Dinah Bornat

Director, ZCD Architects, Past Mayor’s Design Advocate & Child Friendly Cities Specialist

Dinah Bornat is a co-founder of ZCD Architects, an award-winning practice based in East London. She is an expert in child friendly cities and works across policy and design from small scale to master plan projects, bringing this together with high quality community engagement, to create better places for everybody.  

Matthew Frith

Director of Policy & Research, London Wildlife Trust 

An urban ecologist with an interest in the relationship between nature and society in towns and cities, Mathew has over 30 years’ experience of nature conservation policy and practice. He has worked for public and voluntary organisations, to develop and promote better understanding of biodiversity conservation in urban areas.   

Mathew currently oversees the management and development of the Trust’s conservation work, including the strategic oversight and development of policy & practice to advocate the protection, creation and promotion of a wilder city, and furthering the Trust’s research work, with partner and peer organisations. His favourite bird is the magpie.  

Sharon Gill

Programme Officer, UN Environment Programme

Sharon leads UNEP’s work on sustainable urban development. In this capacity, she coordinates partnerships and joint resource mobilization on cities. She is an urban planner by profession and leads programmes and projects that develop practical tools, conducts cutting-edge research, and brings solutions for climate change and biodiversity loss using integrated urban planning.   

Sharon has a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University New York’s School of International and Public Affairs. She studied urban planning at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Architecture as a Japan/ADB fellow. She was awarded ‘’Most Promising Young Planner’’ by the HK Institute of Planners in 2004.  

Yetunde Abdul

Head of Climate Action, UKGBC

Biography coming soon.

Zamzam Ibrahim

Student Politician, past Head of UK National Union of Students & Co-founder of Students Organising for Sustainability

Zamzam Ibrahim, founding trustee of Students Organising for Sustainability UK, Former Vice President of European students Union, and Vice Chair Muslim Leadership foundation and the former National President of the National Union of Students in the UK.  

She's a finance graduate from the University of Salford, Manchester. She’s been the student representative for almost a decade leading work on a fully funded and just education system to tackling societal injustices, leading campaigns from; climate justice to tackling racial injustice.  

Zamzam has been a leading voice on tackling climate injustice more specifically in the education system, diverting away from a Eurocentric lens in which the climate crisis is currently portrayed.  

 Twitter: @ZamzamMCR  

Instagram: @ZamzamMCR  

Zoe Partington

Artist & Co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project

Curating a life less ordinary, using creative & contemporary techniques to challenge the distressed edge of life. As a Fellow of the RSA, Zoe shares a passion for equality particularly in the creative industries and understands the importance of establishing a clear framework of clients’ needs and requirements. A very experienced leader and consultant in her specialist field of cultural inclusion and accessible approaches. 

A contemporary visual artist who uses her experience of being partially blind and living with a chronic condition for over 50 years to create a unique perspective with a historical and contemporary research led practice in art. She develops installations, and viscerally powerful-audio visual and tactile representations of Disabled people’s journeys and experiences through landscapes and built environment. Zoe has won several awards and scholarships. She is currently developing ‘Domestic Landscapes’ funded by Arts Council England. An International conceptual artist specialising in, ‘Disability Art’ practice through 3-D dimensional and installation art works. Experienced at working with Curators and gallery teams. 

A specialist in creative audio description and inclusive approaches in the arts which comes from Zoe’s experience of AD and sight loss. 

Working predominately as a researcher, auditor and creative equality trainer across business and cultural institutions, museums and galleries to develop their skills and experience for meeting the needs of disabled visitors. Zoe has assisted with the workshops at SENSE for Deaf/blind people and had training staff at volunteers at Kew Gardens and during covid trained staff at Westonbirt Arboretum. 

Jamie Dean

Area Manager – North East Regeneration Team, Greater London Authority

Biography coming soon.

Samantha Davenport

Principal Policy Officer, Green Infrastructure Team Greater London Authority

Sam is a Principal Policy Officer within the GLA’s Green Infrastructure Team, where she leads work on the development of a London-wide Local Nature Recovery Strategy, urban greening planning policy, and overseeing the Mayor’s Rewild London programme.  An ecologist by training, she has over 15 years’ experience of green infrastructure and biodiversity policy and delivery, most recently as an urban ecology specialist at Natural England. Sam has a particular interest in how ecologically led design can create resilient, healthy and wildlife-rich landscapes in cities.