Our leadership team

Meet the team

Lindsay Dalton, CEO

Lindsay has led Ivison Trust as Chief Executive since 2021, With more than 20 years’ experience working in child exploitation and criminal justice fields, Lindsay brings a wide range of experience at both operational and strategic level. She has been with Ivison Trust since 2009, where she established multi-agency partnerships and supported families in securing convictions in high-profile cases. She brings decades of knowledge and frontline experience and is fluent in the limitations of current legislation within child exploitation.

She began her career in the national probation service, later becoming a Treatment Manager for rehabilitation programs. In 2016, Lindsay became Ivison Trust’s Head of Development and Training, expanding the charity’s reach and sustainability. She received the Charity Comms Communicators Award in 2020 for her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lindsay developed the UK’s first Level 4 qualification in child exploitation and pioneered Relational Safeguarding, a family-centred model which is in use across several local authorities in England and Wales. A strong advocate for amplifying parents’ voices in safeguarding, Lindsay holds postgraduate degrees in Leadership and Management and Counselling.

Leah Entwistle, Head of Parent Services and Partnerships

Leah manages our team of Parent Liaison Officers, who are situated across England in multi-agency hubs. In addition to line management and caseload support, Leah also feeds into the strategic direction of Ivison Trusts partnership work and is involved in the development and delivery of our training. Prior to Ivison Trust, Leah worked in social care for 10 years. She started with Ivison Trust as a Parent Liaison Officer, supporting children and families affected by CSE to achieve prosecutions. She has a BA Hons in Positive Practice with Children and Young People.

Gill Gibbons, Funding Manager

Gill has raised over £7 Million from statutory funding, private trust funds and the Lottery, and has 30 years’ experience of working in the third sector, both as a project worker, a manager, and a trustee board member for a number of local and national charities.

She has extensive experience of working with people living at the margins of society, including those with mental health issues and with refugees and asylum seekers. Gill has a B.Sc. in Social Science from the London School of Economics and a post-graduate diploma in counselling.

Louisa McCallion, Head of Communications and Marketing

Louisa manages the Marketing and Communications for Ivison Trust. She has worked in the charity sector for 15 years, as a volunteer, manager and communications professional with experience in children’s mental health, child sexual exploitation and conservation. A passionate champion of Ivison Trust in her spare time, she has personally fundraised over £35,000. She has an MA (hons) degree in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh and is currently completing a Diploma in Public Relations.

Trustees

Gail Gibbons – Chair of Trustees

Gail is a social worker by profession, and has over 25 years’ experience of working in the public sector – mainly in the fields of mental health, young people, policy development and commissioning. She is currently Head of Change for Children’s Services & Health at the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), where she is responsible for engaging and supporting the sectors to reduce youth violence in their local areas, as well as developing cross sector and organisational funding partnerships. Prior to joining YEF, she was CEO of Sheffield Futures – a young people’s charity providing specialist support and mentoring for young people in Sheffield and the surrounding region. This included managing the multi-agency child sexual exploitation and targeted youth support services. She is an experienced member and chair of a range of multi-agency boards and partnerships.

Dr Aravinda Kosaraju

Aravinda is a socio-legal scholar and Lecturer in Child Protection for the University of Kent . Prior to joining the Centre, she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow on a project titled “Crimes of child sexual exploitation in England – A socio-legal project promoting effective approaches to investigation and prosecution”. Aravinda’s research focusses on violence against women and children; criminal justice responses to sexual offending; and safeguarding children policy and practice. Her research particularly focuses on safeguarding children from sexual exploitation and other sexual offences including grooming, trafficking and child pornography.

“It is a privilege to be involved as a Trustee for Ivison Trust working to tackle the exploitation of children.”

Paul Burnside

Paul has previously worked as a Detective Inspector with the Public Protection Units, Quality, Development and Compliance departments at Lancashire Police. He has also inspected on behalf of the HMIC around their Child Protection inspection programme. Prior to his retirement from Lancashire Police, Paul held the thematic leads for Child Protection, Missing Persons, Child Sexual Exploitation, Vulnerable Adults, Domestic abuse, Human Trafficking, Prostitution, Rape and FGM. Whilst in this role Paul developed strategies and put together action plans and standard operating procedures to tackle Child Sexual Exploitation and Domestic Abuse. Paul is currently the Practice Improvement Advisor (Policing) for the Centre of Expertise – CSA.

Laura Remington

After ten years working as a marketing manager in food and non-food industries, Laura returned to university to complete her post-graduate teaching qualification. She taught in primary schools for 20 years and served as headteacher for the last twelve years of her working life. Her involvement in child-protection and child sexual abuse cases developed her strong feelings about Child Sexual Abuse and the desire to do something to support families affected by it. Since 2015 she has been a volunteer Befriender for Ivison Trust.

Zoe Butt

Zoe is a Partner at a leading West Yorkshire law firm and has specialised in working with families going through Care Proceedings for throughout her career. As part of this work, Zoe has dealt with many cases where families are struggling with child exploitation and she has developed a niche supporting parents with this process and advocating for the right support and approach from the Local Authorities involved with them. Zoe is a huge believer in ensuring that families and children experiencing exploitation must have the right support and guidance in place to challenge and disrupt exploitation. Having worked with the Ivison Trust in a professional capacity in the past, Zoe formalised her involvement with the charity becoming a Trustee in September 2023.

“I am honoured be a Trustee for the Ivison Trust and to have the opportunity to work with such an incredible team, who are making such a substantial positive impact both to the families of exploited children and to reforming the approach of professionals involved with those families.”

Dr Nathan Mulligan

Nathan is a junior doctor currently undergoing specialist training to be a GP. Prior to medical school he worked with children in various professional capacities, including with disadvantaged and disabled children. During his training, he completed a medical elective in child protection and safeguarding, and has since worked as a paediatric doctor in hospital, community, and emergency care settings. His experience has reinforced his goal to have a more direct role in supporting abused children and their families.

Kirsty Hovnanian

Kirsty has held senior roles in anti-trafficking and domestic abuse charities, where she has built a deep understanding of child sexual exploitation(CSE), grooming, trafficking, and domestic abuse. Her expertise spans organisational management, strategic planning, and iterative programme design within the voluntary sector, she also brings a commitment to continuous improvement through data analysis, monitoring, and project evaluation.

“It is a privilege to be a Trustee for Ivison Trust. I greatly value the approach and ethos of the charity, as well as the important and unique work the team does with affected families and children.”

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