We’re passionate about ensuring that no-one is excluded from the joy, fulfilment and lifelong benefits of sport, and want to give every woman and girl the opportunity to take part in sport and inspire her to do so.
If you want to join us on our mission, keep an eye on our Careers page for all vacancies at Women in Sport.
Stephanie joined Women in Sport in 2019 after 27 years working for wildlife and the environment. She believes in the power of sport to transform lives and that women and girls should not miss out on the resilience, leadership and team skills sport can instil.
She wants to reduce the gender play gap and free up the lives of women and girls in all their diversity to experience the joy of sport.
Lisa joined Women in Sport in August 2021 as Partnerships and Consultancy Manager, creating meaningful and lasting partnerships across the sport sector, and beyond, to further our mission.
Alongside our partnerships, she now leads the organisation’s advocacy work as well, as we continue to increase our impact, break down barriers and empower more women and girls to be active.
Tanya is a leading academic in the field of girls and women and their interface with sport and exercise at each life stage. A driven and insightful researcher, innovator and agent of change, she has considerable management and strategic experience in business, academia and charity sectors. Tanya has an unwavering passion for our cause.
Tanya has experience of leading large scale qualitative and quantitative research and commissioned projects working with National Governing Bodies, leisure sector partners and corporates. She has led the charity’s ground breaking and influential work on reframing sport for teenage girls.
Harinie is our people magician and has had a long career devoted to social change, working and volunteering in multiple charities since her childhood in Sri Lanka.
As Chartered Financial Analyst, Harinie has a strong financial background and is responsible for all our financial, operational and human resources and is also one of our finest advocates.
Her passion is driven by our belief that when sport includes women and girls it helps to tackle gendered economic and health inequalities, but most importantly it will create a better society for all.
Sarah has a life-long love of sport inspired by her netball coach who didn’t write her off just because she is 5ft 1! On moving to Manchester, Sarah joined a touch rugby club to make friends, and ended up playing for the England Women’s 35s Touch team, which won bronze in the 2019 Touch World Cup in Malaysia. She currently chairs Sale FC Touch Club.
An award-winning journalist, Sarah has more than 15 years of experience in media relations, working for national and international media brands, developing and delivering strategic communications and content for both commercial and not-for-profit organisations.
Kitty joined Women in Sport in January 2021 to support and lead the charity’s fundraising and engagement activities.
Central to her role is securing vital funds to aid Women in Sport’s mission and aims, and stewarding positive and long-term supporter relationships. Without the amazing people and organisations that choose to rally behind our cause, we can’t make the changes needed for women and girls in sport and society.
Kitty grew up with two older brothers in a very active family, and was lucky that sport was encouraged and prioritised just as much for her as it was for her brothers. Whilst she no longer plays team sport, she’s since run a few marathons, and has a few things on her sporting bucket list from an ultra-race or triathlon, to maybe trying her hand at boxing someday…
Rachel has spent fourteen years in the charity sector and started out in a succession of frontline political jobs before joining the RSPCA’s public affairs and campaigns team. She was there for nine years, working her way up to Public Affairs Manager for Westminster. In that time, she worked on dozens of different campaigns, Bills and events.
After having a very negative relationship with sport in school, and especially as a teenager in secondary school, Rachel rediscovered it as an about-to-be-30-year-old and haven’t looked back since. She’s found that sport has genuinely changed her life for the better and wants to use her skills to allow it to change other girls’ and women’s lives too.
Joanna’s background is in elite sport, with a successful sporting career as a member of the GB Cycling Team, which included gold medals at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Following her retirement from elite sport, Joanna attended Manchester Metropolitan University and completed a degree in Human Biology, with her dissertation focussing on physical activity and health, specifically the relationship between physical activity levels and Alzheimer’s disease, for which she won an award from the Royal Society of Biology.
Her role as our Partnerships and Consultancy Manager involves developing strategic partnerships and reach within both the sports and corporate sectors to further the mission of the charity.
Now referring to herself as a “fair weather” cyclist, Joanna still enjoys cycling into the office as well as running, swimming and going to the gym. Time for a triathlon perhaps?!
Varsha joined the team at Women in Sport because she wants to make sure that future generations of young girls, regardless of their ethnicity have the chance to enjoy and reap the wholesome benefits of sport.
Her role as Campaigns and Communications Manager for Women in Sport will involve leading the digital communications for the charity, curate and deliver impactful and thought-provoking campaigns to champion the charity’s mission.
Having grown up in a community where the cultural norm was for girls to stay home, study and help with chores, her relationship with sport was non-existent apart from at school.
Varsha rediscovered her passion for sport after her own daughters found a love for football, she was persuaded to take on a coaching role so her youngest could be in an u7s team. She loves this volunteering role and is completing her FA coaching qualifications to build her confidence in coaching.
Favourite sporting moment? Rubbing shoulders with Chelsea striker, Sam Kerr and persuading her to take a selfie with me pitch-side.
Georgie joined Women in Sport in January 2024 and brings her knowledge and passion as an Operations Manager, supporting the organisation to function as smoothly as possible.
