Despite growing up in the borderlands of Northumberland and Herefordshire in the UK, Lucy has always been drawn to cities – living in Paris and Sydney before settling in Birmingham 25 years ago. Lucy works at the intersection of democracy, culture, civic pride and place – leading for participatory systems and civic institutions that give people real power, strengthen public trust, and deliver long term social impact.

After a brief stint in journalism as Editorial Assistant to the veteran French correspondent of The Independent, John Lichfield, Lucy began her career in arts management, working for choirs and orchestras in the UK and Australia: highlights included working for the world-renowned children’s choir Gondwana Voices, with performances at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, a sleepover at the Sydney Opera House, and managing concert seasons and recordings with choirs and orchestras.

Before joining DemNext, Lucy held senior leadership roles at the National Trust, where she led national and regional strategy on urban places and inclusive access, worked extensively with partners and communities, managed significant operational teams and budgets, and helped reposition a major cultural institution to better serve diverse urban publics. As Programme Director for Birmingham, she developed the Trust's first holistic city strategy, activating historic buildings and green spaces through local and national partnerships and creative programming, in ways that told stories of the city, and were all about civic pride.

As a volunteer, Lucy is often involved in campaigns to save at-risk and locally-loved heritage buildings that tell the story of Birmingham. She is chair of Moseley Road Baths CIO, leading the renewal of an internationally significant Grade II*-listed building into a community-run, civic space rooted in wellbeing, creativity and democratic governance. She co-sponsors a fully-funded £37.5m capital programme to restore and re-imagine the Baths and neighbouring Balsall Heath Library with local government; chairs a coalition of local, national and international partners who came together to save the Baths; and champions a radically citizen-led approach to governance and heritage-led place-making. Her contribution to Birmingham’s heritage was recognised in 2026 when she won the Birmingham Jane Jacobs Award.

She leads our engagement with cultural institutions, our work on more-than-human inclusion in decision-making, and works to bring ‘just enough structure’ to DemNext.

Lucy is based in Birmingham, UK. She speaks English, French and Italian.

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