Wendy Ellyatt
For the last thirty years Wendy has been fascinated with what creates lives of meaning and purpose. Founder of the Project and creator of the Flourish model - originally derived from her interest in the work of Richard Barrett - she has now combined her expertise in early human development with her interest in natural systems design, to help develop a range of tools that promote and support the creation of sustainable societies and cultures of lifelong learning. She is the founder and Chief Executive of the Save Childhood Movement www.savechildhood.net and in 2014 launched National Children's Day UK www.nationalchildrensdayuk.com as a major platform for celebrating the rights and freedoms of childhood. In 2016 she was made one of the Brahma Kumaris '100 Women of Spirit' and In 2019 she became co-chair of the Global Council for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance www.wellbeingeconomy.org and currently still sits on the council. She is leading the development of the UK's Spirituality in Education Alliance www.sieallianceuk.org and in 2021 became the UK Country Lead for Collective Stewardship for the G100 initiative. She is an active member of the SDG Thought Leaders Circle and the the Harvard Flourishing Program and Charter for Compassion's Educational Futures groups. What does fulfil us and produce sustainable states of wellbeing? How do we protect both children and adults from systems that undermine our inherent creativity and potential? How do we ensure that we can all feel valued and connected? Her work has explored the vital importance of strong early attachment and relationships, the lifelong impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), the need for us to review and transform current educational systems design, the pressures on modern childhood, family and community life, the importance of novelty, creativity and playful thinking - and our shared need for meaningful relationship, community and contribution. |
Simon Daisley
For thirty years Simon has been helping to close gaps; between supply and demand, between perception and reality - and between people. His passion lies in being curious about what makes people happy, healthy, wealthy and fulfilled and how they can achieve a sustainable balance between what they need and what they have. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a long-time advocate of the work of Richard Barrett and the Barrett Values Centre. After a long career in customer service and customer experience working with the likes of Rolls-Royce in the UK and Singapore, Barclays in the UK, US and India and BT globally, he is now working in the residential care sector. He ran his own consulting business for a number of years, through which he created the concept of Wholehearted Customer Management (WCM) and worked with Frederick Reichheld, the customer loyalty guru, to deliver the First European Summit on WCM in Dublin. He has also worked extensively in local government, where he has helped to design, develop, implement and support the very best customer experiences, involving strategy development, training design and delivery, coaching and mentoring. In 2019 Simon became interested in how the Flourish Model could help with the wellbeing of both residents and staff within care homes and he is currently leading this element of the project's development. |
FLOURISH PROJECT ASSOCIATES
The Flourish Associates are experts that have expressed early interest in helping us to take our work out into the world. They each bring with them a wealth of life experience, core capacities and wisdom that can facilitate positive systems change across a diverse range of sectors.
Lana Jelenjev is a community alchemist and learning design strategist with a solid background in child development, training and education. She is the co-author of Community Builder: Designing Communities for Change and The 90 Day Action Planner, a Kickstarter backed planner for creative entrepreneurs. Lana provides support in various areas related to ideation, curriculum design, community building and personal development.
Lana is an avid firestarter, having co-founded initiatives like Neurodiversity Education Academy, an online platform providing awareness, education and support for teachers, parents and students on the topic of Neurodiversity. She is also a co-founder of Shift Foundation, an organisation for real life learning and awareness based collective action. Lana also established Community Rituals, a training and support platform to enable leaders to understand the language of rituals in communities. Supporting fellow community weavers, transformational leaders and impact driven NGOs, Lana also launched Community Alchemy, an online learning and mastermind program focused on designing communities for change. |
Dr Beth Meriam, PhD (Cambridge) is an award-winning anthropologist, leadership consultant and transformative mentor to leaders and change-makers worldwide. Drawing on 25+ years of experience in 60 countries across 5 continents, Beth’s clients are enabled to tackle major problems and find groundbreaking solutions—often in unexpected ways. She brings laser-focused insights, out-of-the-box creative thinking, and grounded, effective ‘can-do’ energy that inspires all those who experience it.
Her contributions have received numerous education, enterprise and social responsibility accolades, including a Cambridge University ‘Honorary Student’ award and The James Littlejohn Prize. Beth’s experience spans: National Government, International Humanitarian Agencies, Multinationals (Technology, Retail, Banking & Finance, Hospitality, Law), Civic Non-Profits, SMEs and Interfaith Institutions.She is a Taos Institute Global Associate, a Windsor Leadership Facilitator and, at the personal invitation of Dr. Stephen Porges, forms part of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. |
Dr MaryCatherine Burgess PhD has an interdisciplinary educational background, a diverse work history, and a rich array of experiences that have prepared her for contributing her talents, gifts, and visions at this time of global transformational change and conscious evolution. Her love of learning has led to several postgraduate educational degrees, professional licensures and certifications, and in-depth training and explorations into what it means to be a universal human. Having worked in the USA, Italy, and the United Kingdom, she is currently striving to divide her time between the USA and the UK.
In 2005, she trained to become a Barrett Values Centre (BVC) Consultant in using their Cultural Transformation Tools (CTT), which include values assessments that help individuals, groups, organizations, and larger communities identify and work with their values. Through the Institute of Noetic Sciences, in 2014, she became a Graduate Facilitator of the Conscious Aging Program , and in 2015, was invited by Dr. Marilyn Schlitz to serve as one of her pilot facilitators for workshops that accompany her book and the film of the same name, Death Makes Life Possible, which she co-produced with Deepak Chopra. Since around 2011, she has become increasingly involved with the Charter for Compassion, including the Charter’s UK (United Kingdom) Task Force, the Boundless Compassion Program in Omaha, and numerous other compassion initiatives at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, and in Omaha. In June 2018, she became a Boundless Compassion Facilitator. She also then became a Compassionate Integrity Training (CIT) Facilitator in the summer of 2020. In 2020 she joined a Global Education Network of educators across the globe, who are actively working to integrate empathy, compassion, social and emotional learning, ethics, and values into all levels of education and modes of learning. |
Lisa Cherry is a leading trainer and consultant, specialising in assisting professionals working with vulnerable children and families to understand trauma, recovery and resilience. Lisa brings nearly three decades of working in Educational and Social Care settings and a 27-year journey of recovery in overcoming her own experiences of being in care and all that that brought with it.
Lisa is now a celebrated author, lecturer and international speaker for organisations, local authorities and charities. With a range of qualifications and currently undertaking her DPhil studies at The University of Oxford in the Department of Education, Lisa brings professional experience in counselling, coaching and a number of holistic healing approaches focused on calming the nervous system, healing from trauma and recovery from a poor attachment history. Lisa believes that personal and professional experiences are brought together to create a holistic approach to working with vulnerability with a fundamental belief that we have the capacity to recover. |