Growing up with a very athletic brother, it seemed as though he was destined to be the ‘sporty one’ and Georgie the ‘arty one’. It wasn’t until later in life – finding herself at a point in life where she needed to improve her mental and physical health – that she realised you could be both!
Having shown no interest in running whatsoever, and lacking belief that she could run further than the end of the road, she was amazed when she started running regularly that she a) enjoyed it and b) felt confident enough to give a half marathon a go. She will always remember the speech her Dad gave on her wedding day, pointing out that she beat her brother’s time!
Meg joined Women in Sport in October 2023 as an Insight Manager, leading and assisting with the charity’s ground-breaking research to deeply understand and reframe the environment and culture surrounding women and girls in sport.
Her experience of working in victim-led and children’s Services initiated her passion and drive to action change and empower women and girls in all areas and stages of life. Formerly working as a researcher and analyst within the Ministry of Defence, Meg has experience of planning, managing, conducting, and reporting large scale quantitative and qualitative research projects into policy and people related strategies. Her work within the Civil Service included the modernisation of the RAF, which aimed create a more fair and inclusive environment for Service personnel and their families.
Lizzy joined Women in Sport in January 2024 as an Insight Manager to help capture valuable insights and deeply understand women and girls in sport.
Over the last fifteen years, Lizzy has built a wealth of experience in research and insight, working across academia, the charity sector and at various market research agencies.
With an MSc in Health Psychology, she is naturally very curious about human behaviour and understanding how to influence attitudes and behaviour.
Sport and exercise have always been a key part of Lizzy’s life and she’s taken on various fitness challenges including marathons, hiking to Everest base camp and cycling from London to Paris.
Sporting claim to fame? Accidentally becoming a poster girl for Wimbledon tennis championship after being snapped in the crowd wearing a union jack umbrella hat!
Naomi joined Women in Sport in February 2024 as an Insight Manager, where she works to help drive the charity’s innovative and powerful Insight work. Over the last eight years Naomi has developed her skills as a mixed-methods researcher, contributing to insight work across the public and private sectors.
As a bookish teen with a very sporty brother, Naomi didn’t truly feel sport was something for her whilst growing up. That started to change when she was encouraged to sign up for half marathon by a university friend. Despite finding it incredibly tough, completing the run had a huge impact on her sense of self and marked a step into a new relationship with sport.
Since then, she has been part of the running community WMN Run, made her way around trail marathons, and even taken on a solo run of the beautiful West Highland Way in Scotland. She is also a keen climber, who loves the physicality of bouldering and is developing her rope climbing skills.
Naomi is passionate about the transformative impact sport can have on the lives of women and girls. She is driven to challenge the deeply intrenched inequality that still exists for women and girls in sport.
Julia joined Women in Sport in January 2024 with a remit to turbo-charge our 40th anniversary year and amplify the voice of the charity through training and broadcasting.
Julia has worked as a BBC presenter and reporter for the last 25 years, covering natural disasters, terrorist attacks and domestic politics. She has won major awards for her coverage of mental health, special needs education, and ageing. Julia was inspired to join Women in Sport after interviewing our CEO Stephanie Hilborne OBE and realising that she was deeply drawn to our mission.
Sport is a constant in Julia’s family life. Her father was an international scrambler who taught Julia to ride an off-road mini race bike in the 70s, she was a county gymnast in the 80s, and played netball through school and university. She is now supporting her two very sporty daughters to chase their dreams in hockey, cricket, climbing and gymnastics. Her husband is a World Archery commentator and ally.
Stephen joined Women in Sport in July 2022 as interim Finance Officer, with the role being made permanent in December 2022.
Stephen’s earliest recollection of the joy of sport is of running as fast as he could in circles on a beach in North Devon at a young age. He is particularly interested in why people, especially women and those living in areas of multiple deprivation, become less active as they age, the impact this has on their minds and bodies, and what simple things can and could be done to bring the childhood joy of sport back into everyone’s daily lives.
Sport has always been a huge motivator in Shereen’s life. She discovered her passion for athletics around 20 years ago when she swapped her ballet shoes for track spikes and has since competed at several senior championships, including the UK National Championships.
Motivated to learn more about the science behind fuelling the body for exercise Shereen undertook a post graduate diploma in Sports Nutrition while juggling her training and work commitments.
Sarah joined Women in Sport in early 2023 as Communications and Campaigns Officer to shape our messaging around gender equality in sports.
Sarah grew up being dragged to orienteering events each Sunday and supporting her parents in their various ultra-marathon pursuits, but never claimed sport for herself until she started climbing during university.
Now, you’ll regularly find her panicking at the top of climbing walls in west London, trying to pretend she’s not scared of falling. Climbing has allowed her to make life-long friends and taught her how push through fear, whilst spending time in some of the most beautiful natural landscapes our country has to offer.
Sakara joined Women in Sport in July 2023 as a Fundraising Officer. As our resident Kiwi, she is a dynamic fundraiser who is helping build and elevate our fundraising efforts and supporter engagement during this exciting phase of growth for the charity.
Originally from New Zealand, she brings with her a deep passion for both sports and women’s rights. She plays both football and netball and believes in the power of sports to bring people together!
Alongside our supporters across the UK, we have a brilliant ambassadors who are championing women and girls in sport.
