Our team of highly skilled associates.
Monika Lesniewska, Associate
Monika brings nearly a decade of experience across the public and not-for-profit sectors, with a strong focus on tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Her expertise lies in change management, and she holds an APMG-accredited Change Management Practitioner certification.
She has led a range of consultancy projects for SafeLives, one of the UK’s leading national domestic abuse charities. Her work has spanned evaluations of commissioned VAWG services, MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference) reviews, needs assessments, and the development of pilot initiatives aimed at improving support pathways for victims and survivors within healthcare settings. She has also played a key role in strategy development and service transformation efforts.
More recently, Monika has worked within Community Safety Teams in Local Authorities, where she supported the delivery and implementation of VAWG and Serious Violence strategies and helped strengthen multi-agency partnerships to enhance coordinated responses to domestic abuse and crime. Her work in VAWG included transformation of a multi-agency forum discussing women involved in sex work at high risk of harm which resulted in increased engagement from partners, improved governance and oversight and an increase in identification of women requiring support. Monika. won the ‘Working Together’ award as part of a Local Authority VAWG Team. More recently she has developed and worked through the implementation of a Serious Violence Strategy.
Before moving into strategic roles, Monika worked on the frontline with victims and survivors of VAWG and complex trauma. She served as the domestic abuse lead for a housing association, where she supported homeless women facing multiple disadvantages and complex needs.
Laura Robinson, Associate
Laura has expertise in research, policy development, and organisational transformation. A Royal Navy veteran, Laura served for over 20 years as a Royal Navy Police Officer, holding both operational and strategic leadership roles. With deep expertise in domestic abuse and safeguarding, she was the Royal Navy’s Strategic Lead for Domestic Abuse and holds a Master of Arts in Understanding Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence. Her comprehensive understanding of legislative frameworks, multi-agency collaboration, and investigative processes has allowed her to drive meaningful improvements in victim support and public protection. Laura also became the Royal Navy’s first Women and Families Policy Lead, a role created in response to recommendations from the House of Commons Defence Committee report on the treatment of women in the Armed Forces. In this pioneering position, she led efforts to modernise employment policies, striving to enhance retention, improve the lived experiences of servicewomen, and foster greater equity of opportunity. Since transitioning from the Royal Navy, Laura has continued to share her expertise through consultancy work across public, private, and non-profit sectors. Recently, she led research for a domestic and sexual abuse advocacy service, developing evidence-based recommendations to guide policy and service improvements. Laura is also a proud Trustee of Hourglass, a charity dedicated to supporting older people experiencing or at risk of abuse.
Christina Govier, Associate
Christina has over 10 years experience in responding to domestic abuse and gender-based violence. Having worked directly with survivors in advocacy roles before taking on positions to drive systems change and raise awareness of gender-based violence. Christina has specialist knowledge and interest in economic abuse, having worked closely with survivors experiencing this form of abuse and supporting financial services to develop responses to it through the national charity Surviving Economic Abuse. She has worked within local authorities to influence social work practice on cases involving domestic abuse and continues to work addressing gender-based violence, harassment and hate crime, currently within a Higher Education context. Christina is an experienced trainer and has designed and delivered training on domestic abuse, sexual violence and harassment to a range of sectors and professionals.
Nisha Das, Associate
Nisha is a passionate and highly accomplished Gender Equality Specialist with over a decade of experience supporting survivors of domestic abuse, safeguarding vulnerable children and driving social change through innovative strategies. Fluent in Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali, Nisha’s experience encompasses providing support to individuals facing multiple disadvantages, including cases of honour-based violence and those with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF). Her expertise encompasses strategic leadership, service commissioning, building safer communities and delivering transformative education on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Cindy Gilmore, Associate
Cindy has a background in working with children and families with extensive experience in domestic abuse, both working within frontline perpetrator and victim services as a service manager. Cindy has achieved a Certificate in Education and is a skilled trainer with roles with NSPCC, SafeLives and Local Authorities. She is skilled in writing accredited training packages and delivers a range of training committed to safeguarding and improving outcomes for children. Cindy is skilled in assessment, risk management and staff supervision and support. Committed to working through a trauma informed lens, she enjoys supporting people and services to develop strengthen practice. Cindy is currently studying a master’s degree in understanding domestic and sexual violence to enhance her theoretical knowledge in line with her extensive professional experience.
Andy Ryan, Associate
Andy has worked in the social care and charity sector for over 17 years, with experience in mental health services, learning disability services, domestic abuse services and homelessness services. Having worked across the frontline, directly supporting individuals experiencing complex vulnerabilities, he has set up and managed supported housing schemes and floating support services. Since moving away from frontline delivery, he has supported local authorities in the development and implementation of best practice in the multi-agency response to domestic abuse working with the national domestic abuse charity SafeLives. His role within the practice team included conducting Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) reviews to strengthen responses to the identification and response of high risk domestic abuse. Andy has significant experience in the design and delivery of training, having delivered hundreds of sessions to thousands of attendees over the last seven years.
Naomi Macmeekin, Associate
Naomi qualified as a Social Worker in 2009, spending her career in services for adults including older persons, learning disabilities, continuing health care, in-patient mental health services, safeguarding and commissioning in a variety of operational and strategic roles. Recently Naomi has been the Transitional Safeguarding Coordinator with the Families and Children Transformation Partnership in Wiltshire, using her expertise and knowledge to support a multi-agency partnership in developing and testing a ‘proof of concept’ approach to working with young people who are at risk and experiencing challenges throughout their transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Lucy Giles, Associate
Lucy has previously worked to set up and manage substance misuse organisations and complex needs services . Lucy brings 30 years of experience in the social welfare sector both frontline and strategically; primarily in mental health, homelessness/housing, substance misuse, complex needs, domestic abuse and sexual violence and was previously Chair of the board of trustees for Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Services (SARSAS) and oversaw its implementation . She is an accredited trainer who has previously delivered numerous training sessions on substance misuse and complex needs as well as writing an OCN accredited course for substance misuse practitioners. She has also got an MA in ethics of Social welfare.
She has worked for SafeLives since 2010, initially as part of the team delivering the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) implementation programme across the UK and abroad, later becoming Marac development officer for the South West and Wales including as the programme lead for Wales for the organisation. She has implemented safeguarding pilots commissioned by Local Authorities and worked with the Wales and Northern Ireland Government to implement good practices in domestic abuse and child protection. Lucy continues to write and develop domestic abuse safeguarding policy and guidance for the voluntary and statutory sector and has delivered training to numerous agencies including; police, health, children’s social care, adult safeguarding amongst others as well as delivering regularly at conferences across the UK.
One of Lucy’s key achievements has been her work developing an accredited course on older people and domestic abuse commissioned by the Home Office and developing a package of work for Bermuda police and health bodies in strengthening their response to domestic abuse and safeguarding. She is currently developing work for the sector on counter allegations and parental alienation. She is a member of the expert advisory group for Pegs which is a national organisation working and researching around young people who cause harm.