion on veteran homelessness.

Shelly is the Whitehaven Foyer Manager. She was previously employed by Britain’s Energy Coast and has over 28 years’ experience of developing and delivering new start and micro business support programmes in West Cumbria. Before joining The Whitehaven Foyer, Shelly also worked for Age UK West Cumbria providing strategic and financial leadership to a number of income generating projects within their Commercial Services Division.