Rowntree Revisited: 125 years on Natasha Almond, Karen Rowlingson, Nick Smith and Victoria Hughes (chair)

Natasha Almond is Director of Good Organisation, where her work focuses on community wealth building through community-led tourism - supporting communities to develop locally rooted, ethical economic activity that builds skills, confidence and shared benefit. She has held senior roles across community health and wellbeing, policing and mental health transformation, volunteering, youth services and VCSE infrastructure.

Karen Rowlingson is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Professor of Social Policy at the University of York and a leading expert on how wealth and assets shape our social fabric. Prior to York, she spent 15 years at the University of Birmingham where she held a number of senior leadership roles including Deputy Head of the College of Social Sciences and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Impact. Karen was Founding Director of CHASM (the Research Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management) in 2010 and is now an Honorary Professor at the Centre. Karen has also held broader leadership roles in her field as Chair of the Social Policy Association (from 2019-2022), Member of REF 2021 sub-panel for Social Work and Social Policy (UoA 20), Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion (2016-17) and Vice Chair of the ESRC's Research Committee and Chair of its Grants Delivery Group (2010-2012). Karen has been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2013.

Nick Smith is Executive Director of The Rowntree Society, where he works to connect York’s Rowntree heritage with contemporary social issues. He led the Society’s contribution to the 2025 Joseph Rowntree Centenary and has developed projects exploring the lives of Rowntree workers, including trade union activity in the 1920s, and the family’s role in newspaper ownership. He is currently leading the Society’s Refugees and Rowntrees project which will tell the history of how the Rowntree family, company and Trusts supported refugees during the 20th century. With a background in archaeology - holding an MA in Medieval Archaeology from the University of York - Nick has a strong interest in how history can be shared beyond academia. Before joining The Rowntree Society, he worked in social care, and for Oxfam where he managed their Low Petergate bookshop in York. His work is driven by a commitment to making York’s history meaningful and accessible to local communities today.

Victoria Hughes is Associate Director for the Regional Programme in the Emerging Futures team at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, where she leads JRF’s place-based work in York and the wider North East. Her work is rooted in the region’s history of communities imagining and building towards something better, and today she backs people creating real alternatives that support more just and regenerative futures.